new book "The Police: Every Little Thing"

[Dietmar]

I reviewed an upcoming book on The PoliceWiki's facebook page - and the website:

"The Police: Every Little Thing - The Adventures Of Sting, Stewart And Andy" by Caroline & David Stafford

This hardover book features 280 pages of text and an additional 24 pages of photos - it will be out on September 2, 2021.

Most of the photos are known to die-hard fans, but it's cool to see them in good quality in one place. Some of the printed photos I hadn't seen before - which is even better!

The writers have written a few biographies before, so they know what they are doing.

The book starts with a short chapter about The Police's reunions in 2003 and then for real in 2007, before telling the band's story from 1976-1986 in chronological order. As we've seen it done before there are individual chapters about the backgrounds of Stewart, Sting and Andy up to the point where they all meet. The only solo period covered in the book is Sting's first solo LP and tour.

The development of The Police is told eloquently and with funny side remarks, with an occasional break to describe the historical / political circumstances it all happened in. Sometimes those detours feel forced and unnecessary. But for the most part it's a very entertaining and fluent read. The observations how the group dynamics changed over the years are spot on.

The writers made good use of lots of printed sources, but also of The PoliceWiki: I can clearly see where a lot of information and sometimes even phrases I wrote were taken directly from the website. But that's what the PoliceWiki was made for!

Too bad that with all the good research and the PoliceWiki available there are still a LOT of sometimes "obvious" mistakes in the book. Why the authors didn't bother to contact me about proof-reading or clarification I'll never understand. Some of those avoidable mistakes are:

* Henry being deliberately spelled Henri all the time
* a second "Strontium 90" gig at Colmar (it was The Police who played there)
* Lawrence Impey being a manager of The Police for a short period (he wasn't)
* several dates with a typo: March 31 instead of 21, a number missing etc...
* Fall Out 1977 release with a chequerboard background (that was the 1979 re-release cover)
* mentioning concerts in the wrong order...
* a certain birthdate
* ...

That stuff will probably just bother me, especially as it was easily avoidable.
Thanks to a certain misprint (I still can't tell you more right now, as it's a spoiler for a future The Police related publication) the authors sent an advance copy to me with a handwritten note mentioning how The PoliceWiki made their job much easier !

Somehow most of what's in the book has been told before, but this book is great for "new" fans who didn't bother to buy anything yet. More accurate in parts than older books (but sadly still not 100%). Some cool or even new photos might be worth the purchase for die-hard fans.

http://thepolicewiki.org/Police_wiki/in ... ttle_Thing

[giovanni]

Thanks a lot for your preview, Dietmar.
Of course, I will buy my copy, but it's good to read anyway an anticipation from someone like you.
Giovanni

[ltwoman]

Thanks, Dietmar. Sounds like it’s a must read for us Nutters.

You’ve been busy lately: the Copeland book and now this one! Maybe a second ( or third, or fourth…) career!