Featured Artist April 2008: The Police
The New Wave Music Site
The Police are a three-piece rock band consisting of bassist/lead vocalist Sting (Gordon Sumner), guitarist Andy Summers, and drummer Stewart Copeland. The band became globally popular in the early 1980s, playing a style of rock that was influenced by jazz, reggae, and punk music. Their 1983 album, Synchronicity, was number one in the UK and the US and sold over 8,000,000 copies in the US. The band broke up in the mid-1980s, but reunited in early 2007 with the announcement that they are undertaking a world tour. The tour is scheduled from the middle of that year on until mid-2008, in celebration of the 30th anniversary of their hit single "Roxanne" and also, to a lesser extent, that of their formation as a group. To date The Police have sold over 50 million albums worldwide. Rolling Stone ranked The Police number 70 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. The Police were founded by American-born drummer Stewart Copeland in early 1977. After the demise of his progressive rock band Curved Air, Copeland was anxious to form a new three-piece group and join the burgeoning London punk scene. Singer-bassist Sting and guitarist Henry Padovani began rehearsing with Copeland in January 1977, and they recorded their first Police single, "Fall Out"/"Nothing Achieving," the following month. Acting Manager Paul Mulligan paid for the recording of the single. In March and April, the threesome toured as a support act for Cherry Vanilla as well as Wayne County & the Electric Chairs. 1. In May, ex-Gong musician Mike Howlett invited Sting and former Eric Burdon and the Animals guitarist Andy Summers to form Strontium 90 with him, as a project band for a Gong reunion. The drummer Howlett had in mind for this band, Chris Cutler, was unavailable to play, so Sting brought along Stewart Copeland. Strontium 90 recorded several demo tracks at Virtual Earth Studios, and then performed at a Gong reunion concert in Paris on May 28, 1977. An album with some of these studio and live tracks (with the first recorded version of "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic") was released twenty 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 meant that his tenure with the band was short. Soon after an aborted recording session with producer John Cale on August 10, Padovani left the band and Summers took over sole guitar duties. This lineup of Copeland, Sting, and Summers would endure for the rest of Police history.
Outlandos d’Amour (1978) CLICK HERE.
Regatta de Blanc (1979) CLICK HERE.
Zenyatta Modatta (1978) CLICK HERE.
Ghost In The Machine (1981) CLICK HERE.
Synchronicity (1983) CLICK HERE.
Message In A Box: The Complete Recordings (1993) CLICK HERE.
Every Breath You Take: The Classics (1995) CLICK HERE.
The Police: Live! (2003) CLICK HERE
See our blog for further information on The Police
CLICK HERE to read more about The Police
The New Wave Music Site Features
See our blog for further information on Featured Albums and Artists.
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FEATURED ALBUMS
Kings Of The Wild Frontier by Adam And The Ants (1980)
Kings Of The Wild Frontier by Adam And The Ants (1980) CLICK HERE.
B-52’s by B-52’s (1979)
B-52’s by B-52’s (1979) CLICK HERE.
FEATURED SONGS
Nowhere Girl by B-Movie (From the album Remembrance Days)(1982)
Nowhere Girl by B-Movie (1982) CLICK HERE.
Love Plus One by Haircut 100 (From the album “Pelican West“) (1982)
Love Plus One by Haircut 100 (1981) CLICK HERE.