Stewart Copeland, legendary drummer of The Police, stopped by Jason Stewart and Chris Black’s How Long Gone podcast to discuss the band’s fit in the punk scene, working with George Martin, and more.
Regarding The Police and punk music, Copeland explained, “Punk had very, very strict rules. We had chops. It was more of them [punk bands] copying licks from us than the other way around. What we did cop from them, what we stole from the [Sex] Pistols and the rest was the look, the attitude, the scene; that set of clubs, that set of fanzines…We jumped in there. We had our own way of using our instruments, which was immediately spotted by the London critics.”
Copeland also discussed working with famed Beatles producer George Martin, saying, “I got a call out of the blue from George Martin…He was doing a show at the [Hollywood] Bowl in LA…” Martin was preparing for a concert in which the LA Phil would perform orchestral versions of Beatles songs.
Copeland adds, “For some reason, he asked me to play drums…If I’m gonna be Ringo, I’ll play the Ringo set: One tom-tom in the front, one tom-dom down here, two cymbals, and a hi-hat. I discovered something. Drums is really a lot more fun without all those f_____g drums in the way. If you just get down on the groove…Wow, I get it.”
Copeland was on the show promoting his new book, Police Diaries 1976-79, which features contemporaneous memories of the earliest days of the Police.
“Do you know where you were on September 25, 1976? Maybe not, but I do,” Copeland says by way of introduction, referring to the night he saw Sting perform for the first time.
“I was a long-haired alien drummer touring the U.K. in a prog-rock band called Curved Air, and that night we were in Newcastle where I saw a local band called Last Exit. I know that because I was taking notes every day in my now slightly dog-eared, pocket diaries. I noted that they were ‘great’ and that we had a party. In a later diary entry, after realizing that punk was the future, I remark on the day that I persuaded their bassist to move to London and join me in my own punk band.”
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