The Police
The first Concert for the Police was at the Commodore Ballroom. The radio station LG99 ran a series called 99 cent concerts where the admission was only 99 cents and you could see breaking bands. One of the first was the Police. Only about 500 people attended out of a 950 seat capacity. Everyone that was there was knocked out. I remember screaming to the record company guy “These guys are going to be HUGE!” I was there to do a couple of grip and grin photos with the local DJ’s and moments after they all piled into rental cars to drive to Seattle to do another concert the next night at the Paramount. The photo above was taken a few months later at the Gardens after Roxanne had hit #1. The Gardens was also a small venue probably no more than 1200 people legally. The place had twice that or more. I remember the promoter sweating bullets worrying whether the fire marshals would turn up and shut him down. The Police at their best.
