By RICHARD KING
I grew up in Salt lake City, Utah. That’s where I saw most of the shows I shot.
I remember hearing The Police’s “Roxanne” on the radio in 1978, when I was 19. They were coming to town to play a concert and I was really excited until it was announced that it would be in a club.
That was the now-famous Outlandos d’Amour van tour and I was under age. Didn’t get to see it. I kept listening to them and buying their records. I really liked Stewart’s odd drumming and Andy’s shimmering guitar sound.
Then in 1982, The Police were touring their Ghost In The Machine album and were going to play The Salt Palace, Salt Lake’s arena.
I made a point of getting a ticket, it was pretty far from the stage. Nobody I knew was going, so I went alone. I remember talking about the upcoming show with the drummer of a local band I was photographing and he mentioned that his girlfriend was going to the show and has third-row seats.
Read the Review for Sting & Shaggy at CaliforniaRocker.com
I asked him to ask her if I could share her seat so that I could get decent pictures. She said yes and so when the lights went down, I jumped over the railing onto the floor of the arena and made my way to her seat.
That was how I got as close as I did. The show was great, the band was great, but I could see that Sting was aware of me shooting pictures and wasn’t too happy about it. But at least he didn’t send security to hunt me down.
I never did see The Police again but I have seen and shot Sting solo, I saw Andy Summers playing with Michael Shrieve, and I got to see and shoot Stewart Copeland with Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger of The Doors (twice!), but those are other stories for other postings.
Read About Stewart Copeland’s Projects at CaliforniaRocker.com
This was all shot on film and the thing you have to realize is that until the film is processed and printed you have no idea if it worked or not.
The thing that stands out about these shots is how monochromatic the lighting is. Lots of yellow. I don’t remember that from the show but I was concentrating on getting the shot and not getting busted by security. I think I succeeded on both counts.
As part of our partnership with Power Chord TV, a fan-centric music channel, we present The King Collection, rare photos of rockers by Richard King.