Line #6 Trivia/ThePolice


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2	* BlackSheepHit: A lot of people seem to think of the Police as an '80s pop band because of ''Music/{{Synchronicity}}'' and the success of "Every Breath You Take", but they were actually quite a departure from the majority of their albums. Granted, it ''does'' make up 20% of their collection, if only because they only made five albums. The distinctive Police sound was really a form of PostPunk and NewWaveMusic that mixed PunkRock and reggae, dubbed "white reggae" by the band ([[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin hence the name of their second album]]).
3	** Also, ''Ghost in the Machine'' was for the most part very funk-influenced, but notably the exceptions were the radio singles ("Spirits in the Material World", for all the synthtrickery, is essentially a reggae tune, "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic", Stewart's reliably forceful drumming aside, is a pop song, "Invisible Sun" is an ominous droney dirge).
4	* BreakupBreakout: Sting is one of the most famous, but the other two have also gone on to moderately successful solo careers (Stewart Copeland as a film, stage, and [[Franchise/SpyroTheDragon video game]] composer, and Andy Summers as a jazz soloist).
5	* CreativeDifferences: They disbanded in 1986 after Sting and Stewart Copeland ''couldn't agree on which drum machine to use''. However, that was just the "straw that broke the camel's back" according to Copeland. The band had already almost broken up while recording ''Music/{{Synchronicity}}'' (which they actually had to record with the three of them in ''separate rooms''), the band went on hiatus after the album as a result of these conditions, and Sting had a solo career going on during said hiatus. By the time they reconvened in '86, the atmosphere was already so tense that Andy Summers stated in 1993 that they wouldn't have been able to complete a sixth album regardless of the drum machine spat. One specific pre-breakup example: Andy and Stewart weren't impressed when Sting showed them "Next to You", feeling that its lyrics weren't aggressive or political enough, and suggested replacements. Sting refused to change anything. Stewart was also dismissive of the BluesRock slide guitar solo, calling it "old wave".
6	* CreatorBacklash:
7	** Sting says that he'd throw about half of ''Zenyattà'' in the trash, and the other bandmembers agree that the album's quality suffered from a rushed production (it was finished on the day that their world tour started). Andy said he became disenchanted with their direction around ''Ghost'', when the "fantastic raw-trio stuff" got drowned out by all the horns and synths, and "we ended up backing a singer doing his pop songs".
8	** Producer Nigel Gray thought the title of "Behind My Camel" was a sign of Andy undergoing this:
9	--->He didn't tell me this himself but I'm 98% sure the reason is this: what would you find behind a camel? A monumental pile of shit.
10	* CreatorBreakdown: The evolving style of the band and the darker tones of later albums were due in part to the growing pressures of being in the music industry. It didn't help that they were clashing over their own musical truths. This applies to the few released songs written by Stewart or Andy, such as "Darkness", written by Stewart, which was all about having to deal with these pressures. On a personal level, Sting was dealing with the collapse of his first marriage during the making of ''Music/{{Synchronicity}}'', which naturally crept into his songwriting, most notably on "Every Breath You Take".
11	* CutSong: ''Music/GhostInTheMachine'' had several. The originally pitched tracklisting for the album was in a different order and included future b-sides "Shambelle", "Once Upon A Daydream" and "I Burn For You". This was finally released in 2022. Five more songs were part of the recording sessions and later leaked, these being "Don't You Believe Me Baby", "Don't Think We Could Ever Be Friends", "Don't Give Up Your Daytime Job", "Don't You Look At Me" and "It's Never Too Late".
12	* FollowTheLeader: The reason for the band's formation. Curved Air, the ProgressiveRock band Stewart was in, had just combusted and he wanted to join the PunkRock scene instead. The band quickly carved out a niche for themselves, however, by using a lot of jazzy chords, reggae and African influences, the bizarre vocal style of Sting, and plainly catchy pop singles. Stewart himself [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-oaulPhgTA#t=8m37s confirmed]] that much of the band's style followed Music/TheClash's example, in marrying punk with reggae. He even name-dropped the song "Police and Thieves".
13	* HarpoDoesSomethingFunny: A ''lot'' of the guitar solos on the reunion tour were clearly improvised by Andy Summers (who, being a self-taught jazz guitarist, is adept at making riffs up on the fly). It's about as close to jamming onstage as the meticulously rehearsed Police ever came.
14	* HeAlsoDid: Stewart later composed the soundtracks to ''Film/RumbleFish'', ''Series/TheEqualizer'', the first four ''VideoGame/{{Spyro the Dragon\|1998}}'' games, and the theme to ''Series/TheAmandaShow'' (among other things).
15	* HostilityOnTheSet: The members hated each other so much that they frequently had physical altercations backstage. The final straw came when they couldn't agree on which drum machine to use for a session (drummer Stewart Copeland had broken his collarbone in a horseback riding accident and was unable to play drums).
16	* ThePeteBest: Henri Padovani was the band's first guitarist. He only got to record the first single ("Fall Out"/"Nothing Achieving", in 1977) before being replaced by Andy Summers. Even then, he only played the guitar solos on those tracks, as Stewart Copeland, the songwriter, felt Padovani wasn't up to the task, and so Copeland played lead guitar on them. Interestingly enough, he got better, and carved a decent solo career for himself. He also joined the band for a while in 2008.
17	* ShortLivedBigImpact: The band were only officially together for seven years (plus a couple reunions-- one of which never got past re-recording two songs), but within that time they became one of the most commercially successful bands in history, helped bring PostPunk and NewWaveMusic into the mainstream, and influenced a lot of later artists.
18	* ThrowItIn:
19	** Sting accidentally sat on an open piano and laughed during the intro of "Roxanne". The group liked it so much that not only did they leave it in, but they also gave Sting an additional credit for playing "butt piano" on the song.
20	** "Does Everyone Stare" begins with Stewart Copeland's original demo for the song, where during recording his microphone picked up a freak radio signal that was broadcasting opera. The resulting opera bit was left in the song because it happened to be in the same key.
21	** "Be My Girl - Sally" is more or less the product of this, stapling together a fragment of a song Sting hadn't finished, and Andy's silly spoken-word poem about the joys of having a sex doll.
22	* TroubledProduction:
23	** While recording ''Music/{{Synchronicity}}'' in Montserrat, the members each recorded their parts in different rooms (Stewart Copeland played drums in the dining room,[[note]] The dining room was stiflingly hot, which made Stewart's hands sweat so much that he couldn't hold onto his drumsticks and ended up having to tape them to his hands.[[/note]] Sting worked from the control room and Andy Summers recorded in the actual studio) and only overdubbed instruments when just one of them was in the studio at a time because they couldn't stand to be in the same room. Additionally, Sting and Stewart Copeland started a fight while recording "Every Breath You Take", which almost made producer Hugh Padgham walk out. It got even worse when they went back to try to record what would have been their sixth album, where they were going to do new recordings of all their greatest hits (it was released, with only "Don't Stand So Close to Me" updated). According to Andy Summers, one morning, as he expected, Stewart and Sting got into a fight about how to program a Synclavier shortly after they began working (Copeland had broken his collarbone and couldn't play drums, so the percussion needed to be done electronically - and he wanted to use a Fairlight computer instead of the synth). He slipped out and came back seven hours later ... only to find them still having the same exact argument.
24	** The video for "Synchronicity II" was a dangerous production. Sting was insistent on getting all the time in the spotlight, which caused director Lol Crème to grow to dislike him. Drummer Stewart Copeland and bassist Andy Summers were performing atop giant scaffolds. The height itself proved to be a danger, but there was also a lot dry ice being blown around the studio. The air became so dry that something ignited, which caused the scaffolds to catch fire. Despite urges from safety personnel, Crème demanded filming to continue. Sting also spent a majority of the video swinging from a rope; at one point he fell.
25	** Due to friction between the band members, "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behind_My_Camel Behind My Camel]]", was this. Sting thought Andy Summers' Middle Eastern-influenced composition was so silly--its repetitive, easy bass part in particular--that he absolutely refused to have anything to do with it, so Summers played bass on it himself. Stewart Copeland's opinion of it wasn't much better, and he played the drums on it only because they couldn't find anyone else to do it (he later said that for all the time he felt he had been screwed over in his years with the Police, Summers got it even worse with this song). Producer Nigel Gray has joked that Summers knew how awful the song was and titled as an in-joke because behind a camel you'd usually find "a monumental pile of shit". Sting's antipathy to the track was so great that one day at the studio, seeing the master for the finished song sitting around, he grabbed it, took it home and buried it in his yard. Somehow, though, it was recovered and made it to the album, winning the band a Grammy that Sting nevertheless joined his bandmates in accepting, even though he had ''absolutely nothing'' to do with its creation.
26	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
27	** Sting recorded 13 demos and only 6 made it to ''Ghost in the Machine''. The 7 originals that didn't make it were pretty awesome. One question -- why hasn't he properly released them later?
28	** When the trio got back together in 1986 for one last-ditch attempt at recording, Stewart Copeland broke his collarbone in a horse-riding accident the day before and couldn't play the drums. Summers admitted that they lost the opportunity to dampen hostility by just jamming around, and they ended up disbanding for good.
29	** The band almost re-recorded Fall Out for ''Reggatta De Blanc''. It would have been interesting if that version had been released, since Andy Summers' guitar style is much different to Stewart Copeland's (Henry Padovani was the band's third member at the time of "Fall Out", but only played the solos).
30	** Sting was Creator/JimHenson's first choice as Jareth in ''Film/{{Labyrinth}}'', until his children persuaded him that Music/DavidBowie would have a more lasting appeal.

Context Trivia / ThePolice