Stewart Copeland's Perspective

Okay, I promise this will be my last Police post, that is unless the rumors become fact and they tour this year to celebrate their 30th anniversary. Anyway, if you are a Police fan, and again, don’t tell me if you’re not, you must see Stewart Copeland’s documentary, Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out. Even H found it interesting and he is not really a fan. Early in their career, Stewart Copeland purchased a Super 8 movie camera and started taking all kinds of behind the scenes footage of their band on tour, and unknowingly, on their rise to fame. Wow, you can see them lugging their own equipment motel to motel at the beginning, and then playing to thousands of people in Rio with tons of crew and equipment in the end. We see coverage of them playing festivals, doing in-stores, and walking the streets of Japan mingling with the fans. It is an excellent first-person account of the experience. There is one moment in the documentary where they are now successful and the cameraman (usually Copeland himself) looks out the backdoor of the venue that they have just played. There is a sea of people surrounding the car that the band is to get in to leave the venue and the crowd is, a little aggressively, chanting Sting’s name. The cameraman then points the camera just inside the door of the venue at Sting, preparing himself to make his way to the car and I almost had an anxiety attack for him. I think I would have just slowly slid down the wall into the fetal position before facing that crowd! Copeland has the camera going during gigs as well, which is an interesting perspective.

Fashion note: count how many horizontal striped shirts the band wears. For awhile I was thinking well, maybe it’s one shirt and because they’re touring, they’re sharing clothes or something, but not so. Check it out, it’s unbelievable (the documentary, not the shirts). –J

Our Brush with a Shirt that had a Brush with Greatness

Speaking of The Police, I was taking a break from the mundane and sent K the following pic of Stewart Copeland and Taylor Hawkins backstage at a Foo Fighters show. K took a look at it and thought, “Where have I seen that shirt???” Well, here’s a pic of Taylor, his drumstick, and I at the Double Door months before his hanging with Stewart. --J

One Train Later - Andy Summers

Having some time off for the holidays and no travel planned gave me the perfect opportunity to read One Train Later and then obsess over early Police records. Even if you aren’t a fan of The Police (I don’t want to know if you aren’t), this book tells the tale of a seasoned musician with way more experience than I had realized. Unexpectedly, I couldn’t put it down. Some interesting points were:

Andy was more interested in contributing something new to the music scene than becoming a British blues guitarists like Eric Clapton who copied the legends of the American South. Eric and Andy traveled in the same musical circles and at one time, after Eric’s ’59 Les Paul is stolen, he hounds Andy to buy his since he has the only other ’59 Les Paul in London and he is getting ready to record with Cream for the first time. He sells it to him and the rest is history.

Hearing his description of meeting and seeing Jimi Hendrix play in his early days was fascinating.

Reading about Sting being totally hoodwinked by a Canadian keyboardist who was trying to wedge his way in as the fourth member into the now successful band was amusing.

This fall I read a book written by the drummer of Semisonic who, in the grand scheme of things, had minor success. I wondered what the inside story would be like if the band had monumental success. Well, here’s the book. While you get the impression that the band did not make a conscious decision to go out on top as they did, instead it was motivated by Sting’s call to the lute, they did just that. Could you turn on the radio in 1983 and not hear a single from Synchronicity? What’s totally refreshing in the end is that Andy is not bitter about the way it ended. As I read the book, I found myself scrutinizing the cover, looking for the name of a ghost writer. There is none that I could find, but this book is shockingly well-written. If you aren’t a reader, but want to know more, check out the Andy Summers interview on Sound Opinions. He distills the essence of the book on the air and also once again, proves what a gentleman he is by not taking the bait and dissing on one particularly famous former bandmate. –J