Sting Reuniting with Police for 30th Anniversary Tour?
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James Joyner | Monday, January 15, 2007 |
Sting and the Police are giving every indication that they will reunite for a 30th anniversary tour, reports Roger Friedman, except actually announcing that they’re reuniting. Apparently, the band members no longer hate one another and Sting’s ego is assuaged after a successful solo career.
It’s looking more certain than ever that Sting is about to reunite with his original band, The Police.
The signs are strong, with enough clues available so that even Colonel Mustard could figure it out. Here’s one: Yesterday, former Policemen Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland were guests, with their families, at a Malibu birthday party for Sting’s better half, Trudie Styler. Their appearance caused quite a stir.
And on Thursday night at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Sting dedicated a lute version of “Message in a Bottle” to the pair of former comrades who happened to be seated in the auditorium.
Further investigation: Although Sting and his camp remain mum on the subject, sources do tell me that the Police will reunite this summer to celebrate their 30th anniversary.
Such a tour makes sense for everyone, since a reunited Police would probably mean sold-out stadiums and arenas around the world. An announcement could come at any time.
And think of it: With U2 and the Rolling Stones having exhausted their audiences by now, the Police would have a clear shot this summer for record-breaking box-office numbers.
The Police only recorded five albums before breaking up in 1982, but their greatest hits remain radio staples a quarter century later. Since then, Sting has gone on to have an unparalleled hit solo career, while Summers and Copeland have concentrated on jazz and soundtrack composing.
Still, the group’s songs are widely known even to a new generation. “Every Breath You Take,” “Roxanne” and “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” are known to many different age groups.
If the Police do reunite — and there’s every reason to think they will — the impetus may have come from a documentary Copeland showed last year at the Sundance Film Festival called “Everyone Stares.” Icy relations among the three thawed when Sting attended a screening of the film.
This brings to mind two questions:
1. Sting has had a solo career? I vaguely remember buying some album about blue turtles and dreaming some years back, but I thought that was Chris Gaines.
2. It’s been thirty years?! I was in high school when they were at the height of their popularity. It simply can’t have been that long ago.
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.
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They're stretching it a bit...the band formed in 1977, and that's when "Roxanne" was released. However, it wasn't a hit until it was re-released in 1979.
Still, I loved the Police back in the day and have, for the most part, been pretty unimpressed with Sting's solo career. I saw them in concert in Austin in 1983 and I'd love to see them again before I die.
Other former member solo projects: I Advance Masked by Andy Summers and Robert Fripp is well worth a listen if you can find it, and Stewart Copeland has always been fun but The Equalizer and Other Favourites is perfect for late night- forgot to write the damn paper-background music.
OMG! I went to a giant round-up in Philadelphia when I was all of 18 years old just to hear "Every little thing she does is magic", which they didn't play. I ended up making out with some 22-year-old guy with a mustache--big deal to me at age 18--for most of the day. MIke something or another. It will come to me. I was drunk. He was sweet. Oh, to relive those days with the Police. Maybe they'll play my song THIS time!
Who wrote all their hit songs like "“Every Breath You Take,” “Roxanne” and “Don’t Stand So Close to Me”???
My point is, Sting is really the Police all by himself, isn't he? I mean he can get pretty much anyone to sing back up and play. Why does he need those guys, other than sentimentality?
Don't mean to be a jerk, but am I just blowing smoke?
(I think I will go out and get a copy of "Lolita" to read. You know---that book by Nabokov.)
I thought the same thing...that Sting WAS the Police. However, as his solo career progressed it quickly became apparent, at least to me, that the quality of his work just wasn't up to his Police standards.
Plus, Andy Summers' guitars and Stewart Copeland's drums just can't be approximated by anyone else!
I'm pretty much with Christopher and NoZe.
And Sting has had some decent post-Police songs.
Enough Post-POlice output, in fact, to support a Greatest Hits album, all on his own... with hardly a clinker in the lot. "Fields of Gold" I think it was called.
I have to agree with Bithead here. Sting has done quite a lot post-Police work to merit a discussion of his solo career. His works after leaving them shows much maturity and adaptation of styles that he couldn't do in the band, I'm thinking of songs like "Fields of Gold," "Englishman in New York," etc.
Just having a "Greatest Hits" album doesn't mean anything...and I've got Sting's! Still, I don't think I've listened to it since my wife gave it to me some years ago...with only a couple of exceptions, his post-Police stuff just leaves me yawning.
That's great that some people like his solo stuff...but, to me, nothing he's done since can hold a candle to the Police in their prime!
For me, as a budding drummer in high school in the early eighties, Stewart Copland was a big influence. As far as I can remember, he was, and still probably is, considered an innovative and influencial drummer, and as such, his contribution to the Police was pretty unique. Of course, a decent drummer could imitate him, but it wouldn't be the same. Another interesting point is whether he'll be up to the task. His style with the Police was often as a very physical, very hard hitting drummer. Just listen to the thwack! of the snare drum, so recognizable on many Police tunes.
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