So, if you really want to hear the Police in Dallas, you have two choices at this late date: You can fork over a few hundred bucks (or $2,500 for some top-notch tix) for the band's sold-out shows at the American Airlines Center June 26 and 27. Or you can head over to our favorite Bit Torrent site, where, this week, someone has kindly posted to the Interwebs the Police's very first Dallas show, which took place March 9, 1979, at the old Palladium. (We also found this, incidentally: Our old pal George Gimarc is selling -- or used to, anyway -- CD compilations of old KZEW-FM ads for 1970s rock shows, among them the Police gig at the Palladium.)
We, ahem, hear the recording's a killer and comes complete with what one fan refers to as an "Anglofried" version of "The Yellow Rose of Texas." So, for grins, we called local concert promoter Mark Lee -- who used to run the Hot Klub on Maple and Hondo, not far from Unfair Park HQ -- to ask him his thoughts about this particular gig, for which he was responsible. "That was a hundred years ago," Lee says, laughing, "I do not remember any of it. The show I recall was at McFarlin Auditorium a year later, and they'd already had the hit records. And they were amazing. That was a tremendous show. They took a quantum leap from that first show to the second. I assure you that's the show to get." Anyone? After the jump, the set list from 1979. --Robert Wilonsky
The Police Dallas, Texas The Palladium March 9, 1979Soundcheck before the show "Can't Stand Losing You" "Truth Hits Everybody" "So Lonely" "Yellow Rose of Texas" "Fall Out" "Born In The 50's "Hole In My Life" "Sally" "Peanuts" "Roxanne" "Landlord" "Next To You" "Can't Stand Losing You" (encore) "Roxanne" (encore)
