Sunday Times magazine with THE POLICE cover

[DirtyMartini]

SC: “After our first week practising together I realised that I’m incapable of giving Sting exactly the drum pattern he has in his head. I will do my best. I am a third-rate session player but a first-rate tornado.”

Brilliant.

Lovely article. Thank you for the info and link.

[Midori]

Thank you for your information, Dietmar! And thanks for links, Wait and see ,Jose.

I bookmark and enjoy this article

[sockii]

What a great piece.

Every time I think I've calmed down about all of this, we get something new and I'm all excited all over again.

[blueseattle]

For many years, Summers described himself as walking around with an open wound. The wound couldn’t heal because there was unfinished business, no closure, no “this is the last album, this is the farewell tour,” just slow, painful, passive-aggressive splintering. “I do not ever remember us sitting down and formally saying, ‘This is the end of the band.’ We just went away and didn’t come back.” There was speculation in the tabloids as early as 1981 that Sting had had enough and was culling the band, that Copeland had punched Sting, that he had a broken rib. By the time the band played their last gig in 1986, they knew it hadn’t been going well for a long time. Maybe this is the goodbye they needed to say. “For a couple of years we were told not to say anything. But after a while I couldn’t lie any more. I knew we weren’t coming back. But we never had the talk.” >>>

Does this mean new album time? Perhaps this isn't the only tour we'll see of them.

[Philip]

I see what you meen sock2.
you are right, this is a reall good article. Read it before the link desapear, or get the Times.

[Divemistress of the Dark]

That's awesome of you to offer, Dietmar. Are the photos online anywhere...?

[Jose]

I copy paste the article in "word", before it will dissapear from internet, because I think is a great article... These are one of the best paragrahps I founded on the interview:

... I’m a singer-songwriter. Stewart’s a great drummer, and Andy is a great guitarist. Within those roles we can move forward, but at first it was difficult.” Because they all wanted their moment? “Yes, and that’s understandable.”

Particularly understandable, as the band was founded by Copeland. It was he who introduced Sting to the blue-eyed reggae rhythm, the drumbeat that established the Police sound in songs like Message in a Bottle and Walking on the Moon. It was an accidental chemistry that drew the band together in the first place. “Most bands are from the same neighbourhood, they have the same background and education. Ours couldn’t be more different. Stewart was born in Beirut with American diplomatic parents, Andy was from the genteel south coast, and I am from Wallsend. We didn’t have that common bond. Our bond is that we were in the Police and we can make music together.”

The bond that started off so unlikely and ended up so fragile suddenly seems terribly important. “It was a very important performance for us last night. We were very exposed. It had to work because of the premise of going on tour and that we were still a band. Before we went on I got them both together and said, ‘Look, we’re doing this for each other, we have to play for each other. And we’re playing for Kim, our tour manager who died, and we are playing for Ian, Stewart’s brother who died. We all started tearing?”

And here come tears now. He’s mumbling; not whole sentences, just odd words. I make out “bond of brothers”. He looks at me, full, fat tears now rolling down his face. “You know, we are doing it for each other.” I start crying too. It’s easy to feel Sting’s emotion when he’s projecting it in stadiums; in a hotel room, it’s shattering. Then we laugh hysterically. They never used to have those moments of group bonding, a convergence of souls before the show. “We never had that. We grew apart within this vortex of tension. We stopped connecting and I want to fix that.”

Part of the compulsion to get back was the fixing and the unfinished business. “This business will never be finished. Relationships are never finished, either. When I was in it before, I felt trapped. Now I can enjoy it.”

It can’t have been very enjoyable to read Summers’s book and see Copeland’s film. Neither were particularly kind to Sting. Yet the opposite happened. “Andy’s book and Stewart’s film gave us reasons to meet. Stewart was in Sundance promoting his film and I was there with Trudie. Everyone has their version of the truth. There is no one truth. I wrote my book [Broken Music] ? well, actually, I didn’t write about the Police at all.” This is interesting in itself, that he wrote an entire autobiography where they didn’t register on his emotional thermometer.

PS: Also you can watch a great edition of Stewart's backstage memoir film "Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out"

Regards from Lima,

Jose ;)

[Hannaha]

I've posted links to scans of the pages over in the links section.

Hx

[Hannaha]

I've actually been so busy scanning the article in that I've only just finished reading it! And it IS great. It's very Sting-heavy but actually I'm pleased about that because we've all heard Stew and Andy's opinions on the prospect of a reunion many times over the last few years but Stingo's line was always negative and non-specific, so it's really REALLY interesting to read what he has to say about it all now. I have warmed to him immensely over the last few weeks and from my very distant vantage point it appears to me that he has changed, in a really really good way.

And Stewart? Witty, self-mocking, irreverant, generous and spot-on, as always.

"I have a life I am president of."

[jedsoon]

That's a good point, Hannaha. While Sting grabbing most of the limelight has always been the major sticking point of the Police for me, right now he's got some 'splainin' to do. Fantastic article!

[sockii]

There are some folks who I really need to get to read this article, who have been working hard to get me down (directly or indirectly) about this all being about the money. I just don't see how you can say that after reading this piece.

[GinaSuperCat]

Sockii your statement on TPT this morning cracked me up...I say print it out and start waving...I can't believe people are being so negative about this...but I think all our positivity will outweigh...and a few articles like this certainly help provide incontrovertible refutation

Reunions aren't all about money, no matter what the price paid--your heart has got to be in it...ask the Smiths...no matter how much money you try to throw at them, it ain't gonna happen...

Re: Sting I actually have always liked Sting...even being a Stewart-girl...I agree that more about his point of view for this reunion is definitely intriguing...I think he does get a bad shake from detractors about his music and lifestyle but after thinking about it, I don't think this current lute tour is 'playing it safe' as people have been saying about his music...I have come to think--even after laughing at 'lute committment' jokes myself, I mean come on--bring on THE POLICE!--that going on a lute tour and singing songs from a 16c composer would take some major stones, actually

[Philip]

Nicole, I know you are not speaking about me directly, because you know me since a long time, so as you evolve in art, don’t you think the danger of being only about money comes from this facts:

- The 3 protagonists have NOTHING TO PROVE anymore. They do it for their own auto-therapy. To have fun. They don’t want to have control of the direction it takes… so agents, managers, producers… will have a big role;

- The 3 protagonists DON'T NEED TO EARN MONEY anymore. They have comfortable fortunes and are businessmen now, so the naïve will of work day and night as beasts to get some money thru their music is lost.


I will chock you, but, NOSTALGIA is different for me than just:
“Waw, they where great, so it will be cool to get to hear Roxanne by the original musicians…”
But more:
“ Police was great, I wish they would have more influence on the new generation of musicians and music business” as a starting point, as the Beatles where for the Police.


Artistically, they put the challenge very high. They take a MAXIMUM risks by doing a tour in big stadiums and creating this hysteria on pre-sells and adds thru the internet, etc. They will be in the front scene and than rather they :

- WRITE THE EPOLOGUE to the Police Story >>> “ ok they are a sure value, a good band, well done” (but remember after Led Zeppelin get huge, the amateurs that were the Sex Pistols were much more interesting)

- or, they impress by the HYBRYD mix of 3 different characters & influences >>> [Andy Summers] + [Stewart copland] + [Sting]

[Midori]

I'm in the middle of reading this article- so great and so long for a non-native-English-speaker like me.

>STING:Look, we’re doing this for each other, we have to play for each other. And we’re playing for Kim, our tour manager who died, and we are playing for Ian, Stewart’s brother who died.

I love this part and am so happy to hear it from STING!

By the way, I signed up TPT.com at last today, and have not read the board yet….

>There are some folks who I really need to get to read this article,
>who have been working hard to get me down (directly or indirectly) >about this all being about the money.

sockii, you mean there are some people like that on TPT.com message board?

For me , in 1984,The Police had disappeared like a mirage leaving fans behind Now they are back alive and so many people feel happy - very simple and fantastic story!

Ahh, 5 or 6 shows could be seen if only I lived in the US!

[animal]

Was it me or did anyone else get choked up, when I read


STING:Look, we’re doing this for each other, we have to play for each other. And we’re playing for Kim, our tour manager who died, and we are playing for Ian, Stewart’s brother who died.

It gives me goosebumps everytime I read it.