SECRET POLICE
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◄ From Outlandos to Zenyatta : the true Police sound ►
Gert : Reading the Strontium 90 cd booklet gave me confirmation that you met Andy and played with him and Mike Howlet as early as February 1977. How did the two bands co-existed ?
Stewart Copeland : They didn’t. That date, I don’t think that’s right. I think that date is when Howlett and Sting might have first met. In february 1977 I think that Sting and him worked together then, when Sting lived in London. My story is that I call him up in Newcastle and said : “hey look, I’ve got a band, come down to London, you could be in my band.” And he came down to London and he joined my band. This was like the end of 1976. What I didn’t know was that he also had another connection in London, which was his publisher named Carol Wilson. And the husband of his publisher was Mike Howlett. He met them and had that other thing going. Then, when it came time to record, he brought me in as a drummer or he suggested me to Mike Howlett who had this guitarist which was Andy. So we may have met then, but the Strontium 90 thing didn’t happen until later. Because I know Henri has been in the band for a year. And it wasn’t until 1978 that the Strontium 90 gig happen and Andy joined the band. Anyway, everybody remembers things from their own point of view. The way Sting sees it is that he was in Newcastle, he wanted to hit the big time, he knew a couple a people and then eventually he decided to go. From my point of view, I called him up and he joined my group, you know !
Gert : I have read that Sting refused to play bass on the grammy award winner song ‘Behind My Camel’, an Andy Summers composition, and that it was Andy playing it. Is there any other song that Sting didn’t play ?
Stewart Copeland : No, I think that’s the only one. And the only reason I played on was because no-one could play drums but me ! We treated Andy very badly. We never thought in a million years, that track was going to be on the album, forget it ! But Andy insisted : “I’m leaving the group unless that track is on the album”, and we said “hum... ok!”. And everybody, the manager, the roadies, the producers, the ingeneers were thinking “ok, I guess it won’t kill us”. So we put it on the record and won a grammy for it ! And my kids tell me that’s their favourite Police track. Their two favourite tracks are ‘Behind My Camel’ and ‘friends’, both by Andy.
Gert : What is your best recording memory with The Police ?
Stewart Copeland : the first two albums, after that it was horrible ! The first two were a lot of fun. For Zenyatta Mondatta we recorded in Holland, that’s when it begun to be a little bit weird. For the next album we went to Montserrat, the environment was just beautiful, incredible, but the atmosphere in the band was terrible. And the reason why it was so terrible was because all three of us equally became very jealous of... well, we all had a vision and we stopped compromising. And I blamed Sting at the time but I realized I was to blame as well. Once again this is my point of view.
In the early days, Sting had come in like say ‘Roxanne’ as a bossa-nova, dum-da-dum (he sings it). And we fucked it up ! We turned it in what it is now, The Police version, which was really cool. That’s why we had success, because of the three minds working at it. Once time went on, Sting and we each got our own home recording studio. Instead of Sting arriving with an acoustic guitar, he had a recording with a drum riff, a bass line, a guitar part and a keyboard one : “that’s the song ! come on guys, just learn the song like this” and I would say “wait a minute”. It was a battle. Sting had great ideas. We could have done just like that and that would have been great. But that would have been an ego problem for me. I think that I was right to struggle, to impose my view, because that’s what made the band. We all had strong views, and that’s why we argued a lot. From Sting’s point of view, he wrote a great piece of music, he did his homework, he figured out how all the different pieces go together, he created something, he brings it to the band and now he has to argue you : “could you just play what I wrote, why do I have to fight over everything ?” And I’m going : “look I’ve got an idea here, how come you don’t listen to it, how comes we can’t collaborate anymore?” And we would fight, and the arguing would not be about what’s the best way to do this music. Should have be a guitar solo, or a keyboard solo ? Should it be fast, should it be slow? Like this, like that... The argument became “who’s gonna win the argument ?”. And that’s no use at all. So that’s why the two last albums became a very unpleasant experience.
Gert : Lovers of the band just feel the same, that the real Police sound is on the two first albums and maybe a little on the third.
Stewart Copeland : Yeah, the third one is a transition. The problem with the third one, 'Zenyatta Mondatta', was that the material was not so strong, whe didn’t have enough material. It contains one of Sting’s greatest songs, ‘Don’t Stand So Close To Me’. But a lot of the rest of the album is filler, and that’s the problem with that album.
Gert : Coming back to the true Police sound and particularly to the second LP, ‘Reggatta De Blanc’, which was the one who gave you access to an international stardom, it is more than a coincidence to me that almost half of the album is written by… you !
Stewart Copeland : No, I don’t think so.
Gert : Yes ! you did the music of It’s Alright For You...
Stewart Copeland : Yeah, I played all instruments on that one too ! Except for the guitar solo that Andy played. The same for On Any Other Day.
Gert : You did that one too on the album, as well as ‘Contact’ and ‘Does Everyone Stare’. A lot of songs you did.
Stewart Copeland : Hum (amazed), I forgot about that, you’re right.
Gert : And it is no coincidence if this one is the one the old Police fans are prefering.
Stewart Copeland : The actual radio hits, the singles, were pushing the album .
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