to whom it may concern (which is polite for those who give a crap): i was A&M Records' staff photographer back in the Seventies and covered the first three tours of The Police, and, like Emerson, Lake & Palmer before them, there was never a more unlikely trio of musicians. Most fans do not understand that The Police was conceptualized by drummer Stewart Copeland and his brother Miles, who managed the group; it was Stewart's band. Prior to The Police, Sting had done everything from dig ditches and deliver the mail to teach school. All three musicians started out as unknowns, but in a short amount of time, the lead singer--as always--became the star, and with each new album and tour Sting emerged both as a musician and star and left Stewart and Andy behind. The band entered into its initial state of dissolution about the time that Sting started making really awful movies. But Stewart had obsolescence factored in from the start: in one of his very first interviews, for WRAS radio in Atlanta, he said that he "couldn't wait for The Police to become a dinosaur band because that means we will have made it." As Sting branched out (at one point he starred in a really awful Broadway production of Threepenny Opera) Stewart and Andy grew more resentful and by the time the band broke up they hated each other. They did not speak again until the Amnesty International tour brought them together briefly. The recent reunion was the obligatory nostalgia-fuelled attempt to pass the hat one more time among a fan base that has a few bucks but rarely gets out any more. But these three guys still don't get along--hence the solo transportation flap--and if they did, they'd cut a new record.
Now you know.
www.murrayonspirit.com

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