The Police at Shea Stadium

On this day in 1983, The Police played to a sold-out Shea Stadium in New York, as part of their huge Synchronicity Tour. 

The Beatles had famously played Shea Stadium, home of the Mets, on the 15th August in 1965, in what was then the biggest rock concert ever held, with an audience of 55,000 screaming fans.

For John Lennon, looking back, Shea Stadium represented the moment he 'saw the top of the mountain.' 

The image of a mountain top also fits Sting, Stewart and Andy's time at Shea Stadium. Tickets sold out in just 5 hours and they managed to pack an extra 15,000 seats into the venue. After the tour, the group struggled to sustain their wave and for various reasons they began to be drawn apart. But in 1983, the uber-talented trio (and their studied ambition) could draw on an impressive back-catalogue of sophisticated super-hits like 'Message in a Bottle' which were reliably electrifying audiences around the world. 

The deep musical history embedded in Shea Stadium accompanied The Police on their mountain top:

"I'd like to thank the Beatles for lending us their stadium", Sting told his fans during the encore. 

The Synchronicity Tour, including the historic Shea Stadium gig, is explored by acclaimed biographers Caroline and David Stafford in their forthcoming book, The Police: Every Little Thing. Covering the years 1977–1986 and the brief reincarnation in 2007–2008, Caroline and David Stafford chronicle the rise and fall of the Police. Available to pre-order now - publication day is the 26th August 2021.