Back in the 80’s my brother was a big fan of The Police. I liked them somewhat though not to the same degree as Steve. Over the years I got a lot more into their first three records and now count myself as a pretty big fan as well. In 1983 my family was in Chicago visiting my grandparents and WLS was giving away tickets to the Police show at Comiskey Park (also on the bill were such super duper 80’s folks as Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, The Fixx, A Flock of Seagulls and Simple Minds.) To enter the contest you had to listen for a Police song in the afternoon on Saturday on the FM station and in the afternoon on Sunday on the AM station, write down the titles and send it on a postcard to WLS. We were in Chicago on Saturday so it was no problem hearing that song. On Sunday we were on our way back to Iowa when we stopped in Galena, IL for a picnic lunch. My brother tuned in WLS AM (since AM is magical and reaches all over) heard the song, wrote it down, and a few weeks later, WON A PAIR OF TICKETS!!!
I was 12 at the time and very excited but I couldn’t go. Steve hopped a bus to Chicago and went with our cousin Dean who lived in the city. I was rather jealous but I got over it and realized later that it was probably not something I would have had that much fun at anyway.
This year the Police are on tour for the first time since the 1986. I knew they would be playing in Chicago but thought nothing of it as I didn’t really care enough for it to matter. If they came to Madison I would consider going but it would be at Camp Randall and the seats would probably suck. Steve emailed me this afternoon with the message subject “Wanna see THE POLICE this Friday here, for FREE?” Apparently WXRT held an on-line contest for tickets to see the band and my brother entered and WON TICKETS AGAIN!!!! YEA!!!! But of course, I’m playing a show this Friday: the Low Czars are opening for the Hometown Sweethearts 5th Anniversary show at the High Noon Saloon (only $6 and the show starts at 10) so once again my brother is extremely lucky in matters of the Police but I am again going to miss seeing them in action. I told several friends about this great irony and Bob Koch summed it up nicely: “Your brother must have some kinda direct line to Sting’s brain or something.”
Aaron Scholz 