How did you become

[jeffdaweasel]

[quote="Divemistress of the Dark"]>>>I can vividly remember hearing De Do Do Do come on the radio...to the point that I can tell you what I was wearing and specifically which intersection where we were stopped.<<<[/quote]

And I, also, can tell you exactly where we were on the road when the song came on, and all that good stuff. And I too suffer from CRS (can't remember shit).

Interestingly, I seem to equate that moment with recognizing having my first adult-type thoughts and emotions, or at least non-kid-like feelings. I don't know that it was the Police, specifically, that generated this. I was also getting into my first girlfriends, and all that stuff you do as an adolescent. But timing-wise, the Police became the soundtrack to my maturation.

[Divemistress of the Dark]

I, um, misread that last word.

[jeffdaweasel]

[quote="Divemistress of the Dark"]>>>I, um, misread that last word. <<<[/quote]

Well, that too. Hey, I was 12. Not that I've changed much...

[nathanarizona]

Hope I haven't posted any of this stuff before...

I first noticed the Police when Don't Stand was playing on the local Pizza Hut jukebox in 1980. I thought it was a really cool song. I was 12. A little later in 7th grade I heard some friends talking about De Do and how they thought it was so stupid to call a song that. Don't get me wrong, I didn't grasp the complete meaning of the song but even at 12 I knew these guys were obviously missing the point.

Then in '81 I was watching Casey Kasum's (sp?) video countdown (remember that?). This must have been right before MTV started or right around when it did - either way we didn't have cable so Casey was the only way to see videos. Anyway, ELTSDIM came on and I just thought they looked like they were having so much fun. A friend had the record and recorded it for me (although he curiously edited out songs he didn't like - One World and Demo man).

I have to admit that what really hooked me was EBYT. I had a major crush on a girl down the street who was a couple of years older than me. Obviously she didn't feel the same way (lowly freshman that I was). That's the first song that hit me emotionally like that - not the creepy, sinister, stalker aspect but the longing, hurt part. It wasn't until I saw the video that I got the song for what it really was (the dude cleaning the windows!). I had to say to myself, "Self, time to move on!" Anyway, after Synch I went out and bought all the records. Saw them in Austin on the Synch tour and it blew my mind. Although Synch is my least fave album of the 5 it's the one that really got me into them so I've always had a soft spot for it. Have been my favorite band since...

As far as Stew goes...after Synch I just (like a lot of you here I'm sure) started to look for anything Police related to listen to. So I found Andy's Fripp recordings, then Stew's Rumblefish and Rhythmatist. Then I discovered the Klark Kent stuff. Not to take anything away from Sting or Andy because I dig all three but it always came back to the drums for me. Man, those drums just kicked ass. And I always found myself liking the Stew compositions on the records/b-sides (Darkness, A Sermon, Bombs, etc).

So that's my Police/Stew beginning.

[Kalypso]

I listened to Message in a Bottle on the radio in the late 70s in London.
I never heard anybody playing that way...the "other"way! I went to a record store (radio, record store...all obsolete....wow) and bought Regatta de Blanc. Love at first listen. I learned from a friend of the fan club, went to Codrington Mews, and bought everything, I mean everything available then. I remember blabbering to the guy that sold the stuff how impressed with the drumming I was (I was learning bass, then). He smirked and said, "So you like Stewart, eh?". It was Ian Copeland I was talking to, but I had no idea. I only recognized him afterwards in the pictures of the fan club magazine.

I was wearing my newly purchased blue Police sweater (the one with the Regatta cover) when I was stopped by some heavy metal fans in Leicester Square who, after heard my accent (at the time I had one) thought I was a little foreigner with no comprehension of the English language and were telling me "Police..no good! Angelwitch...good!" I always laugh when I think about it!

I only got to see the band in the Synchronicity tour in Rome in 1984, before the end. It was a "cold" concert, Sting was not in touch with the audience and already in his own Stingdom, and my seat was right by of a mass of amplifiers that allowed me only a few glimpses of Stewart. I remember, though, that at the end he literally jumped over the kit and came to thank the audience. He wore a green basketball uniform. By then I already had "chosen" Klark Kent and Rumble Fish and entered Copelandia.

So there are my 28/29 years of Stewart militance!

[Hannaha]

What an amazing story Kalypso!
How utterly cool to get to meet Ian back then too.

[policerule]

the spirits video! he just looked too cool man... i started listening to the police when GITM came out. i had heard the hits up until then and knew them, but i guess i was about 10 or 11 when they did ghost, so i was at that age when i was starting to get into music more. the videos really took it all home for me. they were larger than life! then when sync. came out, it was policemania.

i couldn't afford to buy the albums, so my dad had got me my first "box" at christmas and he knew i really wanted the police album, so he made me a cassette with sync. on one side and thriller on the other!

it's kind of funny, but back then, i didn't really look at the guys as "sex" symbols... i thought they looked cool & i just loved the music! i'd give anything to be in 1983 for a day again....

[Kalypso]

Yeh, Hannahah, you don't know how many times I kicked myself over that. I was very young at the time, and remember thinking "This guy is cute, but he is kinda old"! I also had a glimpse of Miles behind a big desk that day, typical business suit, pale with small glasses. At the time he looked a bit like Rainn Wilson (?) the actor who plays Dwight Schrute in the Office

[Hannaha]

I was living in London back then but I was only about 7 - if only I'd been a few years older, maybe I wouldn't have had to wait all this time to see them play. My dad was a Police fan and he bought Regatta De Blanc when it came out, so that was my introduction. It took a few years for my obsession to blossom and then it dwindled in my teens, resurfacing with a vengeance in my early twenties. Sad to say I actually stayed in a relationship with a guy far longer than I should have done just because he looked like the young SC!! What a fool I was! He was a complete twat! No harm done though eh?

[DirtyMartini]

[quote="Kalypso"] Angelwitch...good!"[/quote]

YIKES! They anything like RavenSlaughter?


Hannah, at least you got a story out of it.

[Divemistress of the Dark]

(I have a friend who says that about everything negative..."at least it makes a good story!" True enough!)

[quote]it's kind of funny, but back then, i didn't really look at the guys as "sex" symbols... i thought they looked cool & i just loved the music! i'd give anything to be in 1983 for a day again....[/quote]

You know what? Maybe that's why I don't notice the shorts and whatnot so much. For me, it's never been about wanting Stewart himself...it's been about wanting to be like him. Oddly, I think the man's a hell of a role model.

(Maybe it's odd because I'm a girl, but I've got some other male role models...Martin Luther King...John Lennon...SC's in some good company. )

[kimmy]

I remember exactly when I first became aware of The Police.... August 11th 1979. Sting appeared on the BBC 'Juke Box Jury' I thought 'He's quite nice' and went and bought Reggatta de Blanc when it came out in the October.... That's when I first saw Stewart....... OMG!! I was not quite 11 and had my first big crush... (which to be honest hasn't really stopped!!) I spoke to one of my oldest friends the other day about him and she told me that I sounded exactly as I did when I was 13 and talking about him!! (oops that's quite funny!!)
I didn't go to any of the concerts, money was tight for my family and I had no one to go with (and I was a bit young) so I'm making up for it now... I'm going to twickenham (London), Cardiff and Toronto (because I can!!)
I always wanted to pop down to the fan club but the nearest tube I could find was Ladbrook Grove and I couldn't see on the A to Z a way of crossing the A4 (I think it was) It didn't occur to me that there would be subways or crossings.... (That's the way a 13 year old thinks!!)
My bedroom walls were covered in posters and album covers and I used to buy photos from the fan club. (I got myself a paper round to pay for my membership and all the 'Police file' magazines) I used to write to Paul and the club all the time and bless him he wrote back!! In one letter he listed all the different parts of Stewart drum kit for me (which of course went on and on because there was so much of it!!)
I am so excited the band are back together again..... It's just a shame it took so long.
My husband keeps reminding me that I'm married and he tells me I'm obsessed.... Yep he's the one with room dedicated to Tottenham Hotspur Football Club....
Anyway it's so lovely to read messages from all the other fans out there and to know that I am just as normal as the rest of you!!

[Kalypso]

[quote="DirtyMartini"] YIKES! They anything like RavenSlaughter? [/quote][quote="Kalypso"]



I don't know DM, I never found out...The guys were plastered and it was like, 1PM, so I thought they might have an altered perception of music....not to mention a lousy knack for judging a good band!

[Jennythenipper]

[quote="Kalypso"]Yeh, Hannahah, you don't know how many times I kicked myself over that. I was very young at the time, and remember thinking "This guy is cute, but he is kinda old"! I also had a glimpse of Miles behind a big desk that day, typical business suit, pale with small glasses. At the time he looked a bit like Rainn Wilson (?) the actor who plays Dwight Schrute in the Office [/quote]

That is so great, Kalypso. RIP Ian and damn I love Miles, especially after Everyone Stares where he sang Every Breath You Take in a Johnny Cash type style. (I did always love him anyway, playing the asshole manager type in Bring on the Night. "Those are colorful girls!")

As for the "cute but old comment" I remember when I worked out how old Sting was in comparison to myself at the time "Don't Stand so" came out and I realized that I was way less than half his age... I'm doing much better now!

[Kalypso]

For teens even somebody between 21 and 25 is "old". Now that I am in the "ancient" category, I see it even more poignantly. If that day I had met Stewart, he would have been too "old" too for me, but I would have certainly made an exception and consider him a pal of my age group!

Miles is a first child, and as such an overachiever, burdened with responsibilities of any kindL he is expected to shine and be a model. ( I am too, so I understand his role).
Stew is the baby, so he always had a protective structure around him and role models galore. He can also be a brat!
Ian had the most difficult karma. The middle child is for the most part the troubled one, and boy he was!
All this comes not from yours truly, but from Wild Thing.