The Police: News, History & Updates

The Police Biography by Greg Prato

Excerpts from Greg’s books for Alternative Nation

COLIN HAY [Men at Work singer/guitarist]: They were an awesome band – everything about them was awesome, really. Amazing bass player, amazing drummer, amazing guitar player – they were almost like the perfect band. Because of its minimalism, too. Great power in three.

PHIL COLLEN [Deff Leppard guitarist]: The Police are my favorite band. Loved what they were doing. You just wanted to see how they would play this stuff – the stuff that Stewart Copeland was playing on drums. It’s your favorite band, and you could see where they go with it. “Every Breath” was great – the black and white, and the upright bass. Just the imagery – perfect imagery. When you write a song, you’re supposed to create an image as much as you can. Like a story or a book or a movie – like you’re directing a movie. If you direct a video and it’s along those lines, I certainly think with the Police videos, they were very cool. They weren’t too far off from the mark of what the song was about.

Obviously, Sting is a true artist, and he was pretty much aware of what was going on and the band were. Like I said, we were a bit green – especially on the ‘Pyromania’ thing. The ‘Hysteria’ thing was different because we’d learned a lot by then. But we were just thrown into it. And I think you look at the Police stuff, and their approach is a bit more “grown up.” They actually knew what they were doing.

ALAN HUNTER [ex-MTV VJ]: I think the Police brought a lot of class to the place. They seemed to be “the real thing.” I loved their stripped-down, three-man sound – that stuff from ‘Zenyatta Mondatta,’ and somewhat ‘Ghost in the Machine,’ although it started to become more produced at that point. It was kind of like Rush – three guys make a lot of noise. A good, full sound. I thought it was amazing how you only had three instruments playing and Sting’s voice – in those early days.

To me, the “Spirits in the Material World” video played at 2:00 in the morning really provided the kind of atmosphere that almost made MTV hallucinogenic in that first year. Coming in from a night on the town, to hear that song, and those chords in the beginning – kind of gave me chills. I still remember that video, along with things like “Once in a Lifetime,” or even, for God’s sakes, the cheesy “Abracadabra” from Steve Miller, or “Brass in Pocket” from the Pretenders. Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot more of those songs, and it gives me goose bumps.

MIKE SCORE [A Flock of Seagulls singer/keyboardist]: Touring with the Police was the “heavenly spot.” The Police were the biggest band in the world, and we were opening up for them – I think we ended up doing 30 or more shows with them. All huge shows, all brilliant. Watching Sting and the Police was like watching a master magician at work. Certain things that he did – which kept the crowd on edge, and kept them wanting more. Just things he said, and his delivery and their timing. It was like going to school every day. The thing is with the Police, it took them quite a while to become as big as they did – so they obviously learned a lot on the way. And part of our problem was we weren’t even going for a year when we were suddenly catapulted into stardom. We didn’t really have time to learn.

STEWART COPELAND [The Police drummer]: [The music video for “Every Breath You Take”] was extremely high concept – Kevin and Lol again. It was based on another video that they had seen, and I think they’ve been public about that – they’ve credited that. Probably some French black and white director. It was very steady, very set up – every frame of it was a concept, which they designed on paper. And we were very much “set dressing.” Even Sting – although he was performing his song, the way they positioned the three of us, and the way they shot it, each frame was like a work of art. Each frame was like a black and white photograph.

STAN RIDGWAY [Wall of Voodoo singer]: Fake reggae. I don’t know them – I’m not really close to any of that. Stewart had seen Wall of Voodoo play in London, and his brother, Miles, was the head of our little record company then – IRS Records. When Stewart got called to do this Francis Ford Coppola film, ‘Rumble Fish,’ he started to do the soundtrack, and I guess at some point, Coppola wanted a song, so Stewart thought of me and called me up. I appreciate that. Wrote the song [“Don’t Box Me In”], went in there, performed it, put it down, Stewart put a bridge to it – so we did write it together.

DEREK POWER [Stewart Copeland’s manager]: The Police were on top of the world [circa ‘Synchronicity’] – they were the biggest band in the world, and deservedly so. Creatively, I’ve always loved Michael Jackson for what he was – but he was a pop artist. I’ve always felt that the Police were something more. And I think you will find that there’s a statistic that says that “Every Breath You Take” is the most played song of the 1980’s. Michael Jackson sold more records, but I don’t think he was creatively more interesting – neither lyrically and melodically. But he was Michael Jackson.

QUOTE SOURCES (CLICK LINK FOR ORDER INFO):

All quotes from MTV Ruled the World: The Early Years of Music Video