Stewart Copeland & THE POLICE : Drumming Up The Hits

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Born in 1952 in Virginia Stewart Copeland – the son of a CIA agent – spent his formative years in the Middle East but attended college in California before settling in England in 1975 He joined the progressive rock outfit Curved Air working first as their road manager then as their drummer In early 77 he founded the Police with singer bassist Sting and guitarist Henri Padovani soon replaced by Andy Summers Their first hit 79 39 s quot Roxanne quot set the course for huge success to follow The trio emerged as one of the most popular and innovative bands of the post-punk era drawing upon reggae funk and world music to create a uniquely infectious yet cerebral brand of pop which generated a series of smash singles including quot Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic quot quot Every Breath You Take quot and quot King of Pain quot While with the Police Steward also issued a solo record under the alias Klark Kent This not only earned him wide critical acclaim for his intricate textured drum work but also for his songwriting as he contributed many of the group 39 s songs When the Police officially disbanded in 1986 the band was still at their commercial peak Disagreements betwenn members had caused the trio 39 s collapse and Stewart took to composing film scores earning himself a Golden Globe nomination He increasingly spent more time on film scores In 2002 Stewart formed a new rock-oriented project Oysterhead – a power trio supergroup A year later he produced and directed Everyone Stares a documentary film about his time in the Police In 2007 Stewart reunited with his former bandmates to celebrate their 30th anniversary Stewart also wrote his memoir Strange Things Happen A Life with The Police Polo and Pygmies at this time In 2021 Stewart collaborated on the instrumental 39 Divine Tides 39 The album won the 2022 Grammy Award for Best New Age Album giving Copeland his first Grammy win outside of the five he earned as a member of the Police He also released 39 Police Deranged for Orchestra 39 where he reworked Police hits for an orchestra In 2023 he published Stewart Copeland 39 s Police Diaries a book based on his original diary entries from 1976-1979 This week Stewart Copeland joins us to regale us with his many stories If you 39 d like to kmow more about him head for https www stewartcopeland net 151 life-and-work If you 39 d like to request a guest send me a message through my website https www abreathoffreshair com au I know you 39 re going to LOVE this episode He 39 s quite a character Click here to visit this podcast episode