Police gig 'one of the best'
Music fans hailed the return of The Police as "one of the best shows you'll ever see in your life".
Last night's NIA concert was the first time Sting and Co had performed together in Britain for nearly a quarter of a century.
And thousands of devoted fans went home happy. David Shaw, aged 38, and his wife Ally, of Stourbridge, travelled to the concert with their daughter, Amy,14.
Mr Shaw, an engineer, said: "I never thought I would get to see The Police as I was a bit too young for them the first time round. I thought they were excellent and it was a brilliant show; nothing too fancy, just good songs, a great singer and great musicians.
"I really liked the fact there were no backing singers, just the three of them."
The band's last UK gig was at Wembley Arena on New Year's Eve 1983 as part of the Synchronicity tour, just a few months after topping the charts with their biggest-ever hit, Every Breath You Take.
Previously – in the days before the NEC took over as the main Midlands rock venue – they had played Stafford's Bingley Hall at the County Showground two days before Christmas in 1980.
Then, 8,000 fans paid £5 per ticket for the show, before the band headed to the States to play the rather more glamorous Madison Square Garden in New York.
Ticket's for last night's concert at the 13,000-capacity National Indoor Arena ranged from £68 to £137 per head.
Still, they sold out within hours and some have since gone for hundreds of pounds on internet auction sites. And those leaving the Arena last night weren't complaining.
Anthony Stokes, 22, of Rowley Regis said: "They were a lot better than I thought they would be, to be honest.
"I didn't expect them to have such a hard sound. I thought it would be more 'poppy'."
Long time Police fans Hayley Visser, 40, and Derek Lang, 49, travelled from Malvern for the concert. Derek said: "It was great – I also saw The Police when they appeared at CBGB's in New York back in 1978."
Other fans included Police Fan Club members Richard Huxley, 37, and Jenny Hogben, 35, from Solihull, who had never seen the band live. Shig Hayashi was at the concert after travelling from Tokyo.
Ticket touts were out in force before the show, asking as much as £100 for the best seats in the sold-out NIA.
Inside, fans were also spending their money on expensive merchandise, including programmes (£10) and babygrows (£15).
Other items ranged from standard tour t-shirts (£20) to the ubiquitous bomber jacket (£70) and top of the range leather Police coat for £250.
Thousands will be back at the NIA tonight for a repeat performance from The Police. The Birmingham shows are among the smallest of the group's 30th Anniversary comeback tour, which began in Vancouver on January 24.
Since then they have taken in the Staples Centre in Los Angeles, home of the LA Lakers, the Giants Stadium in New York and the Miami Dolphins Stadium together with two more nights at Madison Square Garden.
It is expected to be one of the five biggest grossing tours of all time, with the first 38 North American shows alone grossing more than 107 million dollars from 929,941 people.
The highest gross of the first leg was July 5-6 at Wrigley Field in Chicago, which took in $9,494,248 from an attendance of 79,458.
From Birmingham they will move on to two sold-out performances at Twickenham and then mainland Europe, including the 90,000-capacity Stade de France in Paris and the Stadio Della Alpi, home of Italian football giants Juventus.
Next month they will be back in the UK in front of 80,000 at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff before the tour finally ends in Perth, Australia, on February 1, 2008 – more than a year after it began.
By Keith Harrison.