Where's "Bring on the Night?" Here's your answer..
Posted: 02 Jun 2007 22:02Short Stewart Q&A in the June 14 Rolling Stone...
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The Police - singer-bassist-songwriter Sting, drummer Stewart Copeland and guitarist Andy Summers - opened their first world tour in twenty-three years on May 27th in Vancouver. The set list is virtually all hits and crowd favorites, plus a dynamic version of the 1983 B side "Murder by Numbers." There is also a surprising omission, at least for now: "Bring on the Night," from 1979's Reggatta de Blanc. "I fucking love the way we're doing it," says Copeland. "But it ain't working for Sting."
RS: After not playing together for so long, how hard is it to avoid falling into old bad habits?
SC: We are totally full of bad habits that we've had to work hard to weed out. My worst is that I speed up. I have a complicated sense of rhythm and decoration. If I don't hear it, I fill it. I have to prune that. For other members of the band, similar sacrifices have to be made. And it's been difficult, harder than any of us thought, to do that - to give things up.
RS: Have you changed any arrangements substantially from the original records?
SC: There are songs where I have another drum set - timpany, bells, cool stuff - and I've programmed rhythms, created loops. We're playing live, but it's like a new version of the band. It really excites us. And I can sense that if Sting ends up writing a new song or gets to thinking about how to use this band to create new music, it will be this kind of thing that inspires him rather than rearranging "Roxanne."
RS: With Genesis, Crowded House and Smashing Pumpkins out there, the Police picked a crowded year to hit the road again.
SC: No, we picked a less crowded year. We're not thinking in terms of reunions. We're competing with the biggest acts in the world. Last year, it was the Rolling Stones and Madonna. We get to be the dinosaur of the this year.
- David Fricke
* * *
The Police - singer-bassist-songwriter Sting, drummer Stewart Copeland and guitarist Andy Summers - opened their first world tour in twenty-three years on May 27th in Vancouver. The set list is virtually all hits and crowd favorites, plus a dynamic version of the 1983 B side "Murder by Numbers." There is also a surprising omission, at least for now: "Bring on the Night," from 1979's Reggatta de Blanc. "I fucking love the way we're doing it," says Copeland. "But it ain't working for Sting."
RS: After not playing together for so long, how hard is it to avoid falling into old bad habits?
SC: We are totally full of bad habits that we've had to work hard to weed out. My worst is that I speed up. I have a complicated sense of rhythm and decoration. If I don't hear it, I fill it. I have to prune that. For other members of the band, similar sacrifices have to be made. And it's been difficult, harder than any of us thought, to do that - to give things up.
RS: Have you changed any arrangements substantially from the original records?
SC: There are songs where I have another drum set - timpany, bells, cool stuff - and I've programmed rhythms, created loops. We're playing live, but it's like a new version of the band. It really excites us. And I can sense that if Sting ends up writing a new song or gets to thinking about how to use this band to create new music, it will be this kind of thing that inspires him rather than rearranging "Roxanne."
RS: With Genesis, Crowded House and Smashing Pumpkins out there, the Police picked a crowded year to hit the road again.
SC: No, we picked a less crowded year. We're not thinking in terms of reunions. We're competing with the biggest acts in the world. Last year, it was the Rolling Stones and Madonna. We get to be the dinosaur of the this year.
- David Fricke
