Stewart Copeland: “A Legend That Sting and I Were Always Fighting”

A new expanded edition will be published in the form of a box set of “Synchronicity”, the Police’s fifth and final studio album, originally released in June 1983. It became the group’s most commercially successful album, as well as winning three Grammys in 1984. At the time of its release over forty years ago, the album reached number one in the world charts and the single “Every breath you take” is the most listened to song in the history of radio. In view of the release of the reissue of “Synchronicity”, the drummer of the English band Stewart Copeland allowed an interview to the “Guardian” in which he recalled the moment that led to the

Police formationthe 1983 album recording sessions and of the legendary tensions among the members of the group.

Asked why they wanted to re-release “Synchronicity” as a box set, Copeland said: “The Police had an epiphany with the Beatles documentary, ‘Get Back’. We each learned, in our own way, that the final master is in no way diminished by showing sketches or demos along the way. Our fourth album, ‘Ghost In The Machine’, got us into stadiums and then ‘Synchronicity’ made us even bigger, but the sessions were a very dark time. We slaughtered each other. We’ve laughed about it ever since, but we’ve never been too keen on revisiting that dark period. However, It was fun to listen back to the demos and songs that were left out. So I think we’ll do more reprints. We’re starting at the end and working backwards, like Richard Wagner’s ‘Der Ring des Nibelungen’ tetralogy.”

During the interview the drummer was then asked how he was his relationship with Sting and Andy Summer during that period of great success for the Police, and if the three maintain regular contact with each other.

“We had a great bond, but it wasn’t strong enough to make it easy to record together. We tore each other to pieces in the studio, but those two motherfuckers created incredible things and we got along great on stage, on tour buses, on planes. We still send each other stupid videos on Instagram. It’s a legend that Sting and I fought all the time. I broke his rib once, but we were just playing.”

The chat also gave Stewart Copeland the opportunity to recall his first meeting with Sting. When asked if he had ever met the Sex Pistols in their early days, the 71-year-old American musician said:

“I met the members in different situations, at concerts and parties, but I never saw them live because they didn’t do many live shows. I saw The Clash, The Damned and I loved the DIY soul of punk. At the time I was playing drums in Curved Air, when the journalist Phil Sutcliffe of ‘Sounds’ took me to see Sting’s then band, Last Exit, in Newcastle. He could sing and play bass, and had a wonderful charisma. I had seen this new scene being born but I had to call him and convince him to come to London to form a band, and the rest is history.”