the Police

the Police, British-American new-wave band that blended reggae, jazz, funk, punk, and world music influences into hook-laden pop-rock. Five best-selling albums, a bevy of hits, and aggressive touring—including stops in countries usually overlooked by Western pop musicians—combined to make the Police the world’s most popular band in the early 1980s. The members were Sting (original name Gordon Sumner; b. October 2, 1951, Wallsend, Northumberland, England), Stewart Copeland (b. July 16, 1952, Alexandria, Virginia, U.S.), and Andy Summers (original name Andrew Somers; b. December 31, 1942, Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, England).

Unlike most of their punk contemporaries, the Police were skilled musicians when they came together in London in 1977. Drummer Copeland played with the progressive rock band Curved Air, bassist-vocalist-songwriter Sting performed with jazz combos in Newcastle, and Summers (who replaced the group’s original guitarist, Henri Padovani) was a veteran of numerous British rhythm-and-blues and rock bands. Having dyed their hair blond to play a punk band in a commercial and thereby established their signature look, the Police charted in both Britain and the United States with the reggae-imbued albums Outlandos d’Amour (released in late 1978 in Britain and in early 1979 in the United States) and Regatta de Blanc (1979), the title song of which earned the first of the band’s five Grammy Awards. Zenyatta Mondatta (1980) and the synthesizer-rich Ghost in the Machine (1981) saw a marked evolution from the stripped-down arrangements of their early work to a more layered but still tightly focused sound. The group reached its commercial and critical peak with the multiplatinum album Synchronicity (1983). On all their work, Summers’s evocative guitar playing and Copeland’s polyrhythmic virtuosity provided a solid foundation for Sting’s impassioned vocals and sophisticated lyrics (which included references to Vladimir Nabokov and Arthur Koestler).

In 1984, at the peak of their popularity, the Police dissolved. Copeland went on to score numerous motion pictures, while Summers recorded adventurous music, including two albums with fellow guitarist Robert Fripp. Sting became an extremely popular soloist, revisiting his jazz roots (accompanied by such accomplished musicians as saxophonist Branford Marsalis and keyboardist Kenny Kirkland) and later incorporating Latin and folk influences. He also continued an uneven acting career, which began with Quadrophenia (1979) and included Dune (1984) and Stormy Monday (1988). The trio reunited for a performance at the 2007 Grammy Awards and followed it with an enormously successful world tour in 2007–08. The Police were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003.