The 1981 gig that made Sting leave The Police: “A way of evolving”
It is one of the sad facts of life that all good things must come to an end. This is a truth that all fans of The Police had to find out the hard way after the band disbanded in 1984.
Granted, they have played together since then, but things have never been the same for the band since this initial split. So, how did it come about?
There is video footage of the band rehearsing for their reunion tour, which was set to take place in 2007 and 2008, that shows the band arguing over a simple drum fill. The band are rehearsing a song, and Stewart Copeland decides to try an overly complicated piece of drumming. While it sounds great, it throws the rest of the band off, and Sting starts laughing into his microphone. The result is a full-blown argument between the two.
“That’s gunna be on the fucking cover of modern drummer magazine!” Copeland said. “It’s gunna be fucking devoted to that drum fill you cunt!” Sting continues giggling before sarcastically adding, “It’s amazing you can play that drum fill in nine beats.” Copeland ends the mini-argument with, “Get lost! Just because it’s a little confusing for the fucking bass playing element!”
The clip highlights just how doomed the reunion was from the very start. If the band couldn’t get through a simple rehearsal without erupting into heated debate, what hope did they have for an extended period on the road? So, why was there so much hostility between the band members? Well, if you were one of Sting’s band members, you might also be angry at rehearsal, given the only reason you’re having to brand these shows as reunions is because of him.
It was Sting who initially had the idea to move on from The Police and go solo. Despite the fact that the band were loved across the world and were doing very well, he felt as though there was more that he could be accomplishing on his own. The idea came to him when he was booked to do a solo show, ironically, The Secret Policeman’s Ball.
“They just wanted me to sing a song on my own with a guitar,” he reflected. “I performed ‘Roxanne’ and ‘Message In A Bottle’… alone, just with a guitar and my voice. It was the moment that I thought, I can do this on my own. Not that I was ungrateful for the band, but I saw a way of evolving.”
From Sting’s perspective, it wasn’t necessarily a rejection of The Police so much as the discovery of a different creative identity. Stripping those songs back to nothing more than voice and guitar proved they could survive outside the trio’s trademark interplay, giving him the confidence to believe audiences were responding as much to his songwriting as they were to the band itself. Once that idea had taken hold, it was difficult to ignore.
For Copeland and Andy Summers, though, the conclusion must have looked very different. The Police had built their reputation on the chemistry between three highly distinctive musicians, with each member’s contribution helping define the band’s unmistakable sound. If Sting saw a natural evolution, his bandmates could just as easily have viewed it as the dismantling of a partnership that was still operating at its peak.
Evolve he did, as he left the band and went on to have a successful solo career. That solo career persists to this day, as Sting still tours and has recently headlined the Isle of Wight Festival. However, you can understand why his bandmates might have been slightly frustrated with him, as they had a good thing going, and he decided to leave it behind in pursuit of a supposed evolution.
Even when the band got back together for their reunion shows, it was evident that Sting wasn’t too excited about the shows and seemed to only be doing it as a favour to his fellow bandmates. “When the Police reunited, it had been long enough, and it was the right time to do it. And I’m taking credit for that because that was my decision,” said Sting. “Doing it again would just be gratuitous, and that won’t happen. But we did it, and everyone was happy that mum and dad got back together again and had one last fling.”
