25 May
2007
25 May
'07
1:09 p.m.
Here is an EXCELLENT article on The Police reunion - I'm posting both the article and the link. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/showbiz/article-23398008-details/Sting%3A+How+I+stopped+hurting+after+The+Police+split/article.do The Police didn't break up cleanly, succinctly or definitively. Their last tour ended in 1984. There was no farewell to each other or to the fans. Instead, they unravelled and dissolved in resentment and anger. Stewart Copeland founded the band in 1977, joining up with Sting when he saw his charisma with the jazz fusion band Last Exit. They then approached agile rock guitarist Andy Summers. But immediately - and innately - there was a three-way power struggle. As Sting says now: "We didn't go to school together or grow up in the same neighbourhood. We were never a tribe. "We care passionately about the music and we're all strong characters and nobody would be pushed around. We fought over everything." Their sound was distinctive - perhaps tension and a struggle to be heard was a catalyst for Roxanne, Message In A Bottle and Can't Stand Losing You. After the first two successful albums, Outlandos d'Amour and Reggatta de Blanc, the pressure to stay at the top was huge. Sting honed his instincts to create perfect pop songs. It was no longer a collaborative experience - he delivered them complete. The others fought for their territory - so much so that they tore it apart. Sting went on to have a hugely successful career as a solo singer-songwriter and last year released an acclaimed classical album, Songs >From The Labyrinth. So there was no reason for him to return to the band he'd wandered away from 23 years ago. Earlier this year came the shock announcement that they would reform. I watched them at the Grammys in Los Angeles, their first comeback performance. They didn't look or act like ageing rockers. They seemed fresh, jokey with each other. It's hard to believe the mood of innocent excitement could continue. But several months down the line, after practising at Sting's house in Tuscany, the band are back in the States readying themselves for a year-long tour, starting on Monday in Vancouver. Sting says: "There is such a feeling of warmth for us out there." Where he once said "If I ever reform the Police I should be certified insane", now he giggles: "I have the white coat." So what was the impetus behind this brilliant insanity? When tickets went on sale for mostly 70,000-seater stadiums around the world, they sold out within an hour-and-a-half. Sting explained his contrary conclusion when we met three months ago: "I'd just done the lute album - Songs From The Labyrinth. I was thinking: "Well what do I do? What's going to surprise people?" I just had this instinct, this desire to call the guys up and say: "Let's give this a go."" It was all a very romantic idea - that they would slip back and everything would be as if they had never split. Both Andy and Stewart seem to have been haunted by the split, by the loose ends never being tied. Stewart made a documentary called Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out, released last year, and Andy wrote his memoir One Train Later, about how determined he was to make it as a superstar guitarist and how when he got what he wanted the rest of his life spiralled away from him. He is not particularly kind about Sting in his book - he talks about Sting going "berserk on me, calling me every name under the sun, leaving everyone in the room white-faced and in shock". But his journey was a cathartic one - there was hurt there about the split, but also love. Once over the excitement of being back together, they had to make it work. Sting sees the reforming as "a kind of healing. I think solving problems is an exercise worth doing". In the past, one problem was that Sting wrote in isolation. "We never sat in a room and wrote a song," he says. "I would turn up with a song, melody, chords, guitar riff, singing and playing the bass. Not really room for anyone else. Now I want to bring in the group's creative process - Stewart's a great drummer and Andy a great guitarist." I caught up with Andy again in Los Angeles. At 64, he is the oldest of the band by nearly ten years. His eyes sparkle turquoise, his hair, once shocking blond, is now light brown but still thick. I found him to be the most emotionally articulate - he seems to find it easiest to speak from the heart. I wonder if they are still having heated discussions. "Some discussions are more heated than others. We are not falling apart - the motor is purring nicely. But at the same time, we are a rock band and by definition you have to be somewhat at the edge." Indeed, three mellow guys making music doesn't have pace or passion. "I know what you want me to say. You want me to say that we're all fighting and scratching. We're not, we just have that edge in our playing. There's nothing wrong with having an ego," says Andy. He continues: "But at the same time we know we have to do a good job. We are going to make it sound as great as possible because we want to make people happy. "I don't think any of us has become mellow," he says, swilling the word around like a bad taste in his mouth. "I think all of us have been through so much we have learnt to temper our reactions. I used to have dreams about us playing together again. I never stopped thinking about Sting or Stewart." Over the years apart they didn't see much of each other, but there was a shared history that could never be taken away. Coming back together is a hugely emotional deal. Sting tells me that before they went on stage at the Grammys, they all huddled together. "I said: "Look, we are doing this for each other. We have to play for each other."" After the Grammys, Sting told me: "We grew apart from a vortex of tension. We stopped connecting and I wanted to fix that." All the ends that were never tied or severed are now being woven back together again. Sting's first marriage, to actress Frances Tomelty, ended as the Police were peaking. He has been with Trudie Styler for 25 years. She is constantly by his side. When she leaves the room, Sting says, "Trudie ameliorates everything." I ask him if they ever fight. "We don't fight. She was upset the other night when she asked me if I liked her dress and I told her I didn't. "It just means I'm telling the truth when I say: "You look fantastic." So she didn't wear the dress. But we never fight about anything serious." Trudie is always smiling when she's by his side. They seem truly devoted to one another. Sting needs her loyalty and he has been equally steadfast with Trudie, who was recently taken to an industrial tribunal by their former chef who alleged unfair dismissal. He is a person who needs strong bonds. It seems he couldn't be happier that the Police have reformed. "What was interesting in the rehearsal process was that if you bring an old jalopy out of mothballs you can't expect it to run" he says. "But there were sparks and we easily slipped into being this really hot band." In many ways, they all seem calmer, more mature. But each of them is quick to point out they are no less themselves. Sting, at 55, looks as taut and charismatic as he did all those years ago. When you look at him on stage, he looks like an athlete going into battle. Sting and I are both from the North-East, where sensitivity is mocked but all the more precious. "I am still needy for love from my peers," he says. "I don't need public affirmation. I had it at the beginning and it didn't make me happy." It must have been hard hearing the truth and learning to tell the truth, despite it not being in a Geordie's DNA. "Speaking the truth is always hard, particularly for a man who grew up learning he should say nothing. It's hard if you're a songwriter - you need to feel your inner fear." He says touring this time around will be different. "We have all changed and we are all dads, older and supposedly wiser." So it's not going to be sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll any more? "No comment, ha ha, ha. I don't want you to think of us as fuddy duddies either!" Stewart, 54, has a more determined, serious persona than we saw as a TV judge on Just The Two Of Us. He says: "We love each other. Even when we were arguing all the time, we had a strong tribal bond. "I used to think strife and struggle and tension were important in a band. I no longer believe that. This band has been rescued by our refusal to fall into confrontation." Stewart says that when Sting used to deliver half-formed songs, he and Summers would tear them to shreds. "Sting had to deal with us and what he saw as compromise. He gave us eight years, five albums and incredible songs. It would be churlish to expect more. "Yes, I have changed. I have seven children and I am a suburban dad." As well as the tour, the band will release a live album and have repackaged their greatest hits. Andy says: "It seems like we've gone up a notch in attention since we went away. "It's very gratifying. The focus now is getting this show completely into place. In terms of writing new music, I don't know." Wouldn't that be a real test of friction? Wouldn't you fall into arguing over those songs if Sting just presented you with them? "The thing is, he presents very good songs, so no." This is an important shift. "Back in the Eighties we were always trying to become separate people and not submerged within the group," says Andy. "We all have established lives now and this is about coming together for this one tour. In many ways it feels like a farewell tour, but it's also hello. "For me, it will be great to bring my kids. Instead of blathering on about some rock band I used to be in, they can actually come to see it." Last time round, touring was hard on all relationships and it broke up his marriage to his wife, Kate. After the last tour ended, he couldn't cope with not being on the road, so he went all over the world to take pictures. But the bond with his wife remained. "We both had on-off relationships with other people, but we didn't do well without each other." They got back together and had their twin sons. The tour is organised so families can come and join them. In all three of them, there is still that sense of joy at coming back. They have much to look forward to. "And we still have enough ego to think we can come back and blow every other band out of the water," says Andy. "We might be older and wiser, but we all still love it." And each other. _________________________________________________________________ PC Magazines 2007 editors choice for best Web mailaward-winning Windows Live Hotmail. http://imagine-windowslive.com/hotmail/?locale=en-us&ocid=TXT_TAGHM_migration_HM_mini_pcmag_0507