Sunday night, The Police kicked off their reunion by performing “Roxanne” on the 49th annual Grammy Awards. Sting’s vocals were strong, the band was tight and one of the most popular bands of the late 70s and early 80s showed they still have what it takes to make magic on stage. My only complaint was that they didn’t play more.

Of course, I can hear more of The Police live if I can get my hands on a ticket. They just announced 14 dates for their upcoming North America tour, their first since 1986. According to thepolicetour.com, the festivities will begin on May 28th in Vancouver and wrap-up with two nights at Madison Square Garden in New York City in early August (see preliminary dates below). Additional cities and dates will be announced in the next few weeks.

Seeing the reunited Police would be quite a thrill, especially since I was too young to catch them live the first time around. I’m also intrigued by their special guest/opening act, Fiction Plane. The band is most notable for their vocalist/guitarist Joe Sumner, Sting’s son. He’s been blessed with a powerful and distinct set of pipes like his father. They’re not a Police tribute act, though. They mix a big, hard rockin’, atmospheric sound with spirit, passion and heart-on-sleeve emotions. The end result is in the ballpark of U2 and Starsailor, but more aggressive. At least that’s what Fiction Plane sounded like when they released their major-label debut album, Everything Will Never Be OK, on March 11, 2003.

Since then, Fiction Plane had fallen off my radar completely. I often wondered what became of them, particularly since we met back in March of 2003. At the time they were promoting their album, and I taped a couple interview segments with them for MTV2’s coverage of the South By Southwest Music Festival. Before the interview started, Jim Shearer (the VJ) and I (the producer) asked Joe Sumner if it was alright to mention that he was Sting’s son. He said it was fine. Then we taped the segment and afterwards Joe looked very upset. He said he didn’t like how we associated him with his father and asked that we re-shoot the interview without any mention of Sting. We obliged and that was pretty much the last I heard from Fiction Plane.