The Police
A teacher from Newcastle, a drummer raised in Beirut and the most seasoned of session guitarists came together in a band that wove reggae, punk and jazz into a single sound.
At a glance 🔭💭
Some coordinates adapted from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0) · Pleiades (CC BY 3.0)
Members and associates ⏳🌊
- MemberStewart Copeland
The drummer, whose upbringing in the Middle East seeped into his intricate sense of rhythm.
- MemberSting
Bassist and singer, and the principal songwriter behind most of the band's songs.
- MemberAndy Summers
The guitarist with the most seasoned session career, who shaped the band's distinctive harmonies and tone.
- MemberHenry Padovani
The band's first guitarist, who handed his place to Summers within months of joining.
- ManagerMiles Copeland III
Stewart's older brother, he managed the band, founded IRS Records and discovered R.E.M.
- ProducerHugh Padgham
Working with the band on Ghost in the Machine and Synchronicity, he refined their later sound.
I. Three outsiders gathered in London · 1942–1977
(Formation) The band was formed in London, England, in 1977. American-born drummer Stewart Copeland joined forces with Sting, a bassist and singer from Newcastle, England; Henry Padovani played guitar at first but was soon replaced by Andy Summers. The band's name is said to have been Copeland's suggestion, and its authoritarian, provocative ring suited the rebellious mood of punk. (Copeland) Copeland was born in 1952 in Alexandria, Virginia, and spent his childhood in Cairo and Beirut, following his father, who worked for the intelligence services. The Arab percussion rhythms he encountered there would later run deep through his intricate drumming. He was playing drums for the progressive rock band Curved Air in London when he began to imagine a new band. (Sting) Born Gordon Sumner in 1951 in Newcastle, England, the son of a milkman, Sting grew up in a working-class neighborhood where shipbuilding was in decline. He worked as a primary school teacher and played bass in jazz clubs at night, and his fondness for a yellow-and-black striped sweater earned him the nickname Sting, for his resemblance to a bee. (Summers) The eldest of the three, Andy Summers was born in 1942 in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, England. A seasoned session guitarist who had passed through Zoot Money's band and an early lineup of Soft Machine, and had played with Eric Burdon and the Animals in America, he brought jazz harmony and a flair for effects to the band. (Punk) In 1976–77 the three stood at the edge of London's punk explosion. Schooled in jazz and session work, they played far better than their punk peers, and some critics suspected them of being fake punks; but with their self-financed debut single, "Fall Out," they began to forge a sound of their own that blended reggae, punk and jazz. The Clash, who moved through the same London clubs, were contemporaries they often crossed paths with.
II. Blond hair and Outlandos d'Amour · 1977–1978
(Contract) In 1978 they signed with A&M Records and recorded their debut album, Outlandos d'Amour, on a small budget. Short on studio time, the three finished the songs almost as if playing live, and these lean conditions only sharpened the record's raw energy. (Roxanne) The track "Roxanne" was inspired by Sting's stay near a red-light district in Paris, and because it pleads with a woman of the streets to give up that life, some radio stations were reluctant to air it. The initial response was faint, but steady play and word of mouth carried it slowly back up the charts. (Bleach) The bleached blond hair that became the trio's emblem actually began with nothing to do with music. Needing quick cash, they bleached their hair to appear in a chewing-gum commercial, and that striking look hardened into the band's visual identity. (Success) Buoyed by the belated success of "Roxanne" and relentless club and radio appearances, the album gained ground in both Britain and America. Until they escaped obscurity, the three endured on the toughness they had built hauling their gear in a battered van from one small venue to another across Europe.
Written from Sting's experience near a red-light district in Paris, the song pleads with a woman of the streets to give it up. Its raw, pleading vocal over a slow rhythm first introduced the band to the world.
- The low piano chord and the laughter in the intro are said to be sounds left in as they were, made when Sting accidentally sat down on the piano keys.
- Over a slow rhythm closer to tango than to reggae, Copeland's hi-hat etches restrained offbeats.
- The long falsetto high note Sting stretches out in the chorus is said to have been captured in a single take during the recording.
- Rather than filling out the chords, Summers's guitar leaves gaps in a jazz-like voicing that opens space throughout the song.
- Live, they would stretch out the improvised section near the end, varying it from show to show.
III. The signal of white reggae · 1979–1980
(Identity) The title of their second album, Regatta de Blanc, released in 1979, was a phrase of their own coinage meaning white reggae. Their distinctive idiom, dressing the offbeat guitar chops peculiar to Jamaican music in punk's speed and jazz harmony, came into sharp focus in this period. (Message) "Message in a Bottle" portrays the loneliness of someone stranded alone on an island, and the shimmering arpeggiated guitar Summers shaped with a chorus effects pedal holds up the entire song. It went straight to number one on the UK singles chart on release and vaulted the band to stardom overnight. (World tour) In 1980 they embarked on an unusual world tour through places Western rock bands rarely went, including Greece, Egypt, India and Mexico. This journey in search of unfamiliar stages and audiences left its mark on the exotic rhythms and textures that would fill Zenyatta Mondatta. (Don't Stand) Drawn from Sting's years as a teacher, "Don't Stand So Close to Me" depicts the tension between a student and a teacher; it gave them another UK number one and went on to win a Grammy in 1982. (Royalties) Sting wrote almost single-handedly the songs that made up most of the band's income, yet the royalties were split among the three. The imbalance did not explode right away, but it planted the seed of the rift that would later shake the band.
A song about the isolation of being left alone on a desert island, it went straight to number one on the UK singles chart on release and made the band stars.
- The arpeggiated riff in the intro is a sound Summers made by blurring the notes layer upon layer with a chorus effect, and it became the band's signature guitar tone.
- Built from open chords with two or more extra notes added (add9 chords), the riff rings far more brightly than a simple three-note triad.
- Copeland's drumming moves between reggae's offbeat chops and rock's straight-ahead beat, creating tension and drive at once.
- In the choral section near the end, the three voices pile up layer upon layer and ring out as if bleeding into one another.
- Rather than flashy movement, the bass stays in support of the melody, keeping the whole song in balance.
Their third album, completed right after an unusual world tour; its track "Don't Stand So Close to Me" won a Grammy in 1982.
- The signature track, "Don't Stand So Close to Me," sketches the tension between a teacher and a student over cool synthesizer tones.
- Throughout the album you can feel the tight live ensemble breathing honed on the world tour.
- "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da" is built on a vocal melody that relishes the rhythm of the sounds themselves more than their meaning.
- Rather than repeating the same riff, Summers's guitar shifts its harmonic color from song to song, lending each a different texture.
IV. The peak of ghosts and synchronicity · 1981–1983
(Sound shift) Beginning with Ghost in the Machine in 1981, they brought saxophone and synthesizer to the fore. The title was taken from Arthur Koestler's book of the same name, and anxiety about a mechanized modern society and the political tensions of the Cold War seeped through the lyrics. (Tax exile) They recorded the album at AIR Studios on Montserrat, a small Caribbean island. Working in a tropical island studio instead of a London rehearsal room was an unfamiliar yet productive experience for all three. (Synchronicity) The title of 1983's Synchronicity likewise came from Carl Jung's concept of synchronicity, which they had encountered by way of Koestler. Intimate introspection and unease ran thick through the album, a mood given concrete form in the somber imagery of the signature track "King of Pain." (Shea Stadium) Their 1983 concert at New York's Shea Stadium, remembered for Sting thanking the Beatles from the stage for lending them the stadium, came to symbolize the band's commercial peak. "Every Breath You Take," a portrait of surveillance and obsession, was ironically mistaken for a love song and became the best-selling single of the year. (Tension) Even at the height of their success, the air in the studio was heavy. That Summers, Copeland and Sting recorded separately in different booths during the Synchronicity sessions was something the three later revealed themselves in the documentary Everyone Stares.
A track from Ghost in the Machine, it captures the thrill and hesitation of unrequited love, an unusually bright song for this band.
- In a rare arrangement, the piano line that opens the song leads the melody in place of the guitar, and the track is marked by a lush sound built from thickly layered synthesizers.
- Sting's falsetto backing vocals, stacked in many layers, wrap the chorus in warmth.
- Copeland's drumming leans toward a tight, disco-style beat, a different grain from the sharp reggae beats of the earlier albums.
- The brief change in synthesizer timbre in the bridge reveals the band's experiments with electronic instruments at the time.
The band’s final studio album, marking their commercial peak, steeped in private anxiety and introspection.
- The signature track “King of Pain” lays a cool wash of synthesizer and marimba beneath lyrics that string together dark, brooding images.
- Many tracks across the album were recorded by the three members separately, and the resulting structure, layered upon layer, is striking.
- “Synchronicity II” builds tension by cutting back and forth between the tedium of everyday life and violent rage.
- The title track “Synchronicity I” opens the album with Copeland’s polyrhythmic (layered-rhythm) drumming riding atop a rapid synthesizer pattern.
A song about obsession and surveillance, it was widely mistaken for a love song and became the best-selling single of the year.
- The guitar riff that opens the song is said to have been played by Summers in a single take, using an open voicing (an add9 chord), and it became an iconic riff later quoted in countless songs.
- Rather than flashy fills, Copeland’s drumming holds to restrained patterns, steadily building tension.
- A string arrangement slips in quietly in the latter half, deepening the song’s chill.
- Sting’s vocal, in a restrained low register, murmurs its near-obsessive lines with calm detachment.
- In 1997 Puff Daddy sampled the riff, reviving it as an entirely different song of mourning.
V. A band that ended in silence · 1984–1986
(Breakup) After the 1983–84 world tour, the three scattered to their own projects. They reunited in 1986 to work on a new album, but disagreements over direction ran deep, and that same year Copeland broke his collarbone in a horse-riding accident, delaying the recording again and again. (Final stage) Their 1986 appearances on Amnesty International’s human-rights concert tour, A Conspiracy of Hope, became in effect their last performances as a full band. That same year they attempted re-recordings such as “Don’t Stand So Close to Me ’86,” but these never led to a new album. (Separate paths) Sting went on to carve out his own place with a solo career that drew in jazz and world-music players, Copeland turned to composing for film and television, and Summers pursued solo guitar albums and photography, each following his own path. (Legacy) The band came apart without fanfare, but the legacy it left was unmistakable. IRS Records, run by Copeland’s brother Miles Copeland III as manager, went on to discover American alternative bands such as R.E.M., becoming a bridge between two generations of music.
VI. The brief summer of the reunion · 2007–2026
(Reunion) The band announced its reunion by playing “Roxanne” together to open the 2007 Grammy Awards, and soon afterward a 30th-anniversary reunion world tour was announced. (Tour) The 2007–2008 reunion tour went on record as one of the highest-grossing tours in the world that year. Shows that reworked the old hits in a jazzier vein drew in even younger audiences who had never known the band in its prime. (Afterward) After the tour ended in 2008, no new album followed, and the three went back to their own pursuits. (Influence) The story of Puff Daddy’s 1997 “I’ll Be Missing You,” built on a sample of “Every Breath You Take,” reaching No. 1 on the Billboard chart and earning the original enormous royalties, is often cited as the prime example of the song’s revival across generations. The band’s idiom, ranging across reggae, punk and jazz, was later consulted like a textbook by countless new wave · alternative bands.
Lesser-known stories
In 1978–79, as the Police were on the rise, Stewart Copeland released solo singles and an EP under the guise of a fictional character called Klark Kent. He appeared on television in green work overalls and a mask, yet for some time never revealed that he was the Police’s drummer; the details of this double life came to light only later, through biographies. Today the three are often pictured as a trio from the very start, but there was a brief period, before Henry Padovani left for good, when Summers had joined and the band performed with two guitarists. It is a passage often omitted from simplified accounts of the band. The title of the third album, Zenyatta Mondatta, means nothing in any language. The members said in interviews that they simply made it up because they liked the sound of it, yet listeners often come up empty searching for a hidden translation.
Glossary 📚🔎
Reggae
(In rock) A genre born in Jamaica, marked by a distinctive rhythm in which guitar or keyboard chops out the back half of the beat. Try clapping along with everyone else but one beat off, and that bouncing lift comes close to the feel of reggae rhythm. The Police blended this offbeat guitar chop with punk and jazz to create their own white reggae.
New wave
(Meaning) In English, it means ‘a new wave.’ (In rock) A movement of the late 1970s that added synthesizers and a pop sense of melody to the rebellious energy of punk. Just as in gym class you might put one new rule on top of the traditional ones to make a variant game, new wave was music that added the new rules of electronic sound and polished arrangement to the frame of punk. The Police, adding reggae as well, produced a sound all their own even within that movement.
Chorus effect
(Meaning) Both are English words: chorus means a choir, and effect means just that, an effect. (In rock) A sound device that duplicates the guitar signal with a very slight time lag and layers the copies, making one person’s guitar sound like several players singing together with slightly different timing. It resembles the way a sound blooms richly when several friends sing the same song along at very slightly different beats. Andy Summers made full use of this device to create the Police’s signature shimmering guitar tone.
Polyrhythm
(Meaning) A word combining the Greek poly, meaning ‘many,’ with rhythm, meaning ‘many rhythms.’ (In rock) A technique of playing rhythms built on different beat units layered at the same time. Think of the game of tapping three beats with one hand and four beats with the other at once — the appeal lies in the tension of something that seems to drift apart yet falls back into place at regular intervals. Copeland, who grew up in the Middle East, had this sense of layered rhythm deeply ingrained in his drumming.
Syncopation
(Meaning) The Korean term danggimeum (‘pulled note’) comes from the idea of pulling a following note forward and playing it early. The English syncopation comes from a Greek word meaning ‘to cut off.’ (In rock) A technique that gives rhythm its lift by placing notes on the weak beats or offbeats in between, instead of on the beats that would normally land strong. It is like jumping rope and, rather than hopping exactly on the beat, springing up slightly one beat early to twist the timing. Reggae and punk both love it, and it is the source of the bouncing feel in the Police’s music.
Add9 chord
(Meaning) The name comes from adding one more note, the ninth, to a basic chord. (In rock) A chord that stacks one extra note on the basic three-note chord, giving a brighter, more open sound. It is like adding one more spice to a basic recipe to deepen its flavor. Summers favored this chord, using it to complete the sparkling guitar sound distinctive to “Message in a Bottle” and “Every Breath You Take.”