Welcome To This Three-Men Show (Godfather Records GR 221/222)
Stockholm, Sweden – August 30, 2007
Disc 1: Message In A Bottle, Synchronicity II, Walking On The Moon, Voices Inside My Head/When The World Is Running Down, Don’t Stand So Close To Me, Driven To Tears, Truth Hits Everybody, Hole In My Life/Hit The Road Jack, Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic, Wrapped Around Your Finger
Disc 2: De Do Do Do De Da Da Da, Invisible Sun, Walking In Your Footsteps, Can’t Stand Losing You, Roxanne, King Of Pain, So Lonely, Every Breath You Take, Next To You
Bonus Track: Phoenix, AZ – June 18, 2007: The Bed’s Too Big Without You
With Welcome To This Three-Men Show, Godfather Records brings us an audience recording of The Police from August 30, 2007 in Stockholm , Sweden. This is the same show Crystal Cat Records brought us with At The Globe.
At The Globe is simply superior in every way: from packaging to sound to the inclusion of an entire extra concert. Accordingly, there is really no reason to get Welcome To This Three-Men Show unless you are an absolute completist, or just can’t find the Crystal Cat release.
It’s not that this is a bad release. It comes in a very attractive digipack, filled with great photos of the band. The audience recording, which appears to be a different source than the one used by Crystal Cat, is loud and clear and captures the entire concert. However, the sound often comes across as harsh and tinny, especially when compared with At The Globe.
As a bonus track, Godfather includes The Bed’s Too Big Without You – the only thing this release has which At The Globe does not. The Police usually played this song during the first American leg of their reunion tour. By the time the band got to Europe (Stockholm was the first stop on the European leg of the tour), The Bed’s Too Big Without You had been dropped from the setlist. Owing to the amount of echo present, it sounds like the recorder was a distance from the stage. The song itself is somewhat interesting for the way in which the band reworked it, but one mediocre song is not reason enough to buy this release when you can get At The Globe.
It’s a shame Godfather happened to release the same show as Crystal Cat, because to date, this is still the only concert from the reunion tour released on silver CD. Hopefully this will change and we will see some releases from the just-completed Japanese leg of their tour.
