The Police

The Police biography

The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For the vast majority of their history, the band consisted of Sting (lead vocals, bass), Andy Summers (guitars) and Stewart Copeland (drums). The Police became globally popular in the late 1970s and are generally regarded as one of the first New Wave groups to achieve mainstream success, playing a style of rock that was influenced by punk, reggae, and jazz.

Their 1983 album, Synchronicity, was number one on both the UK Albums Chart and the US Billboard 200, and sold over 8,000,000 copies in the US. The group disbanded in 1986, but reunited in early 2007 for a one-off world tour lasting until August 2008. The Police have sold more than 50 million albums worldwide, and were the world's highest-earning musicians in 2008, thanks to their reunion tour.

Career

Formation (1977-78)

The Police were founded by American expatriate Stewart Copeland in early 1977. After the demise of his progressive rock band Curved Air, Copeland was eager to form a new three-piece group and join the burgeoning London punk scene. Singer-bassist Sting (Gordon Sumner) and guitarist Henry Padovani began rehearsing with Copeland in January 1977, and they recorded the first Police single "Fall Out" the following month.

In March and April 1977, the threesome toured as a support act for Cherry Vanilla and for Wayne County & the Electric Chairs. In May, ex-Gong musician Mike Howlett invited Sting and former Eric Burdon and the Animals guitarist Andy Summers to form a project band with him for a Gong reunion, which they named Strontium 90. The drummer Howlett had in mind, Chris Cutler, was unavailable to play, so Sting brought along Stewart Copeland. Strontium 90 recorded several demo tracks, and performed at a Gong reunion concert in Paris on 28 May 1977. An album with some of these live and studio tracks (along with the first recorded version of "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic") was released 20 years later in 1997 under the name Strontium 90: Police Academy. The foursome also performed at a London club as "The Elevators" in July 1977.

In July 1977, Copeland, Sting, Padovani, and Summers began performing as a four-piece version of the Police. Padovani's relatively limited ability as a guitarist curtailed his tenure with the band, and shortly after an aborted recording session with producer John Cale on 10 August, Padovani was informed he was out of the band and Summers became the sole guitarist. Padovani went on to play in several other bands, including Wayne County & the Electric Chairs, and later became Vice President of IRS Records. The line-up of Copeland, Sting, and Summers was an unusual trio at a time when progressive rock, symphonic rock, and other sound trends lent themselves to musical ensembles with support players. This three-man line-up would endure for the rest of the Police's history.

Paralleling these developments, in 1977/78, Sting and Summers recorded and performed (alongside other invited musicians) with German experimental composer Eberhard Schoener; Copeland also joined for a time. These performances resulted in three albums, each of them an eclectic 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.

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