STEWART COPELAND

The waiting around for the tickets down under is driving me crazy.

So I would like to hear from all those who has met the main man and I would like to know how and when and what the experience was like.

I probably will never meet the great man, which is probably good for him for I could see me fainting at his feet. or kissing him on his nose, or crying all over him and totally making him which would never do.

No not really, however you can never tell until that moment.

What I have read and seen he seems to be very easily going and has a great sense of humour which I just love. Stewart is always cracking me up with his interviews

Um, it was kind of frustrating, because I had a million questions I wanted to ask him and no time in which to do it. Which I'm sure is the case for LOTS of other people here as well!

But it was great, too.

I met him in Cleveland, Ohio on May 5th two years ago at the rock and roll hall of fame. I was too nervous to ask any questions or say anything besides mumbling and fumbling to get something for him to sign (I forgot to bring my Klark Kent and Rhythmatist CDs but bought Orchestralli which is he was promoting while he was there), but fortunately I met up with sockii who was able to have an intelligent conversation with him.

Last year, we met up again in LA for a screening of Everyone Stares and Stewart and his family were sitting in the row right behind us. It was pretty cool. Stewart absolutely adores his fans and is very cool about it. It's one of the gazillion reasons why the dude is my biggest idol.

Yeah. There's really no need to go all weak-kneed or anything...by all accounts he is completely great and not intimidating at all.

(I really don't think he'd want anyone to be struck dumb at meeting him. Hey, we all have the good taste to be *his* fans, right? I think it's something of a mutual admiration society. Which is yet another reason why I'm in the fan club for life as well...

I met him at the Whisky back in February, with some of the other fans. I will say it's kind of surreal to meet him face to face, but really terrific at the same time. You get the vibe that he's every bit as cool as we suppose.

In '96 or '97 I mailed Stewart color copies of portraits I had done of him, Sting and Andy. I was lucky enough to have had Sting and Andy sign theirs already, Stewart was the last one I needed to meet. Anyway, his office called me up a couple days later and invited me to come down to Stewart's studio near the Sony lot in Culver City.

I took an extra long lunch break the following week and went down there. The first thing that struck me was the lobby in the space had Police VMAs just lying around the floor haphazardly. I was ushered into Stewart's workspace where he was working on some soundtrack or another on his computer. Stewart signed the painting and expressed enthusiasm for all 3. He particularly liked the likeness of Andy, which was funny because Andy claimed it looked like Danny Quatrochi and not him. I gave him a framed painting I had done which incorporated collaged elements from the Can't Stand Losing You single cover image. I've always wondered if he kept that (it's pretty grim.)

I was very aware that Stewart was working and I didn't want to keep him long. I've always kicked myself for not getting a photo with him. I've got photos with Andy and Sting but not Stewart - and this was by far the most laid back environment in which I had met any of them. Next time!

The portraits are here:

http://www.omahaperez.com/Andy.htm
http://www.omahaperez.com/Stew.htm
http://www.omahaperez.com/Sting.htm

Here's the painting I gave Stewart:

http://www.omahaperez.com/Hanging.htm

Omaha, did you or somebody else shoot a documentary of your pursuit of a Stew signature? Because i watched one online the other day that is now sounding very familiar....

Nice work, Omaha!

I like them a lot....interesting.

It shows your artistic impressions...not just portaits, nice...kinda dark too.

I bet they dug that they were so different.

...I'll bet he still has it.

Talented people around here...NOW STOP IT !!!
heh,heh.

I mean, keep up the great work.

Those are great, Omaha.

Hanging is amazing.

[quote="jedsoon"]Omaha, did you or somebody else shoot a documentary of your pursuit of a Stew signature? Because i watched one online the other day that is now sounding very familiar....[/quote]

It wasn't me! I guess I had a relatively easy time getting a hold of Stewart. I regret not staying in touch with his office. There was a guy there named Ryan who was about my age - after meeting them at Kinetic Studios I would run into Ryan at various Stewart appearances in LA. He always seemed surprised to see me. I was like, "Dude, I am a SERIOUS fan." I never wanted to bother them, so years went by before I tried calling/emailing Ryan at the studio again. By then Stewart had moved his studio...

About those portraits, thanks for the nice comments, those are from a Portrait Journal I started around the end of Art School. (It's mostly empty, I only ever did a few more portraits other than The Police. Off the top of my head: Tom Verlaine, Kurt Vonnegut, Richard Hell, Morrissey and I think Egon Schiele. Richard Hell is the only other portrait that I had signed by the subject.) Those are painted into the book, Sting's was the first one I did - I gave him a double page spread stretching his head horizontally. When I showed it to him he said something to the effect of, "Very nice, though my head's a bit big..." And I thought, 'I'm not touching that one!'

[quote="Omaha_Perez"]When I showed it to him he said something to the effect of, "Very nice, though my head's a bit big..." And I thought, 'I'm not touching that one!'[/quote]

HA!

Good show of restraint, Omaha.

Thanks guys this is great.

Love your art work Omaha.

By the way I love to hear about the others also. Stewart was and always will be my number one man, however I do love the other guys as well.

They brought so much to the music world and with attitude which I just love, especially the different structure of their sound.

In the 80's I only really listened to their hits now I am really digging their earlier music like visions, man in a suitcase, darkness , contact and on and on. To be honest I prefer the 1979 live than 1983 for it was raw and prefer the boys as back up so I want to hear you Stewart.

The impression I got from Stew when I met him was that he seemed to be under quite a lot of pressure, eventhough he acted very calm and collected, he just seemed very anxious about everything that was going on. But maybe that was because he had screenings to attend to, etc.
This was during last fall, so Everyone Stares was about to be released on dvd so Stewart was about to promote it.
Anyway, he was kind of shy as well. That kind of surprised me. When he stood in front of a bunch of people he seemed comfortable though.
He's down to earth and easy going; But that's no surprise.
I think he was kind of a wreck at the time because Ian had passed away just a few weeks earlier, RIP Ian, so I could feel his sadness a little.
I hope (and think) Stew feels much better now, though.

Hi Omaha,

I really loved looking at your paintings, you should come to Montreal and do an expo over here. I am sure people whould flip over your paintings ... I know i do.

[quote="kinetickid"]Hi Omaha,

I really loved looking at your paintings, you should come to Montreal and do an expo over here. I am sure people whould flip over your paintings ... I know i do.[/quote]

Thank you. I really appreciate that. I would love to exhibit in Montreal. Hopefully one of these days I'll get that side of my art career moving...