Posted on 08/19/2022 7:12:54 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The infamous and often-exaggerated cliche with the Police is that they rarely agreed on anything, despite their obvious musical chemistry. Fittingly, the band's memories of their first classic-trio show differ wildly — singer-bassist Sting seems to consider it a vital, enlightening moment, but guitarist Andy Summers looks back with disgust.
Technically, it wasn’t the first Police three-piece. The "fake punk" group debuted live in March 1977, with Sting joined by co-founding drummer Stewart Copeland and Corsican guitarist Henry Padovani. (They even released an obscure single, "Fall Out," that May.) However, the trio briefly expanded into a quartet later that summer, with Summers — who’d played alongside Sting and Copeland in Mike Howlett’s funky two-bass project, Strontium 90 — joining as the second guitarist.
The fit turned out to be awkward: Summers favored a more colorful, versatile style than Padovani’s raw punk attack. And after a pair of shows — including France’s Mont de Marsan Punk Festival, alongside the Clash, the Damned and the Jam — the Police settled into their trio configuration of Sting, Copeland and Summers.
"Andy shows up with his harmonic sophistication, and Sting starts writing these big songs," Copeland wrote in his 2010 memoir, Strange Things Happen: A Life With the Police, Polo and Pygmies. "A sound of our own is beginning to hatch."
That sound — an innovative fusion of punk, reggae and new wave — fully bloomed on the band’s debut LP, 1978’s Outlandos d’Amour. In the meantime, the Police still had some gelling to do. The new trio’s first headlining performance took place on Aug. 18, 1977, at Rebecca’s, a small nightclub in Birmingham, England, where the original lineup had previously backed punk singer Cherry Vanilla.
Sting describes the Police show with romanticized intensity in his 2004 book Broken Music, calling it a "crucial Rubicon" that could have brought one of two outcomes: "We will either cross it successfully or our fragile enterprise will be swept downstream in a chaos of despondency and abandoned dreams," he wrote.
"We walk onstage, the lights come up, and out of sheer desperation, panic, and I suppose character we somehow manage to kick off the shackles of self-doubt and despondency," Sting added, "and within the first eight bars of the first tune begin to play with the unrelenting power of a 10-ton hammer."
He described the rest of the gig as "total mayhem," ending with "three encores" and the destruction of a drum kit as they walked to their dressing room. "I know, perhaps for the first time, that I have found a flagship for my songs," Sting added. "We will prevail. It will take time, but now I’m certain of it.”
Summers’ recollection of this period is a bit less fond. The guitarist dismisses their early songs as "terrible" and unoriginal in his 2007 autobiography, One Train Later. "What we have is a fast, furious row more like three brats misbehaving, more the sound of a fashion statement than a musical message — and it’s worthless," Summers wrote. "In a nutshell, we suck." He also writes disparagingly about playing the venue "on the day Elvis [Presley] dies." (Technically Presley died on Aug. 16, 1977. Both Sting’s website and Setlist.fm list the show at Rebecca’s happening two days later.)
"The prevailing style is easily described," Summers recalled. "It’s very fast, very loud and features heavily garbled shouting noises usually accompanied by large mouthfuls of spit. We go onstage in the small, dark club and whip through our entire set, accomplishing all the above values, and are done in about [12] minutes. We are supposed to play for an hour. … We are so intent on being viewed as punk that we miss the music entirely. … We are a band, but to me, it feels like one in name only.”
Perhaps the show fell somewhere between triumph and tragedy. Either way, the reconfigured Police eventually proved themselves, playing more shows that year before starting work on Outlandos d’Amour in January. In his book, Sting writes that "something rare [had] been uncovered" in Birmingham. Whether or not his bandmates agreed, pretty much everyone else would soon enough.
Defund the Police....
Their hit “Every Breath You Take” was released as a single, and the B side was “I Can’t Breathe (You’re Kneeling On My Neck)”.
There best song was "Bed's Too Big Without You" but they had a lot of other great songs as well.
Look at the Amazon reviews here:
https://www.amazon.com/Broken-Music-Memoir-Sting/dp/0385338651/
First time I saw them play was 1979. I was a kid, hardly a teenager, snuck out of the house and snuck into the show. Great time but got my A kicked when I got home.
Of the three, Sting was the least talented.
Copeland and Summers are amazing musicians.
Gosh - saw them in ‘83 in Hartford - good show, sadly ran late and only cought the last number from the band that opened for them: REM. Just damn.
heh.
I saw them around then in Detroit. I was in college. They were pretty hard rock. I liked it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic5Y1Eh4NTE
That is one of their best, but not as popular as some of their later hits. I love the bass line on that song.
I saw them at the Capitol Center in MD, early 80’s. The Go-Go’s opened up for them. It was a great show, both bands.
What an incredible 5 year run that band had between 1978 and 1983. Too bad they couldn't have stuck together longer, but I guess egos got in the way. Sting's solo work gives a hint of what might have been.
I completely agree.
I’ve seen some documentaries on their short time together, and it was pretty clear that they all wanted to go in different directions. While not as financially successful as Sting, Copeland and Summers had productive careers post-Police.
Your headline doesn't deserve any more attention than anybody else's. Caps lock OFF please.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.