Don’t have a ticket to see The Police’s final concert at Madison Square Garden in New York on Thursday night? Best Buy’s got at least a partial ticket for you, and some other sweet news about Sting, Stewart and Andy as well.

The retail giant will be webcasting the encore live, or parts thereof. Best Buy says log on to www.bestbuy.com/thepolice at 10:45 p.m. EST on Thursday, August 7, and you’ll be treated to the band’s final moments on stage. Best Buy says the broadcast will include three of the last four songs in the encore.

This tour’s basically been featuring a mini-set of five encores, so who knows which ones Best Buy will show (figuring on advertisements during the ones that get cut, maybe?). The Police have been ending with the stalwart handful of “Roxanne,” “King of Pain,” “So Lonely,” “Every Breath You Take,” and “Next to You” in 2008. We’ll take what we can get.

The other good news is that in coordination with the webcast, Best Buy will begin presale of an exclusive DVD/CD (and even LP) set featuring a recent Police full concert from Buenos Aires, Argentina. No word on price yet, but options for “The Police: Certifiable” will include a 2 DVD/2 CD standard-format package, 1 DVD/2 CD Blu-ray format deal, and yes, even a 3-LP release that gives you a one-time MP3 file download of the whole album. There’ll be some bonus footage on the DVDs as well.

Some of us were lucky enough to catch just one of The Police’s historic reunion tour shows over the last year-plus, and this is definitely a grand finale.

Arlen Schweiger - Managing editor of Electronic House Magazine

Arlen contributes product news items to electronichouse.com along with his role on the print publication. Got a tip? Send it along!