A fun Police story from Duran Duran's John Taylor...

[vespapod]

(Sockii again using vespa's account)

So I'm reading JT's autobiography, In The Pleasure Groove, right now (quite a fun read) and just had to share this story from it - which I pinned down thanks to the Wiki as taking place on 1977-03-11:

----
The first time I saw ... (Johnny) Thunders's magic was onstage
at Birmingham University. The opening act was a band I had not heard
of before, The Police. At that time I would sneak a cassette recorder
into every gig I went to, and I set the machine to record when they
began to play, even though I had no idea who they were. It was quite
possible a band you had never heard of yesterday could become
your favorite band tomorrow.

The singer with The Police also played bass, which struck me as
quite clever and quite "un-punk." After the second number, he struck
up a rapport with the audience of mostly students. A little too
familiar, I remember thinking at the time, not knowing then that
Sting had been a teacher and spoke "student" way better than he would
ever speak "punk."

Sting: We've got the Heartbreakers coming on next.
(Cheer from me and one or two others)
Sting: They can't play, you know.
Me: Fuck off!
Sting: Who said "Fuck off"?
Me: I did. (all of this going down onto the cassette tape)
Sting: It's true. They're great guys but they can't play.
Me: Fuck off, you wanker!
Sting: You'll see. This next song is called "Fall Out"! 1 2 3 4...

----

There are also a couple other Police tidbits in the book that make for amusing reading, which I'll have to transcribe out later.

[njperry]

Fun.

Thanks for sharing.

[policefan]

Love those kind of stories : )

Thanks for sharing Sockii.

[jerseyfan]

Very funny. Can't wait to hear the rest.

I was at Barnes & Noble and I saw Belinda Carlise's bio. I know that Miles Copeland managed the Go-Go's so I went straight to the index looking for Police stories.

The Police were mentioned a couple fo times. The only thing I can remember right now is that Andy dated one of the band members. I believe it was Charlotte Caffey.

In addtion to Andy's bio, Ian Copeland's book, "Wild Thing," has many great Police and Sting solo stories. It also has many interesting stories about other artists, bands and the music business. Copeland also has some amazing reminiscences about his experience as a combat soldier in Vietnam. Once you start reading, you can't put it down. It's a must-read for any Police fan.

[njperry]

[quote="jerseyfan"]In addtion to Andy's bio, Ian Copeland's book, "Wild Thing," has many great Police and Sting solo stories. It also has many interesting stories about other artists, bands and the music business. Copeland also has some amazing reminiscences about his experience as a combat soldier in Vietnam. Once you start reading, you can't put it down. It's a must-read for any Police fan.[/quote]

Wild Thing is a terrific book. Highly, highly recommended.

For those who haven't read it, don't be turned off by the intro, which I found weak and artificial. After that, the whole book rocks.

[conroy]

I'm so bummed there was never an audio version of Wild Thing read by Ian It would have rocked!!!

[moonstone]

Great story Sockii, thanks for sharing.

Totally OT but thought this might interest you Sockii. I've just been watching Adam Ant on breakfast TV. He has a new album out called
Adam Ant is the Blueblack Hussar In Marrying the Gunners Daughter.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/ja ... sar-review

[mairinpgh]

thanks for the recommend, sockii - I saw this book a few months at the local bookstore, wanted to get it but had decided to wait until it inevitably hit the sale bin. Now that I hear its actually funny/good, I may have to break down & buy it before it get marked down!

[zilboy]

Ha Ha! Cute!

My wife has JT's book. She is a Duranie and huge JT fan. Don't know how much of it she's been able to read - probably zero, like me and my copy of Clockwork Angels. Perhaps when the kids are grown...

In our dreams, Stewart and JT form a band and go on tour.

[giovanni]

For all JT fans and you can watch a wonderful special of John Taylor in Milano filmed on December 7th, when he came here to promote the Italian release of his book:
http://roxybar.twww.tv/?v=26886e324ccc0 ... 15a6582507
A great interview, more than two hours, from the hotel room to the meet & greet with fans. You will love it if you are a Duran Duran fan. Sincerely, I am not that much into them, but I love these kind of interviews.
I like him anyway, I always liked his approach to the instrument, cool basslines.
A great interview to watch.
Gio

[lancaster]

I had no idea about John's book. I've just ordered it. Thanks for that, folks!

[sockii]

I had no idea about John's book. I've just ordered it. Thanks for that, folks!

It's a fun read and I did enjoy it. I will say that Andy's book from a few years ago ("Wild Boy") is a bit more honest and blunt about the craziness that went on, and John glosses over a lot of rather major events (maybe he doesn't even remember them, which I wouldn't be surprised about). But I especially enjoyed his early stories about the music scene in the mid-to-late 70s and the evolution of glam into punk into new wave. When he sticks to talking about music it's awesome.

(Edit to fix the title of Andy's book. D'oh!)

[lancaster]

I had no idea about John's book. I've just ordered it. Thanks for that, folks!

It's a fun read and I did enjoy it. I will say that Andy's book from a few years ago ("Wild Thing") is a bit more honest and blunt about the craziness that went on, and John glosses over a lot of rather major events (maybe he doesn't even remember them, which I wouldn't be surprised about). But I especially enjoyed his early stories about the music scene in the mid-to-late 70s and the evolution of glam into punk into new wave. When he sticks to talking about music it's awesome.

I've read parts of Wild Boy by Andy... but I'm more into stories from the perspective of someone who can tell you a lot about the whole scene, not just the intimate "bear all" approach.
By the way, I also have Ian Copeland's "Wild thing". It's second hand and it's got some dedication. It made me sad when I got it.

[sockii]

I had no idea about John's book. I've just ordered it. Thanks for that, folks!

It's a fun read and I did enjoy it. I will say that Andy's book from a few years ago ("Wild Thing") is a bit more honest and blunt about the craziness that went on, and John glosses over a lot of rather major events (maybe he doesn't even remember them, which I wouldn't be surprised about). But I especially enjoyed his early stories about the music scene in the mid-to-late 70s and the evolution of glam into punk into new wave. When he sticks to talking about music it's awesome.

I've read parts of Wild Boy by Andy... but I'm more into stories from the perspective of someone who can tell you a lot about the whole scene, not just the intimate "bear all" approach.
By the way, I also have Ian Copeland's "Wild thing". It's second hand and it's got some dedication. It made me sad when I got it.

My bad for getting Wild Thing/Boy up!

There was a long-running joke on Ian's old messageboard about how unsigned copies of "Wild Thing" were rarer than signed ones...

[lancaster]

My bad for getting Wild Thing/Boy up!

There was a long-running joke on Ian's old messageboard about how unsigned copies of "Wild Thing" were rarer than signed ones...

Uncle Ian!
Ah, so sad I missed all of that. What a character!