The Police

On 28th Sept 1980, The Police were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with “Don’t Stand So Close To Me,” the group’s third No.1. Taken from their album Zenyatta Mondatta, the single went on to become the best selling UK single of 1980.

I think we forget how good Sting and his mates were. Maybe there wasn’t much else in the charts? Let me think, what else did we have in 1980? Well, we started the year with Rupert Holmes singing his “Pina Colada” song. Add that to Kenny Rodgers and “Coward of the County,” “Sexy Eyes” by Dr Hook, and Barbra Streisand’s “Woman In Love” and all the bad memories of 1980 hit you over the head.

But, it wasn’t all that bad. We also had Michael Jackson “Rock With You,” Pink Floyd “Another Brick In the Wall,” and Paul McCartney with a live version of “Coming Up.”

You can see where I’m going with this. The Police sounded like nothing else from 1980. They weren’t pop or disco or rock, they sounded so fresh, leaping about in their videos. The Police were good. A breath of fresh air.

Sting, Stuart, and Andy looked like a group, acted like a group, and were making great records. In the song, Sting goes back in time, long before he became a superstar, to his days of teaching.

American drummer Stuart Copeland had smelt a little success in British progressive rock band Curved Air. He went on to be ranked by a Rolling Stone magazine reader poll in 2010 as the fifth greatest drummer of all time.

Guitarist Andy Summer, who was born in the north of England, had moved to London to join Zoot Money’s Big Roll Band. He then bummed his way around California, doing anything he could to pay the bills, busking, guitar lessons, but along the way crafting his skills which made him a first-rate player. Like Copeland, Summer was an excellent musician. And again like Copeland, just needed the right vehicle to take him on the journey to superstardom.

That vehicle was Gordon Sumner. The English and math schoolteacher was gigging in bands in and around his hometown of Newcastle in the North East of England. Anyone who’s ever been to Newcastle will know it’s a cold, icy city in the winter, but has an edge to it that has made it the breeding ground for a plethora of musical talent.

Sting moved to London in 1977 to look for like-minded musicians and formed The Police. The Police were different; they were a new wave band but also played a style of rock that was influenced by punk, reggae, and jazz.

In February 1978, the band, desperate for money, was asked to do a commercial for Wrigley’s spearmint chewing gum on the condition that they dye their hair blonde. Although the commercial was shot with the band, it was shelved and never aired. Ladies and gentlemen, we now have The Police as we know them: three skinny guys with blonde hair and a singer who always wore a yellow and black jersey (so they called him Sting).

Their 1978 debut album, Outlandos d’Amour, reached No. 6 on the UK Albums Chart on the strength of the singles “Roxanne” and “Can’t Stand Losing You”. Their second album, Reggatta de Blanc (1979), became the first of four consecutive No. 1 studio albums in the UK, its first two singles, “Message in a Bottle” and “Walking on the Moon”, became their first UK number ones. Their next two albums, Zenyatta Mondatta (1980) and Ghost in the Machine (1981), led to further critical and commercial success with two songs, “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” and “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic”, becoming UK number-one singles and Top 5 hits in other countries; the former album was their breakthrough into the US reaching number five on the US Billboard 200.

The Police have sold over 75 million records, making them one of the best-selling bands of all time. The band won a number of music awards, including six Grammy Awards, two Brit Awards—winning Best British Group once, and an MTV Video Music Award. In 2003, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Four of their five studio albums appeared on Rolling Stone’s list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time”.