The Police, Michael Des Barres and the deep breadth of wikis

I've been online for more than 20 years but I continue to be amazed at the depth and breadth of what's online and the passionate people who feed deep content niches.

This was the first of two Fresno shows by The Police.Case in point: I got a Facebook Messenger inquiry from a German who ran across a 2016 Facebook post of mine featuring two tickets from Police concerts in Fresno. He simply wanted to know whether he could repost my photo of my ticket from a 1980 show on his Police Wiki website.  

Say what? A wiki focused on The Police? It's one thing to have a website focused on the band, but a wiki? That's hardcore. 

I'm all for taking care of other passionate music fans, so quickly agreed. So, now the Police Wiki has this lovely addition to its page on the Saturday, Nov. 1, show in which Michael Des Barres opened for The Police. 

I had forgotten Des Barres opened the show, but clearly remember The Police being rattled when the tough crowd at the beautiful Warnor's Theater were not standing during the band's performance. As they later said in Trouser Press magazine, they would never play Fresno again. As you can see in my original Facebook post, the band did return to Fresno to play a stadium show. I guess money can trump ideals. 

As for the tough Fresno crowd, we weren't tough - we just weren't submissive, as Sting thought we should be. I was a major Police fan at that point, but after reading that, I thought, "screw you," and stopped buying their albums, although I cared enough about the band to use a complimentary ticket to see the 1983 concert.

Thanks to Dietmar Cloes for bringing back a wonderful memory and for having the passion to curate and build a small corner of the digital world.