330 Hello The Police - Can't Stand Losing You

Chart  entered : 7  October  1978

Chart  peak : 42  ( 2  on  reissue  in  1979, 17  as  part  of  the  "Six  Pack"  release  in  1980 )

Number  of  hits : 16

One  of  the  more  controversial  groups  of  the  era, more  than  thirty-five  years  on  you  still  get  people  describing  The  Police  as  "anti-punk" , "bandwagon  jumpers"  or  other  dismissive  terms  for  their  ages, musical  chops or  appropriation  of  reggae ( though  they  were  hardly  alone  in  that ).

The  Police's  story  begins  with  a  meeting  in  Newcastle-upon-Tyne  in  November  1976. Prog-rockers  Curved  Air  were  playing  there. Since  their  early 70s  hey-day  they'd  been  through  a  number  of  personnel  changes  and  now  featured  an  American  drummer  Stewart  Copeland  who'd  stepped  up  from  being  a  roadie  in  1975. Stewart  was  born  in  1951. His  father  was  in  the  CIA  and  Stewart  had  lived  all  over  the  place  as  a  youngster. His  brother  Miles  had  been  involved  in  A& R  since  1969  and  was  based  in  England. Miles  signed  Curved  Air to  his  agency  British  Talent  Management  which  doubtless  helped  Stewart  get  the  gig.

It  was  a  poisoned  chalice  though. Stewart  played  on  two  albums  "Midnight  Wire"  and  "Airborne",  getting  some  songwriting  credits  on  the  latter  though  the  recording  sessions  for  both  were  highly  acrimonious. They  also  found  the  band  caught  between  two  stools, the  folk-influenced  light  prog  of  happier  times  and  a  more  mainstream  soft  rock  sound, and  badly  missing  keyboard  wizard  Francis  Monkman. Stewart  co-wrote  the impressive  single  "Desiree", which  reminds  me  of  The  Pierces,  which  was  released  in  June  1976  but  it  went  nowhere. In  November  they  released  a  poor  Southern boogie  version  of  "Baby  Please  Don't  Go"  as  a  last  throw  of  the  dice  but  were  in  agreement  that  their  tour  that  autumn  was  likely  to  be  their  last.  Stewart  did  have  the  consolation  of  a  burgeoning  personal  relationship  with  singer  Sonja  Kristina.

Musically  though  he  needed  a  new  partner  and  that's  where  his  chance  meeting  with  Gordon  "Sting  "  Sumner .  Gordon  was  born  in  Wallsend  in  1951  and  after  a string  of  menial  jobs  went  to  college  and  became  a  teacher. He  played  jazz  in  the  evenings  and  weekends  picking  up  the  nickname  "Sting"  from  a  black  and  yellow jumper  he  wore  during  a  stint  as  bassist  with  the  Phoenix  Jazzmen. He  was  in  a  similar  situation  to  Stewart , playing  in  a  jazz  fusion  group  Last  Exit  who  weren't  getting  anywhere. They  released  just  one  single  "Whispering  Voices" , which  sounds  a  bit  like  Argent  on  valium, on  a  small  Newcastle  label  in  1975. They  recorded  demos  but  never  got  signed  up  by  a  big  label. Sting  would  recycle  much  of  the  material  he  wrote  for  them  both  in  The  Police  and  in  his  solo  career.

After  exchanging  phone  numbers  Sting  dropped  in  on  Stewart in  January  1977  finding  him  in  a  squat  and  playing  his  drums  as  a  weapon  to  drive  others  out  of  the  building. Curved  Air  had  just  evaporated  and  Stewart  was  eager  to  get  involved  in  the  punk  movement. Sting  was  less  certain  of  taking  this  direction  but  eventually  agreed  to  say  goodbye  to  both  Last  Exit  and  teaching. He  went  along  with  Stewart's  choice  of  guitarist , Henry  Padovani ,  a  Corsican  born  in  1952  , who  had   also  met  the  drummer  on  that  last  Curved  Air  tour.

The  Police  played  their  first  gig  in  March  1977  and  in  May  released  their  first  single  "Fall  Out"  on  Miles  Copeland's  Illegal  label.  Written  by  Stewart   it's  an  energetic  two  minute  punk  workout  with  only  Sting's  vocals  giving  any  indication  that  they  had  something  distinctive  to  offer. Stewart's  lyrics  are  some  fluff  about  being  a  non-conformist  influenced  by  a  couple  of  lines  in  Dylan's  Subterranean  Homesick  Blues . It's  the  only  single  Henry  played  on  and  even  then  he  only  plays  the  solo with  Stewart  handling  all  the  riff  and  rhythm  work. It  didn't  sell  many  copies  on  its  first  release  but  became  their  fourth  hit  , peaking  at  number  47  when  re-issued  in  the  wake  of  "Message  In  A  Bottle"  in  the  autumn  of  1979.  We'll  see  this  happen  quite  often  with  bands  over  the  next  few  years .

Sting  accepted  an  invitation  from  former  Gong  man  Mike  Howlett  to  play  bass  on  a  new  project  called  Strontium  90. His  initial  choice  of  drummer  dropped  out  so  Sting  invited  Stewart  along  to  the  sessions. There  they  met  Howlett's  guitarist  friend  Andy  Summers . 

 Andy  of  course  has  crossed  our  path  a  couple  of  times  already. Born  in  Poulton-le-Fylde  in  1942  he  first  emerged  in  the  early  sixties  as  guitarist  with  the  rhythm   and  blues  outfit  Zoot  Money's  Big  Band.  In  1964  they  were  signed  to  Decca  and  released  the  single  "The  Uncle  Willie" a  great  dance  number  where  Zoot's  raucous  vocal  is  matched  by  his  crazy  Hammond  break. That  was  their  only  release  on  Decca. They  switched  to  Columbia  where  their  next  release  "Gin  House" showed  they  could  do  soul  as  well  with  bassist  Paul  Williams  providing  a  vocal  worthy  of  Sam  Cooke  although I'm  not  sure  the  rest  of  the  band have  got  the  tempo  right. They  released  a  string  of  singles, none  of  them  self-written,  in  1965-66  but  only  one  of  them, the  perky  sax-led  "Big  Time  Operator"  where  Zoot  sounds  very  like  Georgie  Fame,  was  a  hit  , reaching  number  25 . This  led  on  to  their  live  LP  "Zoot  Live  At  Kloot  Kleek"  making  the  album  charts  at  number  23. The  follow-up  single  "Star  of  the  Show"  which  drew  heavily  on  Stax  influences  failed  to  do  anything .

In  1967  the  band  split  and  Andy  and  Zoot  re-surfaced  in  a  pyschedelic  band  called  Dantalion's  Chariot.  They  quickly  gained  a  live  reputation  through  their  light  show  and  white  robed  stage  costumes.  They  released  one  single  in  September  1967  "Madman  Running  Through  The  Fields"  written  by  Zoot  and  Andy.  It's  a  classic  example  of  British  psychedelia  with  the  lyrics  describing  an  acid  trip  amid  sinister  organ, phasing  effects  and  pastoral  interludes. Andy  had  been  practically  inaudible  on  the  Big  Roll  Band  releases  but  his  guitar  now  had  a  bigger  role. Unfortunately  EMI  hated  the  change  of  direction  and  dropped  them. They  moved  on  to  CBS  and  recorded  an  album  "Chariot  Rising"  but  CBS now  rejected  it  and  it  didn't  see  the  light  of  day  until  1996.

This  broke  the  band  up. Zoot  accepted  a  long-standing  invitation  to  join  Eric  Burdon  and  the  Animals  while  Andy  had  a  brief  stint  in  Soft  Machine before  being  fired  at  the  insistence  of  bassist  Kevin  Ayers  during  an  Aerican  tour. Andy  then  joined  Zoot  in  the  Animals  and  played  on  the  last  album  "Love  Is"  and  final  hit  "Ring  Of  Fire". In  fact  the  whole  of  side  4  is  actually  a  medley  of  Dantalian's  Chariot  songs. Most  of  the  album  is  made  up  of  covers and  on  a  version  of  Traffic's  "Coloured  Rain"  Andy  gets  to  play  a  four  and  a  half  minute  solo  ( rather  tedious  to  be  honest ).

The  album  was  poorly  received  and  the  band  broke  up  in  1969. Andy  then  dropped  out  of  the  music  business  for  five  years  living  in  LA  with  his  girlfriend  and  enrolling  at  Califonia  State  University. Eventually  he  started  feeling  the  pinch  financially  and  returned  to  London  in  1974 . He  became  a  guitarist  for  hire, recording  and  touring  with  David  Essex, Joan  Armatrading, Kevin  Ayers, Jon  Lord  and  Neil  Sedaka  amongst  others  before  Howlett  got  in  touch.

Sting  had  never  been satisfied  with  Henry's  contributions  so  he  immediately  suggested  Andy  be  drafted  into  The  Police . Andy  ( and  probably  Sting )  wanted  the  band  to  be  a  trio  from  the  start  but  Stewart  resisted  the  idea  of  bumping  Henry  so  the group  were  briefly  a  quartet  in  the  summer  of  1977. After  a  dismal  recording  session  with  John  Cale  in  August  further  exposed  Henry's  limitations  Stewart  could  no  longer  protect  him  and  told  him  he  was  out.

Miles  was  not  happy  with  this  turn  of  events  believing  that  having  a 35-year-old  ex-hippie  in  the  line  up  would  destroy  their  credibility  with  the  punk  movement  and  would  only  release  a  paltry  sum  for  recording  their  debut  LP. During  this  difficult  period  the  band  would  do  almost  anything  to  make  ends  meet  from  working  with  experimental  German  composer  Eberhard  Schoener  to  famously  dyeing  their  hair  blonde  for  a  chewing  gum  commercial  that  was  never  actually  shown. Then  Miles  heard  a  song  that  they'd  written  about  a  prostitute  "Roxanne"  and  was  convinced  that  they'd  come  up  with  something  saleable. He  took  it  to  A &  M  who  agreed  and  signed  the  band.

"Roxanne"  became  their  second  single  in  April  1978. Another  setback  arrived when  it  failed  to  make  the  Radio  One  playlist. Miles  spun  this  as  a  BBC  ban  caused  by  the  lyric  about  a  prostitute  but  there's  no  evidence  that  the  panel's  decision  took  any  account  of  the  subject  matter. At  the  same  time  the  band  were  pulling  out  all  the  stops  to  get  a  session  with  John  Peel. He  reluctantly  agreed  but  thereafter  led  the  backlash  against  them. Years  later  on  Desert  Island  Discs  when  flattered  by  Sue  Lawley  about  his  role  as  tastemaker  he  deflected  it  by  saying  he  hadn't  stopped  The  Police  or  U2  becoming  successful.

In  the  summer  Stewart  came  up  with  the  novelty  punk  song  "Don't  Care"  which  he  recorded  by  himself  and  released  on  the  Kryptone  label  as  Klark  Kent. When  it  attracted  a  bit  of  attention  A & M  took  over  and  released  it  on  green  vinyl  propelling  it  to  number  48  and  a  Top  of  the  Pops  appearance  where  he  wore  a  disguise  despite  the  fact  few  people  would  have  recognised  him  if  he  hadn't. Andy  and  Sting  were  among  his  masked  backing  band  although  neither  had  played  on  the  single. "Klark"  would  release  three subsequent  singles  to  deafening  disinterest.

Next  came  "Can't  Stand  Losing  You "  which  was   banned  by  the  BBC  due  to  the  cover  of   a  noosed  Stewart  standing  on  a  block  of  ice  by  a  radiator ( a  couple  of  yeas  before  Noel  Edmunds  singlehandedly  made  a  song  called  "Suicide  Is  Painless"  a  number  one  hit ).  I've  already  written  about  it  here