“Disappointed”: the Police album Andy Summers resented making
Most bands encounter difficulties from time to time, especially when creative expression begins to shift, and members yearn to explore different directions. The Police might have suffered the same fate, but their downfall was strange: it came at the peak of their success.
That said, some might consider The Police’s split to have been inevitable, especially given the fundamental differences between Sting and Andy Summers from day one, not just in terms of age but with both of their respective musical interests. There was also, of course, a point of contention with Sting’s views on bands, which would always have been an issue, even if they hadn’t achieved such a stratospheric level of success.
After all, Sting once rather cynically revealed that he believed bands are a teenager’s gig, and that staying in a group once you get older doesn’t “allow you to evolve”. This makes sense, considering that, virtually the entire time he was in the band, he yearned to break free and explore his own path, but it certainly sparked an atmosphere of quiet tension the moment they started to gain popularity.
The hits that did it – including the likes of ‘Message in a Bottle’ and ‘Every Breath You Take’ – established them as leaders in the new rock scene, even if some found them too commercial-leaning or formulaic. Regardless, they sounded unique, and that was enough to grant them a place among the few most timeless rock acts of all time.
However, Sting was still very much aware that their time was limited. Or rather, he banked on it, hoping that one day he’d be able to go out and spread his wings in other arenas. As he once put it, “[We were] very unique, but I just wanted a broader palette because I was song-driven and not necessarily band-driven.”
Sting wasn’t the only one who had issues with their direction from time to time. In fact, this tension appeared at almost every corner, even in the more quiet consideration of members like Summers and the gradual feeling that what was truly unique about them – their dynamic three-piece, which, funnily enough, Sting didn’t much care for – was being lost.
It was around Ghost in the Machine that Summers started to really worry that they’d lost the spark. In fact, he even went so far as to say he felt “disappointed” with the “musical direction” on this record, saying that the “fantastic raw-trio feel” was being lost in favour of a sound led by horns and synths. While there were still some “great moments” when Sting “loosened up enough”, something was missing.
Many of these issues continued into the band’s fifth and final album, Synchronicity. Although their most commercially successful, the record saw them struggling to remain a unit, a brewing tension that almost derailed the entire mission during the recording of ‘Every Breath You Take’. However, with some wisdom from a certain George Martin, they were able to pull it together at the eleventh hour.
However, that wasn’t the only thing that put a spanner in the works. In fact, Sting – and the rest of the band – felt that they’d reached their own personal “Everest” on the following tour, and pitched the idea that they should quit while at their peak. While an interesting step, it ultimately allowed them to disband and gain a fresh start, instead of drawing something out that was destined to come to an end in the first place.
