Police- Outlandos d’Amour- Sting, Andy Summers, Stewart Copeland
“Outlandos d’Amour has a certain grotesque, naive charm about it,” Sting confesses in this rockumentary about the Police debut,”but Regatta de Blanc was infinitely a much better record.” He was absolutely correct, of course, but it was due simply to his, Police founder/ drummer Stewart Copeland‘s, and guitarist Andy Summers‘ lack of experience in the recording studio, not the songwriting which Sting provided. That is evidenced by Outlandos‘ “Next to You” and “Can’t Stand Losing You” being on par with the quintessential “Roxanne”, but also how the Police chose to perform even more muscularly the jazzy “Hole in My Heart” and “So Lonely” from their debut on their record-setting 2007-2008 world tour.
In his book One Train Later Andy Summers was kind enough to recall meeting me & our first Police interview on the infamous station wagon Outlandos U.S. tour. However, his memory failed him & in the book he places the meeting in New Mexico or some place in the Southwest (understandable, since I did relocate to Dallas Texas subsequent to our first two interviews). Actually it was Memphis Tennessee at my radio station ROCK 103. The band headlined a concert at the 2600 seat Orpheum Theater in early 1979, but only 200 people showed up. I introduced the band wearing an actual Memphis Police Department riot helmet & uniform shirt. When Sting joined me at the microphone, the first words out of his mouth were,”This should have been in a club.”
Much of the interview you now hear on this In the Studio program comes from their return to ROCK 103 Memphis on January 25, 1980 ( It was the first time anyone had ever sent a limousine to pick me up for lunch). After lunch we recorded the second interview, & only Sting & Andy could fit into the tiny control room with me. That night they indeed did play a club, the High Roller on Madison Avenue, but by now after Regatta‘s release they had to play two complete shows back-to-back for two completely separate audiences. A CBS television network camera crew from New York City was there filming for some kids news show. As before,the band asked me to introduce them for both shows. The tiny cramped dressing room was immediately behind the equally tiny stage, & all three members plus me were huddled in this space right behind Stewart’s drum chair. I watched Stewart, wearing gym shorts & knee-high white athletic socks, put on thin driving gloves, then tape over the gloves with duct tape. When I inquired what the heck he was doing, he shoved his left (snare) hand in my face & showed me these huge gashes all over the outside & knuckles of his hands.”When you play reggae,” the Police timekeeper explained,”you play the rim of the drum as often as the actual drum head. And your hands get sliced up pretty bad.”
