{"id":1009,"date":"2016-07-27T23:37:00","date_gmt":"2016-07-27T23:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/?p=1009"},"modified":"2026-06-27T23:39:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T23:39:46","slug":"the-police-the-fixx-the-animals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/?p=1009","title":{"rendered":"The Police, The Fixx, The Animals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>October 1983, Orange Bowl, Miami, Fla.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There are few words to fully describe how much I love The Police. It was one of the first serious bands I got into \u2014 there are not a lot of 12-year-olds who got lost in <em>Outlandos d\u2019Amour<\/em>, but I was one of them. The band made five albums \u2014 all of them different \u2014 and crushed every one. I hated The Police broke up, but I understood \u2014 what else could it do it hadn\u2019t already done?<\/p>\n<p>I was a freshman in high school when Synchronicity came out, and even in an era when albums became huge (<em>Thriller, Purple Rain, Born in the U.S.A.<\/em>), few albums were as big as <em>Synchronicity<\/em>. There was not a single radio station \u2014 not a single one \u2014 that didn\u2019t play \u201cEvery Breath You Take\u201d. The videos were everywhere, song after song was a hit. And Sting is simply one of the greatest frontmen ever. I think I take Sting over Bono, I really do.<\/p>\n<p>There was no question I was seeing the band if it came to Miami, because we all knew if it did come, it had to be in the Orange Bowl. It was originally supposed to be at the Miami Baseball Stadium (which my ticket says), but was moved to the OB for some reason (probably because of the huge popularity of Synchronicity). Not only was this a general admission concert, but tickets were $15. Can you imagine? Sure it was 32 years ago, but $15? And yes, the T-shirt cost more than the ticket. Did I buy a T-shirt? You bet your ass I did. The show was a few days shy of my 15th birthday after all.<\/p>\n<p>This is one of those shows I have to break down in pieces because it was a while back. As such:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Animals opened, and the only thing I knew about them then (and now, to be honest), is that they were best known for the song \u201cHouse of the Rising Sun\u201d. I remember the band playing the song to ripples of applause, but nothing more than that. This seemed a strange band to be playing with The Police, and I never knew why they were there (though I believe Andy Summers and Eric Burden used to play music together at one point). So yes, I can say I saw The Animals, but I\u2019m not sure if that\u2019s a good or bad thing.<\/li>\n<li>This would be my first in several forays with The Fixx, a band I have managed to see every decade since this show. I worked my way up to the front of the stage for their set, which came right as the sun was setting. Was the sky red? Yes. Did they play Red Skies? Sure did. The band also played \u201cStand or Fall,\u201d \u201cReach the Beach,\u201d \u201cOne Thing Leads to Another\u201d and \u201cSaved By Zero\u201d. In an opportunity to make many new fans, The Fixx was up for the challenge, and proved to be an excellent opener for The Police.<\/li>\n<li>I found the setlist online because I couldn\u2019t remember it all. I\u2019m just going to show it here for context: \u201cSynchronicity I,\u201d \u201cSynchronicity II,\u201d \u201cWalking In Your Footsteps,\u201d \u201cMessage In A Bottle,\u201d \u201cWalking On The Moon,\u201d \u201cO My God,\u201d \u201cDe Do Do Do De Da Da Da,\u201d \u201cWrapped Around Your Finger,\u201d \u201cTea In The Sahara,\u201d \u201cHole In My Life,\u201d \u201cSpirits Of The Material World,\u201d \u201cInvisible Sun,\u201d \u201cOne World (Not Three),\u201d \u201cKing Of Pain,\u201d \u201cDon\u2019t Stand So Close To Me,\u201d \u201cEvery Breath You Take,\u201d \u201cMurder By Numbers\u201d. Encore: \u201cRoxanne,\u201d \u201cCan\u2019t Stand Losing You,\u201d \u201cRegatta de Blanc,\u201d \u201cSo Lonely\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Damn.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Yes, every song on this list rules. I remember the band coming out to \u201cSynchronicity,\u201d Sting was wearing some sort of feathered open jacket, I don\u2019t think he had a shirt on underneath, and the sound of the crowd was a constant eruption. I was maybe 13 rows of people back from the stage \u2014 I was with my friend Adrian and we fought pretty hard to get where we were \u2014 but the energy of the crowd kept us lively even though we had been on our feet for five hours. The back-to-back playing of \u201cMessage In A Bottle\u201d and \u201cWalking On The Moon\u201d nearly had the crowd falling over with delight.<\/li>\n<li>The final three songs of the main set included two of the band\u2019s most popular songs \u2014 \u201cDon\u2019t Stand So Close To Me\u201d and \u201cEvery Breath You Take\u201d \u2014 and \u201cMurder By Numbers,\u201d a B-side which was not initially included on <em>Synchronicity<\/em> but later appeared on the cassette and CD. I love \u201cMurder By Numbers,\u201d but it was not a common song, and I remember feeling special being one of the few people in the crowd singing along. It\u2019s the little things . . .<\/li>\n<li>\u201cSo Lonely\u201d is my favorite Police song, and the show ended with it and it\u2019s crazy, stirred up musical ending. I was exhausted by the end of the show but remained hyped up after \u201cSo Lonely\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Without a doubt one of the best shows I went to, which is saying plenty since I\u2019ve been to many more in the 32 years since.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>October 1983, Orange Bowl, Miami, Fla. There are few words to fully describe how much I love The Police. It was one of the first serious bands I got into \u2014 there are not a lot of 12-year-olds who got lost in Outlandos d\u2019Amour, but I was one of them. The band made five albums [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1010,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[188,73,187],"class_list":["post-1009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-concerts","tag-the-animals","tag-the-fixx","tag-the-police"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1009"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1011,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009\/revisions\/1011"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}