The Police
The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. Their core line-up comprised Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland. The Police became globally popular from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s. Emerging in the British new wave scene, they played a style of rock influenced by punk, reggae, and jazz.
Their 1978 debut album, Outlandos d'Amour, reached No. 6 on the UK Albums Chart and contains the singles "Roxanne" and "Can't Stand Losing You". Their second album, Reggatta de Blanc, became the first of four consecutive No. 1 studio albums in the UK and Australia; its first two singles, "Message in a Bottle" and "Walking on the Moon", became their first UK number-one singles. Their next two albums, Zenyatta Mondatta and Ghost in the Machine, led to further critical and commercial success, with two songs, "Don't Stand So Close to Me" and "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic", becoming UK number-one singles and Top 5 hits in other countries. The former album was their breakthrough into the US, reaching number five on the US Billboard 200.
Their final studio album, Synchronicity, was No. 1 in the UK, Canada, Australia, Italy and the US, selling over 8 million copies in the US. Its lead single, "Every Breath You Take", became their fifth UK number one, and only US number one. During this time, the band were considered one of the leaders of the Second British Invasion of the US: in 1983 Rolling Stone labelled them "the first British New Wave act to break through in America on a grand scale, and possibly the biggest band in the world". However, at the height of their fame the Police disbanded in 1984, periodically reuniting for one-off performances before fully reuniting in early 2007 for a world tour ending in August 2008. They were the world's highest-earning musicians in 2008 due to their reunion tour, which was the highest-grossing tour of 2007.
The Police have sold over 75 million records, making them one of the best-selling bands of all time. The band won a number of music awards, including six Grammy Awards, two Brit Awards, and an MTV Video Music Award. In 2003, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Four of their five studio albums appeared on Rolling Stones list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". The band were included among both Rolling Stones and VH1's lists of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time".
History
1977: formation
On 25 September 1976, while on tour with the British progressive rock band Curved Air in Newcastle upon Tyne, the band's American drummer, Stewart Copeland, via music journalist Phil Sutcliffe, met with singer-bassist Gordon Sumner, a.k.a. Sting, who at the time was playing in a jazz-rock fusion band called Last Exit. Copeland later obtained Sting's number from Sutcliffe's partner. On 14 December 1976, Sting moved to London, and on the day of his arrival, sought out Copeland for a jam session.Curved Air had recently split up and Copeland, inspired by the contemporary punk rock movement, was eager to form a new band to join the burgeoning London punk scene. While less keen, Sting acknowledged the commercial opportunities, so they formed the Police as a trio, with Corsican guitarist Henry Padovani recruited as the third member. After their debut concert on 1 March 1977 at the Alexandria Club in Newport, Wales, the group played London pubs and punk clubs touring as backing band and support act for Cherry Vanilla and for Wayne County & the Electric Chairs. On 1 May 1977, the Police released their debut single "Fall Out" on Illegal Records, recorded at Pathway Studios in Islington, North London on 12 February 1977, with a budget of £150. This is the only Police recording featuring Padovani. Mick Jagger reviewed the single in Sounds magazine.
In May 1977, former Gong musician Mike Howlett invited Sting to join him in the band project Strontium 90. The drummer Howlett had in mind, Chris Cutler, was unavailable, so Sting took Copeland. The band's fourth member was guitarist Andy Summers. A decade older than Sting and Copeland, Summers was a music industry veteran who had played with Eric Burdon and the Animals and Kevin Ayers among others. Strontium 90 performed at a Gong reunion concert in Paris on 28 May 1977, and played at a London club in July. The band also recorded several demo tracks: these were released 20 years later on the archive album Strontium 90: Police Academy.
Summers impressed Sting, who was becoming frustrated with Padovani's rudimentary abilities and the limitations they imposed on the Police's potential. Shortly after the Strontium 90 gig, Sting approached Summers to join the band. He agreed, on condition the band remain a trio, with him replacing Padovani. Restrained by loyalty, Copeland and Sting resisted the idea, and the Police carried on as a four-piece band. They performed live twice: on 25 July 1977 at the Music Machine in London and on 5 August at the Mont de Marsan Punk Festival. Shortly after these two gigs, Summers delivered an ultimatum to the band and Padovani was dismissed. Copeland later said: "One by one, Sting's songs had started coming in, and when Andy joined, it opened up new numbers of Sting's we could do, so the material started to get a lot more interesting and Sting started to take a lot more interest in the group."
The Police's power trio line-up of Copeland, Sting, and Summers performed for the first time on 18 August 1977 at Rebecca's club in Birmingham in the West Midlands. This line-up endured for the rest of the band's history. Few punk bands were three-pieces, while contemporary bands pursuing progressive rock, symphonic rock and other sound trends usually expanded their line-ups with support players. The musical background of all three players may have made them suspect to punk purists, with music critic Christopher Gable stating,
The band also drew on influences from reggae to jazz to progressive and pub rock. While maintaining the main band, Police members continued to moonlight within the art rock scene. In late 1977 and early 1978, Sting and Summers recorded and performed as part of an ensemble led by German experimental composer Eberhard Schoener; Copeland also joined for a time. These performances resulted in three albums, a mix of rock, electronica and jazz. Various appearances by the Schoener outfit on German television made the German public aware of Sting's unusual high-pitched voice, and helped pave the way for the Police's later popularity.
The bleached-blond hair that became a band trademark happened by accident. In February 1978, the band, desperate for money, were asked to do a commercial for Wrigley's Spearmint chewing gum on the condition they dye their hair blond in order to play a punk band. The commercial was shot with the band—Summers states, "There’s a shot of us carrying a 6-foot-long packet of Wrigley’s across the room"—but was never aired.
1977–1978: Recording Contract and ''Outlandos d'Amour''
Copeland's older brother Miles was initially sceptical of the inclusion of Summers in the band, fearing it would undermine their punk credibility, and reluctantly agreed to provide £1,500 to finance the Police's first album. Outlandos d'Amour was made with no manager or record deal. It was recorded during off-peak hours at the Surrey Sound Studios in Leatherhead, Surrey, a converted recording facility above a dairy which was run by brothers Chris and Nigel Gray.During one of his studio visits, Miles heard "Roxanne" for the first time at the end of a session. He had been less enthusiastic about the band's other songs, but the elder Copeland was struck by the track, and got the Police a record deal with A&M Records on the strength of it. "Roxanne" was issued as a single in early 1978, while other album tracks were still being recorded, but failed to chart. It also failed to make the BBC's playlist, which the band attributed to the song's depiction of prostitution. A&M consequently promoted the single with posters claiming "Banned by the BBC", though it was never banned, just not play-listed. Copeland later said, "We got a lot of mileage out of it being supposedly banned by the BBC."
File:BBC TV Centre.jpg|thumb|right|BBC Television Centre, where the Police made their television debut on The Old Grey Whistle Test in 1978, and where they made their first appearance on Top of the Pops in 1979
The Police made their first television appearance in October 1978, on BBC2's The Old Grey Whistle Test to promote the release of Outlandos d'Amour. The BBC banned the second single from Outlandos d'Amour, "Can't Stand Losing You" due to the single's cover, which featured Copeland hanging himself over an ice block being melted by a portable radiator. The single became the Police's first chart hit, peaking at No. 42 in the UK. The follow-up single, "So Lonely", issued in November 1978, failed to chart. In February 1979, "Roxanne" was issued as a single in North America, where it was played on radio despite the subject matter. The song peaked at No. 31 in Canada and No. 32 in the US, spurring a UK re-release of it in April. The band performed "Roxanne" on BBC1's Top of the Pops, and the re-issue of the song peaked at No. 12 on the UK Singles Chart.
The group's UK success led to gigs in the US at the famous New York City club CBGB, The Rathskeller in Boston and at The Chance in Poughkeepsie, New York, from which "Roxanne" debuted on US radio on WPDH, and a gruelling 1979 North American tour in which the band drove themselves and their equipment around the country in a Ford Econoline van. That year, "Can't Stand Losing You" was also re-released in the UK, peaking at No. 2. The group's first single, "Fall Out", was reissued in late 1979, peaking at No. 47 in the UK.
1979: ''Reggatta de Blanc''
In October 1979, the group released their second album, Reggatta de Blanc, which topped the UK Albums Chart and became the first of four consecutive UK No. 1 studio albums. The album spawned the hit singles "Message in a Bottle" and "Walking on the Moon". The album's singles failed to enter the US top 40, but Reggatta de Blanc reached No. 25 on the US album charts.The band's first live performance of "Message in a Bottle" was on the BBC's television show Rock Goes to College filmed at Hatfield Polytechnic College in Hertfordshire. The instrumental title track "Reggatta de Blanc" won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. In February 1980, the single "So Lonely" was reissued in the UK, peaking at No. 6.
In March 1980, the Police began their first world tour, including Mexico, India, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Greece and Egypt. The tour was subsequently documented in the film The Police Around the World, directed by Kate and Derek Burbidge, which contains footage shot by Annie Nightingale originally intended for a BBC production The Police in the East.
In May 1980, A&M in the UK released Six Pack, a package containing the five A&M singles in their original sleeves plus a mono alternate take of the album track "The Bed's Too Big Without You" backed with a live version of "Truth Hits Everybody". It reached No. 17 in the UK Singles Chart.