Nicknamed
Sting for the black and yellow
striped sweater he would
wear while performing,
Gordon Sumner was raised in the
bleak industrial town of
Newcastle by a
hairdresser mother and milkman
father. His mother was
a classically trained
pianist who taught him his scales
so well that he was offered an
advanced piano scholarship.
But jazz and guitar
were Sting's real loves, and
after stints digging ditches
and teaching,
he moved to London to play professionally.
American drummer Stewart Copeland
caught his act and convinced
him to try rock. Joined by
Brit guitarist
Andy Summers, the trio formed
the Police in 1977. Their
rock-reggae
sound broke through with "Roxanne," a
song written as a plea for a
prostitute not to "put on
the red light," which
was subsequently banned by the
BBC, making it an instant hit.
In fact,
the single proved so successful
that A&M rushed to release
their first album, Outlandos
D'Amour. In quick
succession, the band's next albums,
Regatta De Blanc, Zenyatta Mondatta,
and Ghost in the Machine were
released, with at least one hit
single emerging
from each. The release, in 1983,
of Synchronicity and its monster
single, "Every Breath You
Take," secured
their place in pop history. After
a triumphant world tour, Sting
decided he had achieved all he
could with
the Police, and the band dissolved
at the height of its popularity.
Sting's solo career has proved no less successful. His
first album, the jazz-influenced Dream of the Blue Turtles,
went platinum. 1991's Soul Cages, dealing with the loss
of his parents (who died within a few months of each other),
and 1993's Ten Summoner's Tales, revealed a maturity in
his songwriting not previously seen, and both albums won
Grammys. 1996's Mercury Falling continued in a meditative
vein, as the forty-five-year-old artist ruminated on aging
and his own mortality. A political activist, Sting has
put himself on the line to help save Brazilian rainforests
and to support Amnesty International. His film career has
run hot and cold, but his performances in such films as
Brimstone and Treacle and Quadrophenia have been good.
He and longtime companion (and now wife), Trudie Styler,
live a relatively quiet life on their estate outside London
with their children and dogs. Sting has revealed that by
using Tantric meditation, he is able to have sex for five
hours at a stretch. |
|
|
|
|
After
rising to international stardom with
the Police, Stewart Copeland largely
rejected his pop music past to pursue
a career as a composer, authoring
a prolific series of film scores,
operas, and ballets. Born July 16,
1952 in Alexandria, Egypt, Copeland
-- the son of a CIA agent -- spent
his formative years in the Middle
East but attended college in California
before settling in England in 1975
and playing drums with the progressive
rock unit Curved Air. Following the
group's dissolution, he founded the
Police with singer/bassist Sting
and guitarist Henri Padovani (the
latter soon replaced by Andy Summers).
Beginning with their first hit, 1979's "Roxanne," the trio emerged
as one of the most popular and innovative bands of the post-punk era, drawing
upon reggae, funk, and world music to create a uniquely infectious yet cerebral
brand of pop which generated a series of smash singles including "Every
Little Thing She Does Is Magic," "Every Breath You Take," and "King
of Pain." While with the Police, Copeland -- who in 1980 issued a solo record,
Music Madness from the Kinetic Kid, under the alias Klark Kent -- not only earned
wide critical acclaim for his intricate, textured drumwork, but he contributed
many of the group's songs as well. At the peak of their commercial success, the
Police disbanded after touring in support of the 1983 blockbuster Synchronicity;
by that time Copeland was already established as a film composer, however, earning
a Golden Globe nomination for his score to Francis Ford Coppola's Rumble Fish.
In 1985 he released The Rhythmatist, the product of his musical pilgrimage to
Africa, followed by an ever-increasing number of film scores including a pair
of Oliver Stone features, Wall Street and Talk Radio, in addition to acclaimed
projects like Ken Loach's Raining Stones, Four Days in September and West Beirut
as well as many more mainstream Hollywood productions. Copeland's other work
includes a stint with the pop-fusion trio Animal Logic as well as authoring the
San Francisco Ballet's King Lear, the Cleveland Opera's Holy Blood and Crescent
Moon, and Ballet Oklahoma's Prey.
|
|
|
|
|
While
Andy Summers is best known as the
guitarist of the Police, he has since
forged a successful and acclaimed
solo career with new age-influenced
contemporary instrumental music that,
like his work with Sting and company,
draws on his love for jazz and his
fascination with creating instrumental
textures. Born Andrew James Somers
in Poulton-Fylde, Lancashire, England,
on December 31, 1942, the young Somers
(who later changed his surname to
the more easily spelled Summers)
moved to Bournemouth as a child and,
upon taking up the guitar at 14,
immersed himself in the local jazz
scene. By 16, he was playing in local
clubs and coffeehouses, where he
was noticed by Zoot Money. Somers
was invited to join Money's Big Roll
Band, with whom he appeared on the
live album The All Happening Zoot
Money's Big Roll Band at Klook's
Kleek. Money eventually changed the
band into a psychedelic outfit called
Dantalian's Chariot, and when that
project dissolved in early 1968,
Somers briefly signed on with the
Soft Machine before rejoining Money
in a revamped Animals lineup for
the LP Love Is. When that imploded
in 1969, Somers studied classical
guitar and composition at UCLA for
four years, in the meantime giving
guitar lessons, gigging with a local
Latin-rock band, and acting with
various theater troupes. Upon his
return to England in 1973, Summers
became something of a journeyman,
touring in the backing bands of Neil
Sedaka, Kevin Coyne, Kevin Ayers,
and David Essex.
Summers
met Sting and Stewart Copeland in 1977
while playing with a band called Strontium
90. The two asked Summers to join their
full-time project, the Police; together,
the trio gradually developed a style centered
around jazz- and reggae-influenced pop/rock,
and Sting's strong bass lines allowed Summers
to supply subtle sonic textures and colors
on his guitar, and to experiment with various
effects. Summers first stepped out on his
own in 1982, teaming with King Crimson
guitarist Robert Fripp on the jazz- and
Eastern-tinged I Advance Masked. It was
followed in 1984 with Bewitched, another
Summers/Fripp collaboration, around the
same time the Police officially disbanded.
Eager
to establish himself in musical realms
outside of rock & roll, Summers did
a bit of movie soundtrack work (Down and
Out in Beverly Hills, 2010, etc.) before
returning to recording, this time on his
own. His first solo effort, 1987's harmonically
intricate yet pop-oriented XYZ, met with
poor critical response. Its follow-up,
1988's Mysterious Barricades, was more
successful, emphasizing Summers' textural
sensibilities on its jazzy, new age-influenced
compositions. A string of albums in this
style followed through the '90s, notably
The Golden Wire (1989), Charming Snakes
(1991), World Gone Strange (1991), Invisible
Thread (1993), and The Last Dance of Mr.
X (1997). For 1998's Strings of Desire,
he teamed with South American guitar virtuoso
Victor Biglione; 1999's Green Chimneys:
Music of Thelonious Monk found Summers
working with a larger ensemble than usual
for him, as well as his first collaboration
with Sting since the Police (on a version
of "'Round Midnight"). Following
the success of his Monk-themed album, the
guitarist put together an album of interpretations
of compositions by Charles Mingus called
Peggy's Blue Skylight, released in late
2000. Earth + Sky appeared four years later
|
|
|
|
|
THE
DISCOGRAPHY
Early Recordings
(1977) |
The
Police were a band that used the DIY
sensibilities of Punk and infused their
own brand of Pop music with Reggae and
Rock and
became one of the most popular and successful bands of the early
1980's.
Stewart Copeland and Sting formed the band in 1977. Stewart had been in the Progressive
Rock band Curved Air and Sting was a teacher that performed in Jazz bands. Pairing
up with guitarist Henry Padovani, the trio played in London pubs. The same year
they released their first single "Fall Out" on I.R.S. and sold an impressive
70,000 copies. Henry Padovani left the band and was replaced by Andy Summers,
who had played with many successful rock groups. In early part of 1978, The Police
signed to A&M records, and released their first single "Roxanne." They
released Outlandos D'Amour in the fall and began to climb both the U.K. and U.S.
charts.
|
|
|
|
|
THE
DISCOGRAPHY
Outlandos d'Amour
(1978) |
Its
the late 70s, the British punk invasion just started.
Bands like The Sex Pistols and The Clash reigned
supreme. Right before the predecessors like Blondie
and Devo made big in the 80s. Also in that time,
The Police came along.
The Police members Sting (the groups bassist and vocalist), Stewart Copeland
(drummer), and Andy Summers (guitarist) were no newcomers. Seasoned (Andy Summers
had been in a line-up of The Animals) aside, they also had more talent than your
average punk band. Lots more.
This is The Polices
debut album, and maps out what was to come in the 80s. Elements of pop, reggae,
punk, and jazz are all fused together on Outlandos dAmour in symmetry.
The album opens with "Next
To You", the fast-paced, and most punk influenced song on the album.
The next track, "So Lonely", immediately opens up with an catchy white
reggae-rock bass riff, showing what to expect of the rest of the album.
" Roxanne" shows how well Sting writes his infectious pop melodies,
with one of the most memorable lyric hooks
in the history of 70s music, telling the story of a girl who turns to prostitution,
singing some Steven Tyler-esque notes along the way. After that, the album basically
goes on repeat (power pop, punk-infused rock, rinse-and-repeat), highlights along
the way being "Cant Stand Losing You" and "Hole In My Life".
Until, the closing song, the Jamaican funk of "Masoko Tanga" is one
of my personal favorites. As, it also shows Stings powress as a bassist.
Outlandos dAmour was
ahead of its time. It showcases Sting as one of rocks great melody writers, and
also what was to come from The Police, Sting, and the rest of mainstream 80s.
|
|
|
|
|
THE
DISCOGRAPHY
Reggatta De Blanc
(1979) |
Album
number two from the Police is in many
ways similar to the debut. The instruments
are still pretty much limited to drums,
bass and guitar. However, the musicianship here is vastly improved
over that of the first, at least in the sense that the emphasis
on punk has been reduced to make way for even more reggae (obviously).
And although you can sense Sting's ego starting to grow, this is
very much a trio at work. If one person stands out as a star on
this disc, that would be Stewart Copeland, whose drumming has almost
Neal Peart-like power, skill and confidence to it, while still
maintaining a sense of playfulness to it.
The Police released Reggatta De Blanc, their second album, hot on the heels of
the first album-Outlandos D'A mour. The Police recorded during and after a tour
to support the first album's newfound success. As the album was recorded in a
hurry to capitalize on their cresting fame, Sting came up short on material.That
would explain the three and a half songwriting credits given to drummer Stewart
Copeland and two to the whole band. This is the band's most democratic album
and it shows.
Not that the material
other than Sting's own is bad, but you can tell the difference. Sting's writing
is more fluid and the song structures are more traditional. Sting was obviously
the most mature songwriter in the band, and that boded well for The Police's
success.
Despite being hurried
for time, Sting managed to come up with three drop dead classic tunes. "Message
in a Bottle" is the first cut and lead single off this album. Rarely does
everything mesh so well together to create a perfect piece of music. Although
it only reached #74 in the U.S. singles chart(U.K. #1). the songs impact was
much greater. Considered by many(including the band itself) to be The Police's
signature moment. Swirling guitars, busy polyrythmic drumming, and Sting's driving
bass all congeal into a classic rock masterpiece. With Sting's West Caribbean
singing, the tale of a lonely castaway finding solace in myriad other castaways'
loneliness comes to full life. And with the coda 'sending out an S.O.S.' The
song is unforgettable.
The second single(and
second U.K. #1) is the space classic "Walking on the Moon." Sparse
instrumentation and a supremely catchy chorus drive this reggae song to the heavens
and beyond. This shows The Police having fun and creates a memorable tune.
"The Bed's Too
Big Without You" is another Sting arrangement drenched in reggae. The bass
line is strong and the drumming is nimble while Sting singing about making love
to a pillow/but it didn't feel right. This version goes on a little long, but
the song does work. Just check out the mono version available on the Message
in a Box set.
The Copeland compositions
are decent, with "On Any Other Day" being the the most accessible.
Copeland deadpans about the mundanity of suburban life, and the track has a kind
of sped-up surreal ending that has The Chipmunks singing the chorus into the
fade. As a joke, Copeland introduces the song by saying "the other one's
are complete bullsh!t."
The
album ends with The Police reaching back to early
pogo days of the band, when safety pins and pure
energy ruled. "No Time This Time" finds
the band revving up the engine and seemingly enjoying
themselves. There is hardly anything more pleasureable
in rock music than hearing a tight band just jam
away. The Police were expert musicians and had
a rare chemistry that nearly always rose above
the infighting(at least on the stage anyway).
This
was pretty much the last time The Police played
a heavy dose of "white" reggae, and coupled
with their first effort, it is a stunning achievement.
People can argue that The Clash did reggae first,
but The Police did it better. I do not believe
that it was a simple marketing strategy, rather
a love of the music itself.
|
|
|
|
|
THE
DISCOGRAPHY
Zenyatta Mondatta
(1980) |
" Zenyattá Mondatta
closes any such credibility gap with
class and a vengeance. On one level,
the current album is an engaging aural
travelogue of the Anglo-American power
trio's Near and Far East tour (its title
is more of the Police's pidgin-English
wordplay, bastardizing Zen, Jomo Kenyatta
and monde, the French word for world).
These guys continue to indulge their
love for reggae, thinly disguising Stewart
Copeland's tight, choppy, neo-roots drumming
with Sting's airy vocal harmonies and
Andy Summer's ringing guitar harmonics
in the overtly pop-style classroom love
story, "Don't Stand So Close to
Me," and the brooding "Driven
to Tears. "They also dabble in ska: "Canary
in a Coalmine" and Sting's witty
rewrite of the time-worn rock-star-on-the-road
blues, "Man in a Suitcase."
More obvious are the influences of India, Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern
music and atmosphere. In "Bombs Away," Summers takes a raveup solo
that mixes hot rock chops with exotic modal progressions. The result sounds like
an outtake from the "Midnight Express" soundtrack. Ethnomusicologists
will note the similarity between the "Hey!" choruses of "Voices
inside My Head" and the traditional Balinese monkey chant. Come to think
of it, Sting's high-pitched singing has never been that far removed from the
Moslem call to prayer.
On another, more immediate level, "Zenyattá Mondatta" offers
near perfect pop by a band that bends all the rules and sometimes makes musical
mountains out of molehill-size ideas. Like "Reggatta de Blanc's" "Walking
on the Moon" and "The Bed's Too Big Without You" the new LP's "When
the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around" is
based on a hypnotic three-chord progression that's repeated for almost four minutes.
But the subtly dramatic rises and falls of Sting's vocal, the ricochet effect
of Summers' reverberating guitar and Copeland's clipped dance beat create a melodic
mirage of music and mood that lasts a long time. Much longer than the momentary
upbeat charm of, say, "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da." The latter tune is
blessed with a strong hook and a quirky guitar figure too good to waste on baby
talk.
The Police's secret
weapon is Andy Summers, a remarkable musician whose resume reads like, a Who's
Who of obscure English rock: Kevin Coyne, Kevin Ayers, Gong and one of Eric Burdon's
last-gasp versions of the Animals. Unlike those power-trio guitarists who merely
boost the volume to compensate for an absence of technique of a second guitar
picker, Summers plays more like Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix, jazzing up generally
simple chord changes for rich harmonic textures.
|
|
|
|
|
THE
DISCOGRAPHY
Ghost In The Machine
(1981) |
With
the release of their third album, Zenyatta
Mondatta, the Police had sprinted off
on a whirlwind world tour that eschewed
many of
the usual locales for more exotic spots, including some places
in the "third" world. That perspective still fresh in
their minds, they convened in Montserrat to record their fourth
album, Ghost in the Machine.
That sensibility found its way repeatedly into the songs on Ghost, most of which
are written by Sting. "Spirits in the Material World," the opening
track, decries the torpor that arises from the rule of law, unsupported by a
sense of ethics and subverted by the power-hungry. "Invisible Sun," in
some ways the moral center of the album, laments the then almost daily violence
in Ireland; yet in the end, it's a hopeful song, because we all find a reason
and a way to live on just the same. "There has to be," Sting concludes, "an
invisible sun."
More so than in any other Police album, there is a great reliance on keyboards
and synthesizers. Piano and keyboards play a starring role on Ghost's big hit, "Every
Little Thing She Does is Magic," the closest thing the Police ever got to
a plain old love song. Sting had also begun fiddling around with the saxophone,
and a few of the songs here (notably "Demolition Man" and "Too
Much Information") include horn "sections" consisting of Sting's
sax overdubs. As a result of all this, Andy Summers's guitar is pushed way into
the background. He plays the intriguing triads throughout the verses of "Spirits," but
he is swamped by the synthesizers. On the other hand, his swelling guitar synth
is front and center on "Secret Journey."
The production on this album is a bit iffy; in particular, the sound level is
set far too low. All the songs, even the spirited "One World (Not Three)," the
one most like the older Police songs, have a muted feel to them. This has been
improved a bit on newer releases, but there's only so much you can do with a
master tape that simply doesn't cooperate.
Despite the minor production issues, this is a healthy Police album. At the time,
many fans lamented the band's departure from their signature "honky reggae" hook,
but in retrospect, the songs are still catchy, significant, and definitely, distinctively "Police."
|
|
|
|
|
THE
DISCOGRAPHY
Synchronicity
(1983) |
Synchronicity
is a work of dazzling surfaces and glacial
shadows. Sunny pop melodies echo with
ominous sound effects. Pithy verses deal
with doomsday. A battery of rhythms pop,
reggae and African – lead a safari
into a physical and spiritual desert,
to "Tea in the Sahara." Synchronicity,
the Police's fifth and finest album,
is about things ending–the world
in peril, the failure of personal relationships
and marriage, the death of God.
The cuts on Synchronicity are sequenced like Chinese boxes,
the focus narrowing from the global to the local to the
personal. But every box contains the ashes of betrayal. "Walking
in Your Footsteps," a children's tune sung in a third-world
accent and brightly illustrated with African percussion
and flute, contemplates nothing less than humanity's nuclear
suicide. "Hey Mr. Dinosaur, you really couldn't ask
for more/You were god's favorite creature but you didn't
have a future," Sting calls out before adding, "[We're]
walking in your footsteps."
The mood of cosmic anxiety is interrupted by two songs
written by other members of the band. Guitarist Andy Summers'
corrosively funny "Mother" inverts John Lennon's
romantic maternal attachment into a grim dadaist joke.
Stewart Copeland's "Miss Gradenko," a novelty
about secretarial paranoia in the Kremlin, is memorable
mainly for Summers' modal twanging between the verses.
The rest of the album belongs to Sting. "Synchronicity
II" refracts the clanging chaos of "Synchronicity
I" into a brutal slice of industrial-suburban life,
intercut with images of the Loch Ness monster rising from
the slime like an avenging demon. But as the focus narrows
from the global to the personal on side two, the music
becomes more delicate – even as the mood turns from
suspicion to desperation to cynicism in "Every Breath
You Take," "King of Pain" and "Wrapped
around Your Finger," a triptych of songs about the
end of a marriage, presumably Sting's own. As the narrator
of "Every Breath You Take" tracks his lover's
tiniest movements like a detective, then breaks down and
pleads for love, the light pop rhythm becomes an obsessive
marking of time. Few contemporary pop songs have described
the nuances of sexual jealousy so chillingly.
The rejected narrator in "King of Pain" sees
his abandonment as a kind of eternal damnation in which
the soul becomes "a fossil that's trapped in a high
cliff wall/ ... A dead salmon frozen in a waterfall." "Wrapped
around Your Finger" takes a longer, colder view of
the institution of marriage. Its Turkish-inflected reggae
sound underscores a lyric that portrays marriage as an
ancient, ritualistic hex conniving to seduce the innocent
and the curious into a kind of slavery.
|
|
|
|
|
THE
DISCOGRAPHY
The Singles
(
1977/1986) |
Fall Out (1977)
|
Roxanne (1978) |
Can't Stand Losing You (1978) |
So Lonely (1978) |
Message In A Bottle (1979) |
Walking On The Moon (1979) |
Bed's Too Big Without You (1980) |
Bring On the Night (1980) |
Don't Stand So Close To Me (1980) |
Invisible Sun (1981) |
Spirits In A Material World (1981) |
Every Little Thing... (1981) |
Secret Journey (1982) |
Every Breath You Take (1983) |
Wrapped Around Your Finger (1983) |
Synchronicity II (1983) |
King Of Pain (1983) |
Don't Stand So Close To Me (1986) |
Can't Stand Losing You Live (1995) |
Voices Inside My Head (1995) |
Roxanne (1997) |
|
|
|
|
|
THE
POLICE
|
|
The
Police were a British-based Anglo-American
pop/rock group whose career began in 1976
during the first rising of punk rock and
ended, in a rather pathetic fashion, a
decade later. In the UK alone The Police
had 17
top-40 hit singles, five of which hit the
top-spot, along with five original albums,
four of which also made it to Number One,
as did the band's first 'best of' collection.
By 1983 The Police were one of the biggest
groups in the world, if not the biggest
- an opinion supported by the vast quantities
of records sold all over the globe and
the
numerous music awards won by them. There
can be few people in the civilised world
who don't know at least one Police song,
whether
it be 'Roxanne', 'Message in a Bottle', 'Don't
Stand so Close to Me' or the classic 'Every
Breath You Take'. Even now, 15 years after
their demise, Police songs resurface through
reissues, remixes, in soundtracks or as samples
in club tracks, and are still played extensively
on UK radio. At their best The Police created
music that was in turns beautiful, touching,
haunting,
energetic and poignant, and had almost universal
appeal. At their worst they were arrogant,
greedy, pretentious people who seemed to
bicker constantly with each other and moan
about everyone
else.
When
aging British prog-rock band Curved Air
arrived in Newcastle, UK during
the latter
part of 1976 the various members had
already decided the group would split up after
the tour. It was five years since
their
one and
only hit single ('Back Street Luv')
but their 24 year old American drummer
was relatively
new to the music business and wasn't
ready to give up just yet. After their set
at
the Polytechnic1 he decided to
go and see Last
Exit, a local band who were also playing
that night. He was unimpressed by the
band's jazz-rock fusion but his eye was caught
by their leader who, in his opinion,
outshone
the rest of the group. It was through
journalist
Phil Sutcliffe's introduction that
drummer Stewart Copeland met bass player and
singer
Sting. Copeland, the son of one of the
founders of the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency)
and
later
an advisor to various oil magnates (his
father was also, rather improbably, one of
Glenn
Miller's trumpeters) had grown up in a
host of different
countries, surrounded either by servants
or dignitaries. His older brother, Miles
III had
settled in England and had started work
as a rock promoter. It was in this capacity
that Miles introduced Stewart to 'the business',
although the younger Copeland had been
playing
drums since the age of 12.
Sting
(real name Gordon Sumner), on the other hand
had grown up in far less affluent surroundings
in the North-East of England, desperate to
break out from his family's long line of
(what
he considered to be) failure. He had spent
his youth listening to such diverse artists
as The Beatles and Thelonius Monk, leading
him to become 'horribly precocious' (his
words). Last Exit had a steady following
locally, which
had earned Sting a publishing contract, but
they had yet to move out of the area. It
had been decided that the group would move
en masse
to London during 1977 to seek greater success,
with Sting leading the charge. Stewart chose
the name 'The Police' for his new band before
recruiting any other members.
He persuaded Sting to join him in London
before the rest of Last Exit travelled South
and found
a guitarist - a Corsican by the name of Henri
Padovani. Sting was naturally uneasy about
joining a new band, but the situation resolved
itself when two members of Last Exit reneged
on their agreement and returned to Newcastle
after only two pub gigs in the capital. The
first incarnation of The Police had arrived. Taking
his inspiration from the rapidly growing
punk scene Copeland started
writing simple,
fast, guitar-based songs, no doubt urged
on by Miles who had recently taken on second
division punk bands such as Chelsea and
Alternative TV. After a few rehearsals
the three-piece
went into the studio on 12 February, 1977,
to record, at a cost of £150, their
first single. The Police played their first
live show early the following month in Newport,
Wales; their
set lasted around 20 minutes and consisted
of 13 songs written mostly by Stewart. This
was followed by a tour of Holland and France
supporting one of Miles' acts, 'Wayne County'.
Generally the response to them was very poor
- even in their mid-twenties the band were
too old, and they played their instruments
just too darned well for audiences that were
becoming used to talentless punks (that's
not to say that all punk bands were talentless).
The
release of the band's single 'Fall Out/Nothing
Achieving' on Miles' Illegal Records during
May 1977 did nothing to improve their situation:
both songs were raw and naive, but lacking
the power of the Sex Pistols or the wit of
Buzzcocks. Sting's naturally high vocals, however,
caught the attention of Mike Howlett of
Gong and he
was invited to sing for Howlett's new group
Strontium 90 at a one-off gig in Paris at
the end of the month. When the band's drummer
pulled
out Stewart was also seconded, conveniently
giving him chance to keep an eye on his singer.
The band's guitarist, despite being nearly
10 years older than them, caught the attention
of both Stewart and Sting. Andy Summers had
played in various bands throughout the 1960s
and 70s including Zoot Money's Big Roll Band
- the second band Sting ever saw play live
(he was reportedly 'unimpressed'). In 1973,
he settled as a session musician, a job which
had landed him work with Neil Sedaka, Mike
Oldfield and David Essex, amongst others.
But he was not content. He found something
new
and fresh in Stewart and Sting, and the mutual
attraction lead to him replacing Padovani
in The Police, much to the amusement of Andy's
circle of friends. Copeland once said that
it was Andy who suggested sacking Padovani
(something he denies) but neither Sting nor
Stewart had any qualms about ousting their
guitarist. The Police actually played a few
shows as a four-piece before heading into the
studio
to record an album - a session to which Henri
was not invited. Stewart eventually broke
the news to their absent guitarist over the
telephone.
Although little is known of Henri and his
reaction to the news, it is certain that most
fans of
the group (and at least one band member)
consider this point to be the true beginning
of The
Police.
The
recording session in August 1977 that was
supposed to produce the band's
debut LP came
to naught. John Cale, formerly of The Velvet
Underground, was the producer but when
Andy played a riff from a Led Zeppelin
song as
a test he replied 'Great! You've got it!',
and so the session was abandoned. The first
Police gig proper took place at Rebecca's
Nightclub in Birmingham, UK on 18
August before the band headed off to Europe
- a 'tour' during which they didn't actually
play any shows. It was while the band were
in the Paris red light district that Sting
came to wondering about prostitutes, a initial
idea that eventually spawned a song named 'Roxanne'.
Having recruited a 34-year-old guitarist
did nothing
to enhance their reputation within
the punk movement and members of other
bands shunned them. By the end of 1977
the offers
of gigs had dried up. Said Stewart of that
time 'There was absolutely no reason for
anybody
to be a member of The Police. We were unloved,
unpaid... everything.' But seeing other
bands who were having greater success
only made
Sting more aggressive and determined: 'They're
s**t.
I can do better than this f**king lot,'
was his general reaction. And so Stewart
went
cap-in-hand to his big brother and borrowed £1500
with which the band bought time at the
small Surrey Sound studios run by Nigel
Gray located
just outside London. In January 1978 The
Police, for the second time, attempted
to start work
on their first album, intending to record
it in short bursts over a six month period.
To
fill the gaps Stewart began to review
drum kits for a music paper while Andy took
three
weeks work with Eberhard Schoener in Germany.
Out of desperation Sting's wife (Frances
Tomelty, an aspiring actress) managed to
persuade a
director to use her husband in a forthcoming
Wrigley's commercial. Sting in turn persuaded
the director to also hire Stewart and Andy
- the only proviso being that all three
bleached
their hair, something which in future years
worked to their advantage, image-wise.
The band were criticised at the time for
'selling
out' (appearing in a TV commercial wasn't
the most punk thing they could have done)
but in
fact the money they earned allowed them
to continue making music on their own terms
without having to 'sell out' to a record
company first.
In his usual derisory fashion Sting once
said 'Most bands with street-credibility
have instruments
bought for them by mummies and daddies.
The
fact that we were starving in London and
had to do any jobs we could made the decision
for
us.' The intention was that The Police
would release their first LP on Miles' Illegal
Records, as they had with their single.
During
one of
his visits to the studio Miles heard the
band play 'Roxanne' and was immediately
hooked by
the unusual blend of rock with reggae,
something The Clash were also experimenting
with at
the time. Using his contacts he was able
to sell
the song to A&M records as a one-off
single. When it was released on April 7th
the song
received reasonable reviews but very little
airplay due to its controversial lyrics,
consequently it failed to chart. As a point
of interest
(and also probably a sign of how cheap
the recording was) a tape machine used
in the
process was started a little too late:
on listening
to 'Roxanne' one can clearly hear the first
few chords speeding up as the tape machine
reaches its optimum speed.
In
August Stewart took time out from The Police
to record a single on his own 'Don't Care',
released under the name Klark Kent, a character
who was supposedly the leader of a muso-religious
cult in America. Invited to appear on Top
of the Pops, Stewart had to swiftly recruit
a band and quite naturally turned to Sting
and Andy. For their appearance on the show
all band members (including Kent) wore
masks to maintain anonymity. Although all three
deny it there is little doubt that the
band
was actually The Police together with Kim
Turner (their roadie2 and co-manager with
Miles), and that Stewart was responsible
for all the instruments and vocals on the
record. Undaunted
by the failure of the 'Roxanne' ('It
absolutely died on its a**e,' according
to him) Sting started to write more songs
in the same vein including 'Can't Stand Losing
You' which, in September 1978, backed with
'Dead End Job' (the first song credited to
all three members) was to become the band's
second single for A&M. Although it only
reached number 42 in the UK singles chart
it was enough to restart the band: A&M
paid the group £10,000 for the finished
album and released it during November under
the title
Outlandos D'Amour (usually interpreted as
'Bandits of Love') along with the single
'So Lonely'.
Although
Stewart formed the group and wrote most of
the early songs the LP is in the main
filled with songs written by Sting, something
that immediately caused tension between the
drummer and the singer. Overall the LP has
a simple sound with very little added on top
of the drums, bass and guitar, the songs usually
falling into the 'punk/rock' or 'reggae/rock'
categories. Sting's songs include the three
singles along with the punk wannabes 'Next
to You', 'Truth Hits Everybody' and the dub-reggae-ish
'Masoka Tanga'. A co-writing credit for 'Peanuts'
(also the b-side to 'Roxanne') was Copeland's
only song-writing contribution to the LP, while
Summers began his display of oddity by writing
the narrative section of 'Be My Girl - Sally',
and continues rather predictably. Just previous
to the release The Police toured the UK with
punk band Chelsea and Sting had somehow wrangled
a part in Quadrophenia - the film of The Who's
concept album. The Police had also made their
US debut playing at the legendary CBGB's in
New York on October 20th 1978, which was followed
by 23 further dates in just 27 days all over
the country. It was this gruelling schedule,
compounded by a subsequent UK tour with Alberto
y Los Trios Paranoias that ground The Police
into a tight musical unit, something of a necessity
for a three-piece group.
When
the band returned to an improved Surrey Sound
in February 1979 it started an incessant
'album-tour-album-tour' cycle that was
set to continue for the next few years. Again
The Police chose to record the LP over
a
period of several months, although this
time the total of four weeks recording time
came
at an inflated cost of £6000. Like so
many bands they had 'used up' most of their
best songs on their first LP, causing
them to revisit and rework some old, unused
songs of Sting and Stewart's. But the three
new songs written by Sting since 'Outlandos
D'Amour' proved to be of an excellent vintage:
'Message in a Bottle', 'Walking on the Moon'
and 'The Bed's Too Big Without You' all showed
a new side to his work, and all were played
to perfection by musicians obviously tired
of the now-disintegrating punk movement.
It is as much the gaps between the sounds as
it
is the sounds themselves that make these
songs so distinctive, once again merging rock
with
reggae but this time in a far more subtle
fashion that had the words 'Property of The
Police'
stamped all over them. The songs are complete
works in their own rights, without having
the obvious 'reggae verse/rock chorus' approach
used in tracks like 'Roxanne' and 'So Lonely'.
The final new song was an instrumental credited
to all three band members that, when christened,
became the title track from the LP Reggatta
de Blanc (again, the title is nonsense, but
is generally translated as 'White Reggae').
During
the period of the recording The Police
returned to the US to promote the stateside
release of 'Roxanne', and when it reached
number 32 in the charts A&M were prompted to re-release
the single in the UK. Second time around 'Roxanne'
made number 12 in the UK singles chart which
was followed by 'Outlandos D'Amour' climbing
to an impressive number six in the album chart.
It seemed that having left the sinking ship
of punk the rats had finally found success
on their own terms - it didn't matter that
Dave Vanian (singer with The Damned) had ignored
them in The Roxy3, now it was their turn to
ignore him! In an attempt to build on their
success The Police set off on what was to be
a non-stop, 12-month world tour, including
headlining the Friday night slot at the 1979
Reading Rock Festival in front of 20,000 people.
A&M also saw their chance and re-released
'Can't Stand Losing You' in June which only
stalled at number 2 in the UK singles chart.
The Gods were on side their side, however,
and the premiere of Quadrophenia in August
pushed Sting into the limelight in his role
as 'The Ace Face'. When 'Message in a Bottle'
was released the following month it reached
number one and stayed in the chart for 11 weeks.
A two-month tour of the United States included
a visit to the Kennedy Space Centre where
the band shot the video for their next single
'Walking
on the Moon' which like its predecessor also
made number one, in December 1979. Even at
this early stage in their career The Police
were developing cabaret tendencies: a live
recording of 'Hole in My Life' from 1979
has the band perpetuating the last few lines
of
the song, along with repeated cries of 'One
more!' from Sting.
But
before the single came the Reggatta de Blanc
album - it too topped the charts in the
UK and stayed at there for four weeks. On listening
to the album critics began to recognise (and
praise) Sting's song-writing talent; 'The Bed's
Too Big Without You' is one of the greatest
Police songs - very much 'white reggae' it
almost aches with despair, and the emptiness
of the instrumentation accompanies the lyrical
content to perfection. Stewart was credited
on no less than six of the 11 songs on the
LP, most of which appear
geeky by comparison to Sting's, but which are
filled with wit and honesty. 'On Any Other
Day' records the thoughts and actions of a
family man for whom everything seems to go
wrong (and on his birthday, too!) while 'Does
Everyone Stare?' vocalises some of the coy,
unsure thoughts of a young man starting to
go out with women. From January 1980 the band
spread their wings across the world, taking
in 37 cities in 19
countries on the tour. The Police were the
first western rock group ever to play shows
in Egypt and India, and when the tour finished
in Sting's hometown of Newcastle 40,000 people
applied for the 4,000 available tickets. Even
a re-released 'So Lonely' made number six in
the charts after having failed to chart at
all first time around. Surely it didn't get
much bigger than this!?
After
the tour the band took a well deserved break,
partly to restore their energy reserves
and partly to write material for their
third album, which at that time stood at only
one
new song, 'Driven to Tears'. Having seen
parts of the globe he could only previously
imagine Sting's writing focus shifted from
himself onto the rest of the world. 'It
was all me, me, me,' as he said at the time,
'I hadn't seen the world, for a start.
And
I was too interested in me.' In order to
maintain the massive amount of interest in
The Police A&M re-released
all five singles (excluding 'Fall Out') in
one pack. The records came in a foldout plastic
wallet with blue vinyl discs and a lyric
card for each under the title Six Pack,
and also
included for the first time on 7-inch one
of the band's most potent songs 'The Bed's
Too
Big Without You'. As a testament to the popularity
of the band Six Pack itself reached number
17 in the charts, a remarkable feat considering
10 of the 12 songs on it were straight reissues
and the other two only new versions of old
songs ('The Bed's Too Big Without You' was
a mono re-recording while its b-side was
a live version of 'Truth Hits Everybody').
The
recording of the LP Zenyatta Mondatta was
produced again by Nigel Gray but this time
took place in Holland over a solid four-week
period, although a full week of that time
was
lost due to their appearance at two festivals
over the summer. The band felt they had to
rush-release a new LP so as not to lose momentum,
although Sting later admitted that this was
probably the wrong attitude to take, as it
produced their most flawed record. At 4:00am
on August 9th 1980 The Police finished recording
their third LP. By 9:00pm that same day they
were on stage in Belgium for the first night
of their new world tour. Apart
from the fantastic pop of 'Don't Stand
so Close to Me' the songs on the album are
rather mixed, much like the first two LPs.
On one hand there are average pop/rock songs
like 'When the World is Running Down, You
Make
the Best of What's Still Around', 'Bombs
Away' and 'De Do Do Do De Da Da Da'. On the
other
there's Andy Summer's first solo composition,
the rock instrumental 'Behind My Camel'.
On a third hand (or at least, if you're Zaphod
Beeblebrox) there are heavily reggae-influenced
rock tracks such as 'Voices Inside My Head',
the excellent 'Man in a Suitcase' and 'Shadows
in the Rain'. When released in September
Zenyatta Mondatta and the first single taken
from
it, 'Don't
Stand So Close To Me' both hit number one
in the British charts and stayed put for
four
weeks each. In the US the album remained
in the top-20 albums for six months, eventually
selling over a million copies, while the
January
1981 release of 'De Do Do Do De Da Da Da'
provided The Police with their first single
hit since
'Roxanne'. Much to their amusement The Police
were awarded a Grammy4 in February for 'Best
Rock Instrumental
Performance', not for anything on the new
album but for the track 'Reggatta de Blanc'
recorded
two years previously. But also during February
the inevitable happened: tired from the physical
strains of touring and recording, and for
Sting and Andy the emotional distress of having
their
marriages begin to crumble the band cancelled
some shows, and for a time disappeared from
the public eye.
Between
February and June of 1981 Sting resumed his
acting career with a part
in Artemis
81 and began writing songs for The Police's
fourth album. He also started to learn
to play the saxophone, something that
was to
impact dramatically on the overall sound
of the LP. Having fallen out with Nigel Gray
during the recording of Zenyatta Mondatta (money,
as so
often, was the cause) Andy Partridge of XTC
recommended Hugh Padgham, whose only work
at that time had been to produce Phil Collins'
debut solo album Face Value. In order to
try
and avoid the somewhat fraught sessions of
the past The Police took Padgham to the luxury
of George Martin's AIR studios in Montsterrat
where they recorded their most diverse LP
so far. Ghost in the Machine was the first
Police
LP not to feature a band picture on the front
cover, the first not to have a nonsensical
title, and the first to include a horn section
as well as keyboards played by all three
band members.
The
three singles taken from the LP are noticeably
different: from the haunting political comment
of 'Invisible Sun' played somewhat in the style
of 'Fade to Grey' by Visage (the striking black
and white video was banned by the BBC for its
content about the conflict in Northern Ireland),
through the Caribbean ecstasy of the love song
in 'Every Little Thing She Does is Magic',
to the synth-heavy reggae of 'Spirits in the
Material World'. 'Every Little Thing...' truly
is a joyous song in every sense, with its simple,
honest lyrics and uplifting chorus it remains
to this day one of the most popular Police
songs. While 'Invisible Sun' and 'Every Little
Thing...' reached numbers two and one respectively
in
the UK singles chart, 'Spirits...' failed to
reach the top 10, halting at number 17. It
was the first Police single not to reach the
top 10 since the original issue of 'Can't Stand
Losing You' in October 1978, excluding Six
Pack and reissues of 'Roxanne' and 'Fall Out'.
This may have been a sign that the band were
beginning to lose contact with their public,
an indication that was supported by much of
the rest of the LP and its supporting b-sides:
'Jamming' (mucking about with instruments to
you and me) had, since their first trip to
America, been an integral part of how The Police
wrote and rehearsed songs. Unfortunately this
was the method used to produce the dreadful
b-side to the UK version of 'Every Little Thing...',
namely 'Flexible Strategies', which makes the
listener wonder just what the band thought
they could get away with. Much better is 'Low
Life' - the b-side to 'Spirits...', a song
written by Sting in 1977 while in Paris.
Intending
to educate himself further Sting had taken
to reading the works of philosopher
Arthur Koestler, something that was to have
a direct influence on songs like 'Spirits
in the Material World'. Aside from the singles
Sting's compositions took the form of the
pompous 'Demolition Man'
and 'J'aurais Toujours Faim de Toi (Hungry
for You)' - songs where the band heaped elaborate
arrangements and a multitude of instruments
on top of the usual three. The more interesting
non-singles on the LP were written by Copeland
and Summers and include the soothing 'Darkness',
the straightforward rock of 'Omegaman' (the
simple bass line tells the listener immediately
that it wasn't written by Sting) and half
a
writing credit for 'Rehumanize Yourself',
a song (predictably) about losing touch with
humanity. Intentionally taking things more
easily The Police played comparatively few shows
to support
the album, although those that they did play
were bigger than any they had played before.
The Police were now at the top of the rock
pile. In February 1982 the band received
further
Grammies for 'Don't Stand so Close to Me'
(Best Rock Vocal Performance) and 'Behind My
Camel'
(Best Rock Instrumental Performance) as well
as Best British Group at the inaugural Brits
awards ceremony.
For casual
Police fans
1982 was
a quiet year,
but for those
who took
the
time to look
deeper there was new material available. The
BBC
had commissioned, filmed and subsequently
banned Brimstone and Treacle, a play by
Dennis Potter. When the film was remade in
1982,
Sting was cast in the lead role and the
film's soundtrack album contained three new
Police
songs, two of which were instrumentals
credited to Sting/S Copeland/A Summers. Like
the best
instrumentals they are interesting works
in their own rights, but they also accomplish
the task of supporting the on-screen action.
'How Stupid Mr Bates' is beautifully tense
while 'A Kind of Loving' provides a shocking
backdrop to the horrifying scene where
Sting's character Martin rapes the invalid
girl Patricia. Also on the album are Sting's
first solo songs,
one of which ('Spread a Little Happiness')
became his first solo single. It only reached
a comparatively paltry number 16 in the charts
but it laid the foundations for what was
to come. It was also during 1982 that he sued
Virgin over changes in his publishing contract,
his marriage to Frances finally collapsed
and
media attention in his private life skyrocketed.
To escape all of this he shifted his literary
attention from Koestler to Carl Jung and
rented Ian Fleming's Goldeneye estate in Jamaica
where
he could write songs for the next Police album. Stewart
and Andy, meanwhile, stuck to music. Copeland
wrote and recorded the soundtrack
for Francis Ford Coppola's Rumble Fish film
and composed the score for the San Francisco
Ballet's interpretation of King Lear. Summers
on the other hand hooked up with old friend
Robert Fripp of King Crimson to record his
first 'solo' (instrumental) LP I Advance
Masked, released in October 1982.
When
the band finally reconvened in December
1982 it was again at AIR studios with Hugh
Padgham at the helm, although as with all
of their albums The Police credit themselves
as co-producers. Between them the three
members
had around 20 new songs, although perhaps
predictably the majority of the final content
was Sting's. In defence of this Andy maintains
that Sting was generally accepted within
the group as their best songwriter, while
Sting claims he often found it difficult
to sing songs written by other people.
The truth of Stewart's opinion that his and
Andy's
songs on the LP were 'concessions' is fairly
obvious to the listener. The LP Synchronicity
(released in June 1983) was deliberately
less reggae than the first
four and contained fewer horn parts than
Ghost in the Machine, relying instead on
the traditional
guitar, bass and drums, along with keyboards
again played by all three members. The influence
of Jung appeared in songs like 'Synchronicity
I', 'Synchronicity II' and 'King of Pain',
where Sting's interpretation of synchronicity
as symbolism is represented by relating his
soul to images of pain and torment.
Recording
the LP proved to be a tortuous affair, particularly
for Andy who was caught in the
middle ground between the battling egos of
Sting and Stewart - Stewart's manic approach
to drumming didn't sit well within Sting's
more minimalist attitude towards the LP.
Sting merely contributed to the confusion
by telling
the other two to 'make it your own' in reference
to their instrument parts, and then disliking
what they came up with. Over six weeks the
band strove to craft an exciting LP, sometimes
spending hours over seemingly trivial parts
before erasing what they had done and starting
again. One
such song was the first single to be released
from the album Every Breath You Take. The
process of recording this one song involved
piling
elaborate instrument parts on top of the
basics before paring it back into the relatively
simple
form in appears today. Andy Summers is justifiably
proud of his end-product guitar riff, one
that features in many of today's 'How to
Play Rock
Guitar' handbooks for aspiring musicians.
Often enjoyed as a love song (or sometimes
as a song
about stalking), 'Every Breath You Take'
is a tear-jerking reflection on love gone
wrong,
having been warped into obsession, ownership
and jealousy. It is rather ironic, therefore,
that the song is one of the most requested
at wedding receptions. When it was released
in May 1983 the single quite rightly reached
number one in both the UK and the US, and
the following year it won two Grammies (Song
Of
The Year and Best Pop Performance). Sting
was quoted as saying 'All the b*****ds wrote
us
off and I knew I had this song. I knew it
would be number one.' After that single though,
it
was downhill. Synchronicity contained 11
songs (ten on the
vinyl) of which four songs were possible
singles, and they used them all (previously
only three
singles per LP had been released). 'Wrapped
Around Your Finger' was the band's last top-10
hit, while the follow-ups 'Synchronicity
II' and 'King of Pain' both only made it
to number
17. The Police had rid themselves of Derek
Burridge, the man responsible for directing
all of their videos up until this album,
and had replaced him with the award-winning
duo
of Godley and Creme. The promo for 'Every
Breath You Take' is a visually stunning film
noir
take on the band's performance, whereas 'Wrapped
Around Your Finger' consists primarily of
Sting wearing a white suit running around
a studio
full of burning candles. The words 'Pretentious
nonsense!' and 'Why?' immediately spring
to mind on watching that video.
The
video for 'Synchronicity II' also smacks
of pretension: the three members of The
Police wear ripped, brightly coloured clothing,
playing
junk instruments while standing upon junk
heaps. What sets this video apart, however,
is the
look on Sting's face - he is mean and moody,
yet wild and dangerous with spiked, manic
hair. This was no chance happening, though:
Sting
had recently played the part of Feyd Rautha
in David Lynch's film of the classic Frank
Herbert novel 'Dune'. 'Synchronicity II'
is also notable for containing one of the
greatest
lyrics from any song, be it pop, rock, reggae,
or whatever. Aside from the singles the stand-out
tracks
on the LP are 'Mother' - an off-the-wall
rant, played in an odd-sounding 7/4 time,
written
and sung (his first Police vocal since 'Be
My Girl - Sally') by Andy Summers. 'Murder
by Numbers' (only available on the cassette
version of Synchronicity or as the
b-side to 'Every Breath You Take'), a sort
of guide to killing, this time co-written
by Summers with Sting, but again in a slightly
odd 6/8 time and
'Tea in the Sahara' - a tale of three sisters
who are promised tea in the desert every
year
with a prince, inspired by the novel Sheltering
Sky by Peter Bowles. This gentle, spacious
song has been a live favourite for Sting
and Andy Summers as solo artists since the
demise
of The Police. Regardless of the album's
content, however, by this time The Police
were huge
on the strength of their singles alone. Even
the magazine Women's World claimed 'The record
sensation of 1983 is definitely Synchronicity
by The Police,' in September. The world tour
to accompany to album included playing to
70,000 people of New York's Shea Stadium,
the same
venue as the legendary Beatles gig 18 years
previously. In America 'Synchronicity' stayed
at number one in the album charts for an
astonishing 17 weeks, a feat even more remarkable
considering
1983 was also the year of Michael Jackson's
'Thriller' LP.
After
the tour finished Summer 1984 was the projected
release date of a Police Live LP.
It didn't happen. Andy forecast an LP full
of 1950s songs like 'Summertime Blues'
and 'Peggy Sue'. It never appeared. A new
studio
album was due to be recorded in Monsterrat
at the end of 1984. No such luck. Instead,
Andy recorded 'Bewitched' with Robert Fripp,
Stewart recorded his The Rhythmatist solo
LP, while Sting acted in 'Bride' and wrote
new songs. These new songs, however, were
not destined for The Police, but for Sting's
first solo LP The Dream of the Blue Turtles
released in June 1985, from which he played
songs at Live Aid on 13 July, without Copeland
and Summers. It is worth noting that nobody
batted an eyelid when Andy and Stewart
wrote and recorded their own LPs, but when
Sting
did it the end of the world (or at least
the end of The Police) was nigh.
11
June, 1986 - The Police played five songs
in Atlanta, US as part of the Amnesty International
tour. For Police fans this was a time for
celebration - the band had reconciled their
differences,
had played live together, and what's more
they were booked into a studio to record
a new LP
the next month. As it turned out the only
product of the recording session was a new
version
of 'Don't Stand So Close To Me' which took
three weeks to record because of the continued
venomous exchanges between Sting and Stewart.
The track was released in October with an
'86' suffix alongside Every Breath You Take
- The Singles, a 'best of' LP featuring all
of their singles bar three. Although there
was never a formal announcement that The
Police were finished, that was it. Two (or
maybe three)
huge egos were too much for a three-piece
band, no matter how resiliant Sting claimed
the other
two were, and The Police shattered, never
to play in public again.
|
|
|
|
|
EXTRA
POLICE ACTIVITIES
|
|
Sting is very much the focal point of the
group, as frontman, chief composer, bassist
and lead vocalist; and not surprisingly it's
his early career that is now attracting the
most interest from collectors. Sting (then
still Gordon Sumner) made his first appearance
on record with the Newcastle Big Band's first
album, issued in 1972 on the small independent
Impulse Sound Studios label (cat no. IS/NBB/106).
The album was recorded live, half at the
University Theatre in Newcastle, and half
at the Pau Jazz Festival. The
Big Band were led by keyboard player Andy
Hudson, and gained
quite a reputation
for live performances in the Newcastle area.
Sting had originally auditioned for the bassplayer's
job in the band, but was turned down because
he couldn't read music. Within six weeks,
he came back for a second audition, having
learnt to sight read perfectly - and this
time got the job. He played on all the tracks
on the LP: Adam's Apple, Mac Arthur Park,
Li'l Darlin' , Hey Jude, Mercy Mercy, Trane
Ride, Love For Sale and Better Get It In
Your Soul, recorded on a simple two-track
tape recorder! Only 2000 copies of the album
were ever pressed, and although we haven't
heard of any copies being auctioned recently
- making it hard to put a definite value
on this item - we'd expect a Mint condition
album to fetch at least £20, and probably
even more! Sting was never really a full-time
member of the Newcastle Big Band, although
he continued to play with them occasionally
as late as 1976.
But three other members of the Big Band,
Jerry Richardson, John Hedley, and Ronnie
Pearson, combined to form a group with Sting
called Last Exit, which also achieved some
local success in the North-East in the Mid-Seventies.
They released just one single, Whispering
Voices/Evensong, which was again recorded
through the auspices of the Impulse Sound
Recording Studios in Newcastle. Both
songs were written by Jerry Richardson,
and the record was issued
on the Wudwink
Studio label, WUD 01, and featured Sting's
characteristic lead vocals and bass playing
on two very jazz-orientated numbers. Again,
only a couple of thousand copies were pressed,
and like the Big Band LP, Whispering Voices
has never been reissued - so this is another
very highly priced record, which would surely
fetch at least £15.
LAST EXIT
That was the only record featuring Sting
which Last Exit recorded. The group have
now reformed with three of the original
members, but minus (not surprisingly!)
their original bassist and singer. His
place has now been taken by David Blackwell,
and the new group are reported to be looking
for a record deal at the moment.
Stewart Copeland's pre-Police recordings
were made in rather more illustrious company
that Sting's. Having travelled with his family
to Beirut from his original birth-place in
Virginia, Stewart spent much of his childhood
in the Middle East. He then went to school
at Millfield in England, and formed his first
band soon afterwards, influenced first of
all by the straight rock and roll of Chuck
Berry, and later the powerful Cream sound.
He went to college in the States, by which
time his elder brother Miles had become a
rock manager, handling, among other artists,
Joan Armatrading. Stewart became Joan's tour
manager for her first American visit. His big break as far as drumming went came
when Miles Copeland took over the management
of British band Curved Air, who had been
very popular at the start of the Seventies,
but where going through a period of personnel
changes. Group leader and vocalist Sonja
Kristina was putting together a new line-up
for a British tour, and suggested that Stewart
should be the drummer. It meant that he had
to give up his university course, but he
decided to take the chance, and joined a
line-up that included Kristina, violinist
Darryl Way, bassist Tony Reeves, and guitarist
Mick Jacques. He recorded two albums with Curved Air,
Midnight Wire (BTM BTM 1005, issued in October
1975) and Airborne (BTM BTM 1008, July 1976),
and the singles Desiree (BTM SBT 103, August
1976) and Baby Please Don't Go (BTM SBT 106,
October 1976), both of which were quickly
deleted, and might prove rather hard to find
now.
Andy Summers actually began life as Andrew
James Somers, and only changed his name in
the mid-Seventies. He is easily the oldest
member of the band, with a musical pedigree
that goes back to Zoot Money's Big Roll Band
in 1964. He stayed with Money for several years,
even taking part in the brief experiment
when the Big Roll Band became Dantalion's
Chariot in 1967, for one psychedelic single.
Andy therefore appears on the group's only
Decca single (The Uncle Willie), and all
nine singles they made for Columbia: Gin
House, Good, Please Stay, Something Is Worrying
Me, The Many Faces Of Love, Let's Run For
Cover, Big Time Operator (actually a small
U.K. hit in 1966), The Star Of The Show and
Nick Nack - plus that sole Dantalion's Chariot
recording, The Madman Running Through The
Fields. He also played on the Bigg Roll Band's
only EP (Big Time Operator, Columbia SEG
8519), which is now a much sought-after collector's
item, plus both their Columbia albums, It
Should've Been Me (33SX 1734) and Zoot (SCX
6075), neither of which is at all easy to
find.
ZOOT MONEY
Together with Zoot Money, Andy Somers spent
some time in 1967 working with Eric Burdon
as part of the `new Animals'. This was
undoubtedly the most confused period of
Eric's career, and keeping a track of who
actually played on the variuos albums produced
at that time is virtually impossible; but
it seems most likely that Somers was featured
on Every One Of Us (MGM SE 4553) and possibly
on the Love Is double set as well. During this period, Andy also played with
Soft Machine for a few months; but he doesn't
seem to have recorded with them. Andy
then spent three years taking a classical
guitar course in California;
and returned
to Britain to play on stage with a number
of popular artists, including Neil Sedaka.
Over the next few years, he worked mainly
as a session guitarist, backing Mike Oldfield
when he toured with his Tubular Bells show,
and playing on records by Joan Armatrading
(Back To The Night, A&M AMLH 68305),
who of course was being managed by by Miles
Copeland, and Kevin Coyne. He became more
or less a permanent member of Coyne's band
in the mid-Seventies, besides playing on
three albums: Matching Head And Feet (Virgin
V2033, April 1975), Heartburn (Virgin V 2047,
February 1976) and the double set In Living
Black And White (Virgin VD 2505, January
1977), together with a number of singles:
Lorna (VS 126), Don't Make Waves (VS 136),
Walk On By (VS 148), Fever (VS 160) and Marlene
(VS 175), all of which have now been deleted.
Finally, since joining Police, Andy has also
appeared on an album by Kevin Lamb, Sailin'
Down The Years on Arista (SPART 1026).
Andy was also the link between the Police
and Eberhard Schoener, whose Video Flashback
LP (Harvest SHSM 2030) featured contributions
from all three members of the band. Sting
sang lead on several tracks on the LP, including
Codeword Elvis (which you may have seen Schoener
playing with the Police on television a year
or so ago), Video Magic, Trans-Am, Only The
Wind and Speech Behind Speech.
Video
Magic was also released on Harvest as a
single, in a special picture
sleeve
- another likely collector's item of the
future! RADIO ACTORS Besides Eberhard Schoener's
releases, Sting also sang lead on a record
credited to the Radio Actors, issued as a
protest against the nuclear power industry.
Nuclear Waste/Digital Love (Charly CYS 1058)
featured two songs written by Harry Williamson,
with Sting singing and playing bass on the
A-side, and Stewart on drums. The flipside
was an instrumental. Original picture sleeve
copies now seem to be selling for about £3
in Mint condition.
One of the most highly-publicised Police
spin-offs has been Stewart Copeland's solo
career, under the guise of Klark Kent. Copeland
has never actually admitted taht he is Kent,
but he hasn't denied it recently, either.
Lately
the Kent pseudonym seems to have taken
second place to Stewart's
work with
Police, as there have been no new Klark Kent
releases for over a year. Kent's first record
was issued on the small Kryptone label, and
was a three track maxi-single with Thrills
as the plug track. Since then, Kent's singles
have appeared on A&M, almost all in green
vinyl with picture sleeves. Don't Care was
the first A&M release, on AMS 7376, followed
by Too Kool To Kalypso (AMS 7390), Away From
Home (AMS 7532) and Rich In A Ditch (AMS
7554). In addition, there was also a a Klark
Kent 10" LP issued in 1980 (A&M
AMLE 68511), which included aight tracks
and was pressed (of course!) in green vinyl.
Promo copies were sent out in a K-shaped
cover, and are now yet another addition to
the almost endless list of Police collectables!
The green vinyl copies of the Klark Kent
singles are also attracting some attention
from collectors, and are selling at about £2.50
each - although the original Kryptone maxi-single
is now much rarer. However at the moment
you shouldn't have to pay much more than
about £4 to get hold of Klark/Stewart's
10" album.
COMPILATIONS
Besides their regular single and album releases,
the Police have also appeared on a number
of `various artists' compilations. Many
of these fall into the cheap TV-promoted
category and are unlikely to have any real
value in the future; but some of the others
are now getting harder to find, and may
well end up as collector's items. A&M
collected together tracks by several of
their `New Vawe' artists on an album called
No Wave in February 1979 (AMLE 68505).
Another similar venture, called Propaganda
(issued with a cover which showed a picture
of Mao playing electric guitar!) was released
in September 1979 (AMLE 64786). Both albums contained tracks by the Police.
The band's Walking On The Moon was also reported
to be due to inclusion on the soundtrack
album to Eddie Kidd's film Riding High, but
we've been unable to confirm wether it actually
appeared on the LP. Finally, two otherwise
unobtainable live Police recordings were
included on the soundtrack double album to
the film Urgh! A Music War, in which the
Police themselves appeared.
Despite the fact that Sting seems to have
some problems coming up with an album's worth
of new songs for the last couple of years,
he has still been generous in giving songs
away to other people. An artist called Lee
Stirling used Sting's Soul Music as the flipside
to his Earthquake Landslide Hurrican (Charisma
CB 358, March 1980). Grace Jones recorded the first released
version of Sting's excellent Demolition Man
as a single last year, and then included
it on her very successful Nightclubbing album
in the summer of 1981. Many people actually
felt that her version topped the Police's
own recording on Ghost In The Machine - but
despite some reports to the contrary, the
song wasn't specifically written with her
in mind, unlike (for example) her versions
of a couple of Pretender's songs. Finally,
the debut album recently released by the
dance troupe Hot Gossip included another
new Sting composition, Burn For You. It will
be interesting to see whether this song turns
up on 1982's Police studio album! There is
one more Police-related recording that hasn't
yet appeared on vinyl. Sting recorded a version
of Bob Dylan's I Shall Be Released for the
soundtrack of the American film Parole, so
no doubt we can expect to see that appear
on an album or single in the future.
A
small book was issued under Sting's name
last year. I say `issued under
his name'
rather that written because Message In A
Bottle is actually the song lyric, with one
line printed on each page, and a page drawing
used to illustrate each line. Before it was
published, advance publicity described it
as a specially-written children's story,
but that seems to be rather overstating the
case, as there is NO new material by Sting
contained in the book! The paperback was
bottle-shaped and retailed at £3.95
- whether it becomes a collector's item remains
to be seen. Two
records that we didn't mention last month
that are available only
through the
Police's merchandising company are the Gold
Discs of Don't Stand So Close To Me and Invisible
Sun. Obviously, they aren't the actual awards
presented to the group, but facsimiles; but
the singles are plated in gold, and come
mounted on a plaque. The band's merchandising
outlet are selling these for £20 plus
postage, so it seems likely that when supplies
run out, the valued of these items will rise
- although whether collectors may feel that
the gold discs are perhaps a little too `manufactured'
to count as real rarities is a moot point.
VARIATIONS
Besides all the normal overseas Police issues,
there are just as many variations of picture
sleeves, coloured vinyls and especially
promos in other countries as there are
in Britain. It would take up the rest of
the magazine if we were to list all these
different releases country by country,
but it's worth mentioning some of the rarest
items here. When
the latest Police `badge' disc was being
planned in the States, a
different
design was originally proposed. Twenty five
copies were made as test pressings, before
A&M rejected the design and decided to
go ahead with the Don't Stand So Close To
Me/De Do Do Do picture disc that was eventually
issued. Some of these original test pressings
seem to have come on to the market, with
an asking price of around £80 - definitely
the most expensive Police rarity we've come
across yet! American 12" promos of Police
material abound, with a dazzling collection
of different track couplings; and most of
them sell for between £8 and £12.
Besides the obvious single releases, there
are also promos available of tracks from
albums, which are generally a little rarer
than those for the 45s. There are also test
pressings of all their U.S. albums on the
market, which include a promotional folder,
group biography and history, photos, time
sheets and (of course!) the record. £20
is the going rate for each of these at the
moment. More confusingly, there is a promotional
U.S. A&M sampler LP which mixes tracks
by Joe Jackson and the Police - the two `New
Wave' acts who brought most success to the
label in the States at the end of the Seventies.
The price for this is about £12 - and
rising! The complete panoply of Police picture
sleeves and coloured vinyls is staggering.
With each new release, more and more `limited
edition' rarities are created, all round
the world - but especially in America and
Japan, two of the biggest rock markets in
the world. It's already quite possible to
spend a year's record allowance just tracking
down different variations of Police releases;
and as the band now seem established as one
of the world's most successful rock groups,
no doubt the Police story for collectors
is only just beginning!
|
|
|
|
|
SOME
F.A.Q.
|
|
How
many 12" maxi-singles
have The Police released?
The
are nine UK 12" maxi singles: A&M
AMS 7348 Roxanne/Peanuts (April/78, telephone
picture sleeve) A&M AMS 7348 Roxanne/Peanuts
(April/79, reissue, group pic sleeve) A&M
AMS 7494 Walking On The Moon/Visions of The
Night A&M AMX127 Wrapped around/Someone
to Talk to/Message in a bottle (Live)/I Burn
for You (July/83) A&M AMX 153 Synchronicity
II/Once upon a daydream (Oct/83) A&M
AMX 176 King of Pain/Tea in the Sahara (Live)
(Jan/84) A&M AMY 354 Don't Stand '86(Dance
Mix)/Don't Stand '86/Don't Stand (Original)/Don't
Stand (Live) (1986) A&M 392161-1 Roxanne/Synchronicity
II (1987) A&M 581 037-1 Voices Inside
my Head(E Smoove Pump Mix)/Can't Stand Losing
you(Live in Boston)/Voices (Classic Mix)/Voices
(S Tribe Mix) (April/95)
A
very intersting item is the promo radio
sampler to promote the "six-pack" (Bed's
too without you/ So lonely/ Can't stand losing
you/ Roxanne/ Message in a bottle/ Walking
on the moon) A&M SAMP 5. Some
of them were released in some other european
countries and in
Japan. In the US
there are at least ten 12" promo maxi-singles.
How
many Police picture discs have been released
by A&M?
There
are eight Police picture discs releases
by A&M:
Roxanne/Can't
stand losing you A&M AM
2096 (6/79, US) Police badge-shaped picture
disc in brown cardboard wallet sleeve with
photos inside.
Message in a bottle/Message in a bottle (live)
A&M PR 4400 (5/80, US)
Sheriff's badge-shaped picture disc in black
cardboard wallet sleeve.
Don't Stand So Close to Me/ De do do do,
de da da da A&M PR 4401(1/81, US) Star
shaped picture disc in a clear plastic sleeve
with Police sticker on it. The Message in
a box cover is a reproduction of this picture.
Every breath you take/Murder by numbers A&M
AMX 117 (6/83, UK)
Limited edition picture disc. Black and white
photo covered by "Synchronicity" color
bars on one side and same color bars of the
regular single on the other.
Wrapped around ..../Someone to talk to A&M
AMP 127 (8/83, UK)
The picture features Sting on one side and
color photo of the group on the other (10000
records pressed)
Wrapped around ..../Someone to talk to A&M
AMP 127 (8/83, UK)
The picture features Andy on one side and
color photo of the group on the other (1000
records pressed)
Wrapped around ..../Someone to talk A&M
AMP 127 (8/83, UK)
The picture features Stewart on one side
and color photo of the group on the other
(1000 records pressed)
Can't Stand Losing You (Live in Boston) /
Roxanne(Live in Boston), A&M 581 036-7
(5/95, UK)
PoliceBadge-shaped picture disc recalling
the '79 edition in clear/white plastic sleeve
How many Police singles collections are
there?
There are three Police singles collections:
Police
Six Pack A&M AMPP
6001
pack of 6 blue vinyl singles in a plastic
foldout wallet. Each single comes with
photo and lyrics. Limited edition of 50,000.
The Police File A&M Promo Box
White cardboard box. Contains five 7" "Memories" series
re-releases in pink A&M sleeves. Issued
in anticipation of Sting's first solo album.
The Police Box A&M
Red velvet-lined wood box with hinged top
contains 10 metallic gold vinyl 7" reissues
of Police singles, in new colored sleeves
and has an 11th disc which is an uncut picture
disc. Limited to 3500
What coloured vinyl singles exist?
Yes,
there are lots of coloured vinyl Police
singles. the reisued of Roxanne
in the UK
(A&M AMS 7348) was issued in dark blue
and light blue vinyl. There are some test
pressings copies in red vynil (very rares).
Can't stand losing you has been isued in
6 vinyl colors: dark blue, light blue, green,
yellow, white and red. Message in a bottle
can be found in green vinyl (I believe there
are some copies in dark green and some in
light green vinyl). There is also a promotional
single for the japanesse Police Box in gold
vinyl. Check also the singles collections.
Which
is the rarest Police 7" single?
There
are some singles from the United Kingdom
that may be the rarest
of all. the first
one is the Roxanne/Peanuts single (AMS 7348)
on red vinyl. I do not know how many of them
are there but they were probably made by
an A&M employee. The other two are two
different versions of the same single: De
dododo, de dadada/A Sermon (AMS 7578). The
first one comes in multicoloured vinyl (red/green/yellow/blue)
and only three copies of this single are
known. It was made by an A&M employee.
The other one is probably the rarest because
only one copy is known so far and is the
same single in yellow vinyl. It is probably
a test-run for the multicoloured one). Finally
there is a single misspressing of Walking
on the moon on white vinyl with Squeeze Christmas
Day AMS 7495 (Thanks Craig Betts).
Have any Police LPs been pressed in coloured
vinyl?
Outlandos
D'amour was presses on light and dark blue
vinyl in the UK,
and there is also
an Australian pressing on blue vinyl. Zenyatta
Mondatta was also pressed on coloured vinyl
in Australia (two different types of greens).Synchronicity
was pressed in Australia on five different
colours vinyl. Three different types of blue
(one pressing from New Zealand), yellow and
red. The one which is most difficult to find
is the light blue Australian pressing. All
the Australian/New Zealand pressing were
released when the Police was on tour in Aussieland.
There is also a very strange pressing of
the 2X10" edition of Reggatta de Blanc
from the US of which only 100 copies were
made. The first disk comes with windmill
patterns, all in different colour. It's likely
that all 100 copies are different from each
other. Second record is normal black vinyl.
Are
there any 12" coloured
vinyl singles?
Yes,
there are a couple of them. The only official
release is a single
from Colombia
with the spanish and english versions of
Dedododo, dedadada pressed on two vinyl colours
released in 1980 (606-0001). One comes in
yellow vinyl (Thanks Virgilio GAGGERO) and
the rarest in pale green vinyl (Thanks Craig
Betts). The other one is a test-run disk
for the Don't stand so close to me/De dododo,
de dadada star shaped picture disc. Only
25 copies of this one were made and all were
different from another. Unlike the final
official release this one is pressed on a
12" piece of vinyl and it's not shaped,
but the matrix number of the both are totally
identical. It comes like the official version
in a plastic wallet, but in a 12" format.
The disk itself is multicoloured and has
no picture of the band on it.
|
|
|
|
|
|