THE POLICE ARE THE TALK OF BONNAROO

In just it’s fifth year of existence, Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival has grown from a grass roots jam band festival into most successful and top grossing f…

As the last of the serious music fans depart from Bonnaroo’s farmland in Tennessee, you can look back on a tremendous list of musicians who one again graced Roo’s stages and brought their fine tuned musical craft to the masses. Although the legendary John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin certainly turned heads and caused quite a stir with his multiple performances throughout the weekend, it was The Police who by far and above were the most highly anticipated band on the lineup. Performing to a packed mainstage as the headliners on Saturday night, June 16th, Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland pulled out all the stops with a two hour performance the included mega hits ‘Roxanne’, ‘Every Little Thing She Does is Magic’, ‘Walkin on the Moon’, ‘Wrapped Around Your Finger’ and ‘Every Breath You Take.’ It’s very clear many Bonnaroo fans were eargerly awaiting the reunion of The Police and many musicians who were performing at Bonnaroo admitted their excitement in seeing The Police.

We caught up with Ziggy Marley at Bonnaroo to get his thoughts on performing with The Police, who have been influenced by Reggae music and undoubtedly Ziggy’s father, Bob.

“They could take what we do and kind of carry it to another place and to another people and to expose the music more. That is impressive. There’s no boundaries with music. We’re all musicians. I don’t have any boundaries and I don’t put boundaries on other people. What ever they do is expressing what they do and that’s great as long as they’re expressing what they do. If it becomes a problem is where they try to imitate and imitation is not good. So you just basically have to express what you do and The Police do that, them cool.”

Many musicians admittedly became fans and flocked to see The Police’s set, but few artists would admit to picking up trash in order to see the band perform. We talked with ?uestlove, who performed at Bonnaroo with his band The Roots along with a memorable Superjam and who is also a photographer, to share his thoughts on doing anything to secure a photo pass so he could have a good seat for The Police, even if it was only for the first 3 songs.

“I’m here for The Police and I told them I’d do any and everything including garbage pickup just to get this photo pass. So basically I’m putting in my ten hours just so I can see The Police.” (You have a photo pass? I head you request that. You’re shooting? “Oh yeah I take photo’s regardless but I wanted to ensure that I would see The Police. At least for 3 songs I’ll have a good spot.”

The Police has tour dates booked in the U.S. until August 5th in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The band will also be performing at Live Earth on July 7th at Giants Stadium in New Jersey as well. The band have also been confirmed for The Virgin Festival in Baltimore, Maryland on August 4th. The Police will then tour Europe extending until October 19th in Cardiff, U.K. Look for the band to perform on Halloween at Madison Square Garden in New York as one of the most highly anticipated tours in history begins to wind down.