The Origins of The Police

In the near-decade they were together, the new-wave band the Police amassed a number of enduring hits that blended shiny pop and cool reggae and jazz with the more brazen sounds of punk rock. For a time, the Police were one of the biggest bands around. Before then, however, they were a struggling group of musicians who met mostly by chance and came together to try their hand at making what would soon be deemed greatness.

A Chance Encounter

“Do you know where you were on September 25, 1976?,” drummer Stewart Copeland writes at the beginning of his Police Diaries 1976-’79 (quote via SPIN). “Maybe not, but I do.”

He recalls the night he first saw a young Gordon Sumner – better known as Sting– perform. “I was a long-haired alien drummer touring the U.K. in a prog-rock band called Curved Air, and that night we were in Newcastle where I saw a local band called Last Exit,” Copeland wrote in his new book. “I know that because I was taking notes every day in my now slightly dog-eared, pocket diaries.”

He explained thinking the group was “great,” but it was the band’s vocalist-bassist that captured his awe. The two met at a party afterward where they exchanged phone numbers. It wouldn’t be long before Copeland came calling. “In a later diary entry, after realizing that punk was the future,” the drummer wrote. “I remark on the day that I persuaded [Sting] to move to London and join me in my own punk band.”

It was there, in the burgeoning London punk scene, that the Police were born. They started as a trio – Sting, Copeland, and a guitarist they recruited, Henry Padovani – and would play their first gig together in the spring of 1977.

Soon after, the band briefly became a four-piece with veteran guitarist Andy Summers joining the fold. He had seen the trio perform live and was immediately impressed by Sting and Copeland. “I thought there was fantastic potential in Sting and Stewart,” Summer once told The Guardian. “I’d always wanted to play in a three-piece band and throughout all my years of playing I never had. I felt that the three of us together would be very strong. They just needed another guitarist and I thought I was the one.”

Padovani shortly got the boot, and just like that, the Police were again a trio. Together, they would record and release their debut album Outlandos d’Amour in 1978, a collection that would harbor a gem like “Roxanne.” The band seemed destined for greatness from there.

The Rise of The Police

The Police’s star only rose after the release of their debut. It would be an instant success that the band followed up with Reggatta de Blanc the next year and Zenyatta Mondatta after that. The group entered the 1980s with now-classics like “Roxanne,” “Message in a Bottle,” and “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” under their belts, and the hits just kept on coming.

By their fifth and final album Synchronicity in 1983, the Police were riding high, but would ultimately call it quits in 1986.

(Photo by Peter Noble/Redferns)