A lesson from the Newcastle schoolteacher

Last night, I attended The Police concert here in Toronto. Sting and the boys powered through their greatest hits, most of them rearranged with jazzier melodies and a grungier guitar sound.

Why am I writing about this in a filmmaking blog? It was a great example of showmanship (not a gender-neutral term, but I’ll use it here given that the 3 performers who inspired this entry are all male; if you have a better term, please add a comment).

Webster’s defines the term as follows (bundled in with the showman entry):

showman

Main Entry: show·man
Pronunciation: \shō-mən\
Function: noun
Date: circa 1734
1 : the producer of a play or theatrical show
2 : a notably spectacular, dramatic, or effective performer
— show·man·ship \-ship\ noun

The current Wikipedia entry for “showmanship (performing)” is a lot more fleshed out and I think applicable to my argument:

Showmanship, concerning artistic performing such as in Theatre, is the skill of performing in such a manner that will either appeal to an audience or aid in conveying the performance's essential theme or message.
For instance, the Canadian stage magician Doug Henning used many classic illusions in his magic show. However, he made the old material seem new by both by rejecting the old stylistic clichés of the art such as wearing formal wear, and by presenting them with a childlike exuberance that respected the audience's intelligence.

Within the annals of rock music, The Police story is about 3 guys getting together during the punk movement in London, becoming the biggest New Wave band in the world, and then breaking up from internal pressures, primarily from Sting’s desire to do his own thing, when they reached the top and dominated rock and pop music.

With this backstory, the press coverage of this reunion tour has focussed on the possibility of the band imploding again due to clashes of ego, particularly between front man Sting and drummer Stewart Copeland.

Before the show began, I’m sure this aspect of the band was on most of the audience’s minds as I heard people talk about it as I entered the building and found my seat.

So, on top of re-jigging the hits here and there, there were also moments where the musicians played up the anticipation and expectations. Sting at one point hopped up o the edge of the drum riser (nearly falling into the drums, which cracked both him and Copeland up). With the onstage cameras beaming the closeups to the overhead video screens, Sting playfully nodded at two cymbals at the front of the kit, provoking Copeland to smash them. On the third (comic) beat, Copeland playfully lunged forward to hit Sting, but Sting jumped off the riser. Copeland’s demeanor while drumming is quite serious, so there weren’t any cues from him that he was joking (Sting, meanwhile, wore a smirk).

At the end of their set, as they headed off to await their encore (a funny tradition in rock), Copeland met Sting at the back of the stage with arms wide open. Sting playfully darted past Copeland and offstage.

So… was this a display of subdued tensions or two guys messing with the band’s public image? The trio arrived onstage and left onstage as a group (not scattering different directions like my buddy Bob had seen the Eagles the moment one of their reunion tour shows ended).

It doesn’t really matter, when it comes down to it. Regardless of whether the tensions are real or not, they brought them into the show. So, you can see it cynically, as guys faking their long-past feuds like wrestlers do, or you can see it as people being honest with how they feel about each other (and including it in their act). Or two guys playing with everyone’s head by toying with what the audience is expecting? Or elements of all 3? I don’t think anyone but the band would know for sure.

The Police could never be accused of being cynically-manufactured given that they didn’t produce crap, tripe, or filler—in my opinion, and I own the box set….

So, amidst the songs about loneliness, obsession, pain, suffering, and love, they had 20,000 ticket holders wondering whether they’d be pulling razors on each other backstage or be bundled off into separate rooms by nervous management types.

Again—what the heck does this have to do with filmmaking? I think putting yourself fully and completely into your projects creates honest, exciting, and compelling entertainment. I hope to apply to my own work the lesson that the Newcastle schoolteacher and his mates taught last night.

Rock music has a tradition of onstage feuds, ranging from The Kinks actually throwing punches at each other to Aerosmith using the position of wings in their stage logo to indicate if Stephen and Joe were fighting or getting along that night. I’m glad I witnessed another fabled chapter of that tradition!