POLICE

Rip It Up, Issue 32, 1 March 1980, Page 1

POLICE

Poor Police. A worse blowout of a tour would be.hard to imagine. And none of it their fault. Nobody's fault, really. Sting had the bad luck to pick up one of those viruses in Hong Kong, leaving him voiceless. Andy got it too, but recovered. Sting, who has to carry all the singing chores, also caught flu, further aggravating things. By the time he emerged from an exhaustive Customs search at Christchurch he was as white as a sheet and one step away from collapse. The Christchurch gigs went ahead, the first night spoilt by a power failure early in the show. The following night, everything worked and the normally reserved Avonsiders went apples. That was to the cost of Wellington and Auckland. The Sting throat gave up the ghost, and blooie went four shows. Nobody was more upset than The Police What’s more, with their commitments, it’ll be next January before they enter this part of the world again. They left with fingers crossed and Sting stuffed to the eyebrows with antibiotics. Ahead of them were shows across Australia, then onto Thailand, India and Egypt. Sting stayed long enough to receive his gold discs when the band met the Press in Auckland, then went off to bed. Copeland and Summers were left to field the questions, and bless them, they still had their senses of humour intact, despite all they’d been through. ALTER EGO Copeland even managed to laugh off a question about his mysterious alter ego, Clark Kent. He’s recorded a single or two under that-name for an independent British label, and true to the form of all superheroes, he continues to deny that he and Kent are one in the same. “Clark Kent has an album due out in April,’’ he says. “But he’s a busy guy, being president of a number of multi-national oil firms. He has commitments as a religious leader as well.” Sting, it is revealed, is currently considering two film offers, having already made his name

in Quadrophenia and The Great Rock n’ Roll Swindle. One of the films is being directed by moviefuhrer Francis Ford Coppola. An honour indeed. But the role is that of a rock star and Sting doesn’t want to be typecast. So he’s yet to make up his mind.. Copeland claims the honour of being the only drummer to play a Saturn V rocket. That happened while they were filming a clip of “Walking On The Moon” at Cape Canaveral. Away from the artificial atmosphere of the news conference, Copeland talks about Reggatta de Blanc:

“We did a lot more improvisation. I think it’s a lot slicker album, and more organised, and that’s because we’d been playing together longer. “When we did Outlandos we rehearsed those songs in the studio without too many gigs and we hadn’t really cottoned onto improvisation at that point. So it just came down to the songs, and they were good songs. “But with the second album, we’d been touring constantly, with lots of improvisation on stage, so when we did the album we’d had no rehearsal at all, and we just arranged the material in the studio, and recorded it. “ 'Message In A Bottle’, for instance, when we recorded it, was about 20 minutes long in its original take, just getting the chord changes and the choruses. Then we took out the scissors and cut it down. So actually, it was rehearsed, arranged and recorded at the same time.” BETTER LIVE This approach shows up very strongly in the album, which hints at what can be done with the songs in a live setting. Stu says the songs from Reggatta work better on stage, but that is only to be expected in the sterile aura of the recording studio. Stu is much happier on stage, t when the bad gets a chance to jam. “Those parts are more fun, when you take chances and every gig is different. You feel more of a buzz when there are some chances being taken.” Outlandos owed more to reggae than to jazz, a trend which was reversed on the second album. “Maybe we’d had a chance to get further into our own direction with it (reggae) on the second album. We were originally inspired by it, but we never were attempting to re-create it. We just picked up a feel from it and did out own thing with it." Copeland is quick to acknowledge.the debt The Police owe to the new wave and the way it changed musical attitudes. “Before the punk revolution it was not possi-

ble to form a new group and be in business until you had a record deal. To get a deal you had to use your credentials, which the record company would use to promote the group. You had to have a hit single. You had all these rules you had to conform to, and there were a lot of really good groups that didn't have those ingredients. “I know groups like Devo, for instance, who would never have got radio play, but suddenly this new generation decided that they were going to support those artists. So the new clubs started opening up everywhere and the kids started buying those singles like crazy. And so it was suddenly possible to form a group without a record company, to form your own record company, and you could go straight for it. “Also, those kids were much more fun to play to. They enjoyed themselves more at concerts, they were worth being in a band for.’’ OLD WAVERS The Police could probably have presented their credentials to the world as Old Wavers, but where that would have left them is anyone’s guess. Andy Summers alone has played for Zoot Money. Kevin Coyne and Soft Machine, to name just three. Instead, they chose to aim at the up-and-coming audience, which meant those credentials had to be avoided. “It did us a lot of harm,” says Stu. “In fact, at the beginning a lot of people were suspicious about us, first of all because we were playing those clubs (Roxy, etc) before the revolution had succeeded. All the guys in bands I’d hung out with, such as Climax Blues Band, Caravan and Wishbone Ash, all thought I was completely mad, and all the journalists who hadn’t picked up yet thought ‘God, another group goes berserk’. They just didn’t understand, even in England in the early days, but at the same time they knew who we were, they knew our credentials, so we initially had a tough time with the English press, but we soon worked them into shape. "The thing about the English press is they can really help somebody. Like the Clash, it would have been impossible for them to make it without the press. The press didn’t make it possible for us, we had to find other ways of getting into peoples’ conscioushess. In fact the only medium that was amenable to our music was word of mouth.’’ MOVIE AND ALBUM In the pipeline is a new album which could turn out a “concept work" (Stu raises his eyes to heaven). It will probably be based around a

film of the band on a world tour. "We could make another zillion-seller commercial album, we’ve already sussed out how to do that, and the way we did that was by doing what comes naturally. What comes naturally, to us now may not be what everybody wants, but it’s pretty much based around music for a movie.” I doubt whether The Police will have trouble gaining acceptance for such a move, having already re-written a few unspoken laws (no pun intended). Listening to their albums while writing this, I can only feel sheer blind frustration over what I missed due to the most unfortunate circumstances. I only hope they don't repeat themselves next time. Duncan Campbell

HELLO SAILOR BREAK-UP Surprise split in. February was Hello Sailor. They played ..their final gig on Saturday, February 23 at the Windsor Castle to a very full house, and a crowded footpath. Two days later Graham and Lisle returned to Aussie. Before leaving, Graham Brazier recorded two recent compositions, “Mr Asia” and "One Bullet In A Six-Piece Chamber”. He played guitar, and Dudes Peter Urlich (drums) and Les White (bass) helped out. In Sydney, Brazier intends to write for Marc and Todd Hunter’s new label, Axel Records. About Sailor’s demise, Brazier . said, “Everybody wanted to do slightly different things, but we’ll probably work with one another in the.future, writing and so on.” He thought it would be pointless for the band to return to Australia or the USA. “If it was two years ago it would have been worth persevering, but.you can only work on• the road for two years or so, then you don’t want to know about it.” Apparently the break-up took place when other Sailor members refused to again link their futures contractually with their temperamental lead finger. Brazier promptly booked his ticket. Harry Lyon warns that the return of the Fabulous Fabrications (Sailor without Brazier) may be imminent. POLICE COMPETITION RESULTS The Festival Records POLICE spot the difference competition was Rip It Up's biggest ever seven hundred and fifty entries were received. : First prize winner (t-shirt, both Police albums, Police poster) is lan Morgan, Christchurch. Winners of Police’s latest album Regatta de Blanc and a poster

are Dave McLean (Tamaki) and Anne Scarrow (Hamilton). The twenty live readers to win Police posters are Jan van Gisbergen Manurewa, Carol Camden Masterton, Darren Werner Kaitaia, Mike Thornton Papakura, Rex Maxwell Birkdale, Tim Birchall Whangarei, Beth Buchannan Mt Wellington, Edna Morrison Tauranga, David Ault Hamilton, Duncan Hutchinson Birkenhead, Charise Waddingham Orewa, Tim Cullen Te Awamutu, Rudy Vanderpol Glendene, Rosemary Lewis Glen Innes, Kevin Rogers Khandallah, Julie Smith Christchurch, Kathy Joe Dunedin, Bryan Claridge Devonport, Tim Lander New Plymouth, Lois Wilson Westmere, Tim Woon Karori, Bruce Kernshan Wellington, Nicholas Ferneyhough Manurewa, Brendan Hoffman Invercargill.