With the Reunion Tour of 2007, it was time for many tapes of The Police to surface and be shared, rehashed, discovered and marketed. "Happy Birthday Sting" from Goodfellas Productions certainly has to be at the top of the list, especially in terms of quality. The recording here is at times scary as to how good it is, even though there is a slight roughness around the edge due to what sounds like overmodulation with the source recording and I swear the recording runs a bit fast. I found myself not able to relax they pace was so frantic with the setlist, jumping right into song after song. But that isn't what the issue is here upon listening to this disc. It's the lack of what I'll refer to as heart. There seems to be plenty of soul in the performance but there's no heart. It is with the magnificent fidelity that we get a very revealing snapshot of the last, real, Police Tour. The playing is energetic, sharp, focused and it had me trying to put my finger on what was missing. They sound great but it's like there's no middle, it's airy.
The momentum kind of shifts gears and we get to sort of slide in groove with "Tea In The Sahara" and "Invisible Sun". The recording is apparently incomplete as there is a fade out after "King Of Pain" but I don't think we're missing any of the actual performance. The Synchronicity LP was a monster and things were certainly peaking for the band at this juncture. Even though the audience isn't prominent in the mix at all, the Spanish enthusiasm shines through so we do get atmosphere from the Barcelona crowd -when the band pauses long enough for it to poke through! I'll have to sample some other '83 Police tapes to see if this is just a combination of natural pace and tape that plays fast or what. They just seem to be racing to the end!
As you can tell by the front cover scan featured above, Goodfellas utilizes Synchronicity-flavored cover art and photos which really represents the contents well. This is commercial-grade quality stuff and will not disappoint, from shell to the final notes of "I Can't Stand Losing You" on the disc (my favorite Police tune). If you are looking for this era of show from The Police, this is a great title to start with.
