The “worthless” gig that made Sting want to stop performing: “I don’t mind what an audience does, but rioting?”
There are always going to be off-days even when working in a rock and roll outfit. The best artists in the world can’t claim to be perfect from back to front whenever they go into the studio or hit the road, but Sting knew the difference between playing for pleasure and when it became a full-time job that he couldn’t escape.
But when working in any band like The Police, it was always going to be a delicate balancing act between every member of the group. The whole point of any band is to serve the song, and while the power trio knew how to check their ego at the door and play to what the tune needed, it was always going to be a bit more complicated for everyone to hold up their end of the group without having to accidentally step on someone’s toes.
And compared to his bandmates, Sting may have had the most complicated job of all of them. The bass might be a signature part of the rhythm section every time they hit the stage, but since he also had to sing every single line, it was never going to be easy to lock into a groove and also glide across the top of everything with grace right out of the gate, especially while following a pure craftsman like Stewart Copeland behind him.
Even when the band started to blow up, though, there was always going to be hangups along the way as well. They had stormed out of the same punk scenes that had birthed the biggest names in the CBGBs scene, but they weren’t looking to play rudimentary music. They had the same intensity, but ‘Roxanne’ proved that people could play their instruments while still adopting that punk spirit.
It’s one thing to be able to give the best performance possible, but when you hit the stage, anything’s fair game with the crowd. No one can choose the kind of audience that shows up every single night, and while Sting relished the opportunity of becoming a successful musician, he probably didn’t think he would have to worry about riots breaking out every time they started playing.
When the fans started going nuts for them and nearly breaking out into chaos at a gig in Italy in 1980, Sting said that he wished to never onstage again if he had to keep worrying about that, saying, “Sometimes I think this is the best job in the world. It’s certainly more exotic than teaching in Newcastle. But tonight, you know, it makes it all seem so worthless. I don’t mind being jeered, as long as I’m not ignored. I don’t mind what an audience does, but rioting? Leave it out. I don’t want to be the focus for a fucking riot. It’s nonsense.”
But the real problem was the fact that the group was getting much bigger than they could have realised. Within a few years, they would be headlining stadiums around the world, and while hearing that many people singing a song back to you is certainly exciting, Sting figured that it would be better for him to go his own way and embark on a solo career rather than worry about how the hell anyone was going to top the kind of numbers that The Beatles played to back in the day.
And despite his solo career becoming its own small empire after he left, there’s a reason why The Police garnered a huge reaction the minute they got back together in the 2000s. Absence only makes the heart grow fonder, and while the rioting was kept to a minimum at this phase of their career, there was still that same twinkle in Sting’s eyes that mesmerised people from the minute they saw ‘Roxanne’ for the first time.
