It's official. The tour has been announced:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070212/ennew_afp/afpentertainmentus_070212232748
The Police reunite for 30th anniversary world tour
By Tangi Quemener
LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Rock group The Police announced an international reunion tour to mark their 30th anniversary, confirming one of the music world's most eagerly anticipated comebacks.
The three-member band -- British frontman Sting, guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland -- will kick off their tour in Vancouver on May 28, playing across North American before heading to Europe later in the year.
Additional dates in Mexico, South America, Japan, Australia and New Zealand are expected to be added to the schedule.
The Police, one of the biggest groups of the late 1970s and early 1980s thanks to songs such as "Roxanne" and "Every Breath You Take" had performed at Sunday's Grammy Awards in Los Angeles.
Sting, speaking after a rehearsal session to announce the comeback at Hollywood's famous Whisky A Go-Go club on Monday, said the idea of a reunion came to him late last year.
"I woke up one morning about three months ago and it was like a light bulb went off in my head 'I'm going to call Andy and Stewart,'" Sting said.
"What's happening is sort of very healing."
News of the tour will give the group's millions of fans a chance to pay homage to the band, who never formally split up but rather drifted apart after their successful 1983 album "Synchronicity."
While Sting acknowledged there had been differences between the band when they went their separate ways, the three had remained friends. "The nature of the arguments were all about music -- and hairstyles," Sting said.
Copeland, who was once reported to have come to blows with Sting over the front-man's high profile and control of the group, added: "We refer to Sting as our dear leader."
Sting meanwhile said the band's concerts would be stripped down to the basics, in keeping with the raw energy of the group's early years.
"It's going to be three guys on stage, that's all," he said. "The show is going to be simple but spectacular."
The band's comeback had been anticipated after Sting revealed in an interview last month that he and his former bandmates had been "talking about" doing something to mark the anniversary.
Summers, 64, told Billboard magazine last month the manner of The Police's demise had nagged away at them since their last album, after which they performed together on only a handful of occasions.
"The more rational approach would have been, 'OK, Sting, go make a solo record, and let's get back together in two or three years,'" he said.
"I regret we never paid it off with a last tour."
Sting and Copeland formed The Police in 1977, desperate to be a part of the the burgeoning London punk scene, Summers joining later as guitarist.
The Police would become famous however for a unique style, which fused elements of pop, punk and reggae and delivered a string of hits.
Their debut 1978 album "Outlandos D'Amour", featuring "Roxanne" and "Can't Stand Losing You", marked their arrival and they followed it up in 1979 with "Regatta de Blanc", notable for "Walking on the Moon" and "Message in a Bottle", the band's first number-ones.
The band's third album, the hastily recorded "Zenyatta Mondatta", provided one of group's best-known singles, "Don't Stand So Close To Me", and helped the group gain a foothold in the all-important US market.
A fourth album, "Ghost in the Machine" followed in 1981, but it was "Synchronicity" that was to see the band at their zenith.
Although it missed out on a Grammy against Michael Jackson's "Thriller" for Album of the Year, the number-one single "Every Breath You Take" won Song of the Year, beating out "Billie Jean."
