As a 13-year-old boy, I can remember buying ‘Roxanne’, on blue vinyl, back in 1979. We were spoilt for choice back them with so many great bands, Blondie, ELO and The Jam, so I was really looking forward to hearing tales about one of my favourite bands, The Police
The stage was set with just two armchairs, one each for Stewart Copeland and the interviewer, Lisa Thompson. Stewart was first asked to describe his early life where he grew up in Beirut. Copeland's father Miles was a spy who worked for the CIA. It was while he was attending a American Community school that he first picked up the drumsticks. He had watched his cooler, older brother play with a band called the Black Knights and realised his brother wasn't that good, so he decided to slip into his brother’s room and try the drumsticks himself. This turned out to be a turning point for him, as he was a natural and he was soon recruited and joined the Black Knights.
Stewart was then asked how his music career started with the hippy band, Curved Air and how The Police first got together. It was at this point we heard him call Sting ‘Stingo’ which made the audience laugh. He recalled how seeing Sting in his band Last Exit in concert led to wanting to work with him. He persuaded Sting to leave Last Exit and move to London where he believed they could cash in on the rock,punk movement. Whilst in London the pair met Andy Summers while they were session musicians and they eventually asked him to join the band.
The Police found success hard to come by at first. The songs, Roxanne and Can’t Stand Losing you had little impact with the general public. In fact, their first appearance on Top of The Pops was with Copeland’s pseudonym character, Klark Kent.
After an interval, the second half of the show was more about The Police breaking up, Copeland’s solo career and their reunion tour ending with some questions from the audience. Stewart picked out the questions by hand from an empty kick drum on the stage, that was a nice touch.
It was only after some band therapy, just before their 2017 reunion tour, that Sting and Stewart managed to understand their musical differences. He joked and said although he had Slipknot on his playlist, he dubbed that you would find them on Sting’s!
If I am totally honest, I enjoyed the evening but would love to have heard more stories about the Police, maybe you would be better off buying his book, appropriately entitled ‘Have I Said Too Much’.
Reviewed by Steven Davies, YYFM Radio.