The Police's Stewart Copeland: 'Sting was a golden shaft of light' | Gold

I I go all googly when I meet Ringo sitting next to him at a dinner party what do you say to a beetle other than so Ringo uh how do you like that Ludwig bass drum pedal and to my surprise well actually you know I prefer the Rogers and we get into a whole discussion there's little old me talking to a beetle Ringo no less about bass drum pedals how cool is that 60 million records sold I think it is now seven Grammys is that right under your belt oh yeah that's that's incredible in the last couple of years at 70 to still be earning Grandma's Grammys I am very proud of her they're still coming in very blessed yeah they're in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame it's an absolute honor Stuart Copeland uh is with a song called Thank you for coming in well my pleasure um it must be great to be back in London this is where it all began yes it is I was a teenager on these streets and don't let my accent fool you uh I'm a London boy in fact I grew up in the woods you know yeah you did St John's Wood yeah yeah your first band was over here is that right that's right well yeah a curved air was the first pro band I played in college bands and and such but uh my first pro band was curved air and then my second Pro band was the police I mean when we played completely different time 400 yards away from here we played in a punk rock club called uh the Roxy oh the Rocks was famous the Roxy it's not there anymore but his face yeah yeah well the reputation yeah yeah it was a wild Club yeah yeah yeah I mean a different fashion with the with the big boots and the yeah we've done the Roxy the long hair yeah and the Marquee which is not there anymore uh The 100 Club which is I don't know if that's still there on Oxford Street did you did you meet many other bands did you get to hang out with any big names when you were playing these gigs oh well they're all sniveling nobodies at the time as we all were yeah uh the jam uh The Clash the Damned um I never saw the Sex Pistols that's one of those because they only played three gigs or something like that nobody saw the Sex Pistols but everybody has you know they were probably seen by 20 people but bragged on by 5 000 people was this before or after you were because I heard that you were a roadie for a while oh yeah yeah I've done it all in in show business but that's not like a road tour manager radio jock in fact is that right journalist drummer guitarist even singer a few years ago I did a tour as the in front of the band and the front of the stage singing and playing guitar of course I had Mark King playing real bass and Adrian blue playing real guitar uh and I was just protecting at the front you can do anything just hitting e chords and stuff that was a that was a fun fun deal I love hearing you talk about music because you're so passionate about music and I wonder whether there's there's one artist or band that you heard when you were younger that set you along that path oh that would be Jimi Hendrix it was Jimmy absolutely because I know you're a big fan of his drummer yeah Mitch Mitchell one of those strange things that Mitch Mitchell who should be at the Apex of all drumming is sort of Forgotten because Jimi Hendrix was so big and bad and people remember the Jimi Hendrix experience and hard he was so incredible they hardly noticed that sitting right behind him was this incredible legendary drummer who changed a lot of stuff did you ever get to meet any of these guys he did uh crust beware Mr Baker crusty old dude but we got along pretty well actually I met him on the side of a polo field and they go of all places hey young young man he'd called me and he Ginger can call me whatever he can call me hey you or yeah or look here or even a finger to the shoulder and I'd be honored but you're a bit of a rock star you see but I wonder how were you were you Starstruck when you met him well he probably treated me nicer than most people we got along finally in fact I probably got the last recording of Ginger Baker he came to my studio um and banged on my drums and we jammed for a bit but I got one minute which is on my YouTube channel um and uh while he was there he had a fit and the ambulance was called yeah and they're uh and the the Medics are saying well we're gonna have to take you down to the hospital back off now I get out of here yeah you know and uh I used to be able to do London accent but now whether you're in California that's pretty close I'm more like Dick Van Dyke now say I'm gonna leave that out let's leave it out yeah so Rockstar till the end he was yeah um well grumpy um but uh imposing yeah and I got along fine with him as you know no sudden movements can I ask I mean because obviously you know that must be the case for for so many bands from this generation and perhaps you know Generations before that have grown up with your music and then actually get to meet you um well actually overtly the Foo Fighters made Fanboy cool yeah Dave and sadly you know are dearly missed Taylor Hawkins yeah yeah they both made no bones of the fact that they were total Fanboys and they would gush and and but it was Charming they're just real people and the whole the Foo Fighters are a great hang generally anyway but that bandwidth that age group of the Rage Against the Machine the Red Hot Chili Peppers um fish Primus that bandwidth those are my people it's funny how the ego just totally drops it there on the spot for that moment they're underneath you you're you're like a godson yeah they're a stadium act but well that's I I go all googly when I meet Ringo yeah you know Mr Starkey can I uh you know and but you know sitting next to him at a dinner party um what do you say to a beetle oh other than so Ringo uh how do you like that Ludwig bass drum pedal and to my surprise well actually you know I prefer the Rogers and we get into a whole discussion there's little old me talking to a beetle Ringo no less about bass drum pedals how cool is that but there's a natural hierarchy there oh absolutely they're above me and the way we figure it out uh it's very simple amongst musicians and I'm not sure if this works for actors and other celebs too but with musicians it's really simple it's not how many records you sold it's not how many tickets you sold it's simply a matter of chronology who was first the bass player and the pretty things outranks me because he came before me but puffy you know uh Kanye is you know has to look up to me he absolutely that's great for me you know I don't care how many records it's just it keeps it simple sales you know we're like dogs you know dogs you know they sniff each other's butt and they you know figure it out and they're but as soon as they figured out the hierarchy you're the top dog I'm the middle dog he's the little you know the baby dog as soon as they're all sorted out everybody's happy they all get along just fine and so that's how musicians get along just fine you know I'm above puffy uh I'm below Ringo we're all cool with that but on first name you know terms which is great um so it must have been going back to the police it must have been around the uh the punk era that the police were born absolutely yeah exciting Streets of London you came up with a name yeah yeah the whole I had a Manifesto the whole deal yeah and when I called sting up in Newcastle uh I told yep I got a band we're called the police I got material we got gigs it's all going on and um uh my my certitude was convincing enough actually what convinced him was the do-it-yourself thing because the story is that a journalist up in Newcastle when I was in curved air it took us to see his the local hot band Last Exit featuring a bass player who could sing and play bass and had handsome looking amp there that's useful and but there was also one other Factor yeah which was this unmistakable from the heavens shaft of celestial light lighting up this guy with Charisma out to here and we were introduced and uh you know you can't say that sting made you know that success swelled his head or anything he was The Lion King from birth he just had that because he comes across as being quite shy well he is shy yeah and people sometimes make mistake it for arrogance or stand off he's not arrogant at all in fact quite separate uh self-deprecating but we met and I remembered he can sing and play bass and he has an amp you know those are the three things you need in a bass player uh and oh there's that golden shaft of light too that's cool um so I called him from London and said yeah I got this band and I the first thing I said was that by the way this is a conversation about you not your band and those fateful words were keep talking right there I knew that a he was a free agent and he was available and opened to suggestion and keep talking that's what I had to do a lot of for the next couple years keeping him in the band we didn't have Roxanne we didn't have Message in a Bottle we didn't have any of those songs success some people think it was an overnight success but there was a lot of hard work we started for a year and a half yeah and I've you know I've heard stories of you guys you know sliding the vinyl into sleeves and selling records out of boxes you know well yeah well I discovered because I was do it yourself I borrowed 400 quid from a friend we went up to pathway Studios and in Islington and uh I took the pressings to the factory RCA to print the records and I had the sleeves printed over here and I learned that you're supposed to deliver the sleeves to the factory so that they will put the records in the picture sleeves uh so the for I didn't get that right so the first 2 000 singles were in their white sleeves and sting Henry padovani and I had to sit there and pull each disc out of there and put it in out of the whites he put it into the picture disc and at the same time you're trying to convince this guy to stay in the band that's right well he had everybody whispering in his ear as you can imagine yeah yeah yeah but even you know one Miracle is that he heard my demo tapes which I've I've got them they're pretty crap um and he heard those tapes and didn't run away that's one Miracle but the even bigger Miracle is when we ran into Andy Summers sting and I actually were really a tight Rhythm Section in demand even you know we did a lot of work together as just this hot Rhythm Section and one of the sessions we did the guitarist walks in who's like a triple scale little super legendary guitarist in London who you know it probably cost more than sting and I put together name of Andy Summers and we spent a day making really great kind of Prague music which we didn't allow ourselves in the police because we were technically a punk band and so we didn't allow that kind of musical exploration but driving home that night where you know while we're playing we're giving each other side man that guy's good and as we're driving home stings goes we got to get that guy in the band again come on we I could I could indulge his fantasy because I knew it was never going to happen we can't afford that guy are you kidding you know but and so we we did a show with this you know we sort of had further interactions while we're all like conniving how can we get this guy in our band and one day I ran into him an Oxford Circus tube station he pulls me into a cafe and says you and I bass player you got something and but you need me in the band and I accept um now he does hate it when I tell that story and I'm sorry though because that's who Andy is he's absolutely direct to the point no beating around the bush but I could not believe my ears yeah I couldn't you know we we've been conniving as to how to get Andy in the band now we had to figure out how to get Henry out of the band uh but I saw but I had to kick the wheels yeah and you know Andy I'm very honored and flattered uh this thing's gonna be real happy but you know we haven't got a record company the record company is me it's a pretend record company with me with my Electro set that's the right illegal records that's the record company we haven't got management the management well that's me uh using my brother miles's Rolodex and so on but they I'm the management uh Roadies that's you carrying your own damned amplifier and um but does that make you a pre I mean Looking Back Now um and the level at which you got to I mean eventually playing sold out Stadium gigs does that eventually but but yeah it was it was it was a big climb up there but do you think that makes you appreciate it more yes overnight Sensations somehow seem to burn out sooner and enjoy it all less uh we had enough time because I had had a previously with curved era I had some success I had been yeah my name had been in print and I had some recognition and I'd played big places and I had some of the vibe of what it's like to be in a successful band even though with in that case with curved air I was the last rat to jump aboard the sinking ship their hits had been 10 years previous to me joining them yeah yeah but still I had had a taste yeah and then gone down again and so when it started to come up again I had been up and down and I the old ad age the people you abuse on the way up you will meet up on the way down and so Having learned that I was a little bit better armed of course Andy had been around the block um and actually it was Sting for whom it was all real new uh the first time you're on top of the pops was actually with Andy and sting as my backing band for Clark Kent yes I think I think that performance exists out there on you oh it is that's on YouTube uh with Tony Blackburn I mean imagine playing it wasn't always by the way shows Tony Blackburn was an old school friend here not school friend he attended the same school milfield school in Somerset is that right before I was there and when I was at millfield he was a big boss jock on on the radio and then he ended up playing your records then he ended up playing the record but the secret Clark Kent had a secret identity I played all the instruments the guitar-based even the singing no I never sang in the shower I never sang in the car I never even listened to vocals I'm listening to the Riff and the drums and if I'm interacting with music I'm pounding the steering wheel with my hands I never but there I am singing this song which the BBC Her Majesty the BBC picked this up and put it on the radio on playlist equals a hit so I they get me on top of the pops but I don't want to be one solo guy standing there even if I did play all the instruments I like being a part of a band so I called up Andy and sting and another buddy of mine my predecessor drummer on curved air Florian Pilkington Nixa old etonian and uh we so we played the song so the first time the three blonde heads were on national TV they were in gorilla masks and there's old stingo playing miming to my Baseline it's very hard to drag that brag out of me you know somehow that somehow does come up in conversation please go and search that out if you haven't seen it on YouTube it is out there it is out there it's the it's the 40th anniversary of Every Breath You Take This Year where's that time gone uh into seven children yeah uh five grandchildren and now four grand puppies really yeah they take happy time oh I love the puppies well actually most of them are dogs we just we just got a new grand puppy and uh strolls along the beach the old thing the old ad age amongst us old duffers is you know um you know if I'd known how much fun the grandchildren were going to be I'd have had them first it's not the easy part but it's certainly easier oh I love grandchild you pour candy down them you bribe them you keep them up late you play with them and then hand them over exactly none of the responsibility yeah but I mean going back to that song where does that take you back to in your life uh I try not to go back to the origins of the song which were deeply painful on Montserrat where we we had the knives in each other's throats uh we're all you know we all get it now things are okay yeah yeah as well yeah yeah yeah yeah we're all good about it and we're all very appreciative of what the conflict produced yeah I wouldn't have been like that if we hadn't been at each other's throats and the conflict was because each of the three of us cared deeply about what we were doing if we were apathetic if we were passengers there wouldn't have been that conflict but all three of us had an opinion which made it quite difficult but we got through it and uh are very pleased with the result yeah that's correct I don't think many bands work that way anymore well I know lots of like the Foo Fighters they get along great yeah they hang out yeah you know uh they'll call each other hey what are you doing let's go let's get them oh they're so agreeable and but they run a tight ship Dave is the hardest working man in Show Business he is really you know with the loss of James Brown Dave is now the hardest working man in Show Business that show that the Foos did in London at Wembley the tribute show five hours that did not stop that's all Dave I mean he called up all those artists he figured out the material because he mixed you know half of this band half of that band put them together what song should they play he figured all that out yeah he ran all the rehearsals he curated all the material and then for five hours on stage fronted it all either singing or drumming or Bass playing or guitar playing he was on stage for five hours and did not flag for a second that was one of the most emotional powerful shows I've ever been involved with so what gave you the uh the idea then to take these these songs that are I mean these great Police songs that are so close to people's hearts and you know they're the kind of songs that you could hear on the radio they instantly take it back to a moment in your life what gave you the idea to do what you've done and and come up with this project the deranged project well exactly what you said which is they have this place in people's hearts the music and memory are very closely attached and the memories are very powerful associated with that song well even if you weren't a fan of the song or the band you heard it on the radio whether you liked it or not you fell in love to it you fell out of love you got hired fired divorced married you lived your life with these songs and so they have a real emotional impact so when I play them with a big Orchestra on stage these versions of them where you'll you'll recognize that the main bits uh the hooks if you like the choruses although I do play hide the hit sometimes but so there's this other material around the familiar parts of the song The orchestral stuff and but it's all very policish because it derives some improvisations that the band did on stage or excursions in the studio that never made it on the record so it's all police-ish but stuff you haven't heard before but it still comes from that same policish place so I've played the show about 25 30 times by now and it always burns down the house it's really a safe bet that I'm gonna I'm so happy to be playing the show in London tomorrow night um I'm so happy to walk out in front of my hometown with this show I cannot wait it must be so fun watching the audience reaction oh yeah it's emotional because the people also when we did our reunion tour we see how emotionally overwhelmed people were okay there were 15 back in the day they're 35 now but still even more beautiful because they've had life experience and the songs mean so much to people that that's very moving that's why we do stuff on stage is to move people and for you personally is the drummer what's the difference between performing in that situation compared to being on stage with I mean you played the reunion tour a few years back now but what how different is it oh well just for one thing yeah I don't have the bass player turning around and telling me whether to play the hi-hat or the ride so far you're the boss when we did the yeah when we did the reunion tour uh and we get into our first rehearsals and sting goes what is that racket going on before behind my left shoulder what's hello I try to sing a song here and I'm banging stuff as I do as I've always done and the bass player turns around and has an opinion in well I haven't had a bass player talk back to me in 30 years and now this guy's like telling me to play my hi-hat and here's why I had to kill him because he does know a thing or two about bands and arranging and you know he's a pretty talented gifted musician old stingo and uh when he would turn around with an idea that was actually a pretty good idea that's when I must murder him now I would go mad yeah to drive you crazy yeah um so there's an album out as well the police to arranged for orchestra 23rd of June um along with uh I just must quickly talk about this your Diaries which you you're sharing as well oh yeah well those hungry years when we began yeah um 76 77 78 79 um was the fun part not the fun part it was the miserable part the the but the interesting part of the story The Struggle part when we were starving and the Miracle is that we stuck together without those big songs but just we knew that we were in the right musical company Andy man that's the guitarist I want to play with stingo he just had it every which way he could play bass and sing and had an amp uh just he and like all that you know these were the guys we wanted to play with but we didn't have any material yet we just had my dumb songs which were just you know the place fillers so that we could play Punk clubs and you know I use my scant knowledge of the instrument to concoct these idiotic songs with yelling basically and uh I think Sting's first song was a retread from his jazz band that he brought in but the lyrics were it had some meaningful lyrics so we we changed I know that's too Prague you know let's change the name of the song to three o'clock and so we would play the song 100 miles or three times the speed that whatever he had played it in his previous band and uh he would he would just Mumble the lyrics so that nobody would know he was deep yeah just before I let you go is there one moment from those from those years that perhaps he's in the diary one moment that you're particularly proud of and that you think I'm so glad that happened I'm so glad I did that I got to do that well there were some big points I I think I might have mentioned running into Andy at the Oxford Circus where he demanded to join the group yeah that was a good day yeah uh there was a time I called up staying in Newcastle and said okay I'll come down to London okay the big one was when he arrived in London unbeknownst just out of the blue the phone rings sting on the phone saying you know that gravelly voice that we all know so well yeah yeah I'm downstairs well come on up and he came up and I was in a squat in Mayfair at the time uh okay a two-story fancy apartment long story what I was doing there but we were in there and uh we had one of the rooms equipment set up drums and everything I I had a base I put it into his hands and sat on the drums and we set the building on fire and just that afternoon when we were just discovering each other thinking this guy's a complete stranger but we are completely in the pocket that was the big moment when when uh sting and I first played together and just jammed through the afternoon just coming up with stuff you know scaling the mountains digging deep in you know it was just a fantastic afternoon and that's why we stuck together is because yeah as a Rhythm Section we rocked I love I love that that was so many years ago and yet you remember it so vividly that's fantastic hard to forget uh all in the diary switches out later on this summer oh it's been an absolute pleasure thank you so much for spending so long with us this morning

Channel: Gold Radio

Views: 412,546

Keywords: stewart copeland, the police, sting

Id: Z0Q4Eej04WM

Length: 24min 2sec (1442 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 27 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/bikerdudelovescats]

Top notch musician! Love his work!

[u/HawkeyeHoosier]

Excellent interview.