{"id":1007602,"date":"2026-06-05T18:36:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T18:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1007602\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T18:36:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T18:36:21","slug":"the-toughest-1979-album-the-police-could-never-top","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1007602\/","title":{"rendered":"The “toughest” 1979 album The Police could never top"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/p>\n

Credit: Alamy<\/p>\n

Fri 5 June 2026 16:40, UK <\/p>\n

While it might have ended in a frayed tangle, a lot of happy fate brought The Police<\/a> together in the first place.<\/p>\n

Sting, or Mr Sting to his pupils, had been a teacher in his native Newcastle, playing part-time in a jazz fusion band called Last Exit, when Stewart Copeland\u2019s prog outfit<\/a> Curved Air came up to the northeast on tour. The pair were suitably impressed by each other enough to exchange numbers (they rarely have been since), but neither anticipated that the exchange would one day lead to 75 million record sales and counting.<\/p>\n

In fact, you suspect that on another day, those Biro\u2019d numbers could have easily been rubbed off by errant pint slosh. Fortunately, Sting kept hold of Copeland\u2019s digits, and when he arrived in London ready to start a new life, the drummer was pretty much the only contact he had. As fate would have it, the American was holed up in the English capital following the break-up of Curved Air, and when Sting\u2019s call came through, he was ready for his next music chapter to begin.<\/p>\n

This buoyed the group with an innate sense of optimism when they first began. \u201cI was inspired by the amazing energy of the whole thing<\/a>,\u201d Sting would later reflect, \u201cAnd I thought, \u2018Well, I\u2019m new to London and I\u2019m totally unknown, so I\u2019ll give it a go.\u2019 We did a 15-minute lightning set, and I squealed and screamed.\u201d There was something electric about the enthused chemistry of the group.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"STING<\/a>Credit: Far Out \/ Last FM<\/p>\n

When Andy Summers, an industry veteran, joined the fold, he recognised the unique buzz from the off. \u201cI thought there was fantastic potential in Sting and Stewart. I\u2019d always wanted to play in a three-piece band. I felt that the three of us together would be very strong,\u201d Summers told The Guardian, reflecting on the first time he saw the duo at the Marquee Club.<\/a><\/p>\n

So, as three amigos who had been around the block and already faced the hard knocks of the music industry, when The Police were established, they were filled with a sense that this truly was their time. They had the maturity to ensure that they delivered on that promise, but they were still raw and in the midst of developing their unique sound. <\/p>\n

Andy Summers names the best album The Police ever made<\/p>\n

For Summers, ironically, this has always meant that their earliest stages were their most electric.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not very commercial thinking, but for me, the best album was the second album,\u201d he told Ultimate Classic Rock. While Reggatta de Blanc hit the top of the charts in the UK, it only rose to 25th in the US, and failed to fully launch them as giants of a new emerging genre. The pretentious name of the album can\u2019t have helped. But the record itself was resplendent with quality, innovation, and style. The juggled rawness produced something entirely new.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were still raw, and the album was made in 10 days,\u201d Summers recalls. \u201cI think it\u2019s got all of the excitement of three young guys trying to make it,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the toughest album for me. Synchronicity proved to be more sophisticated. We were adding other instruments onto the tracks.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He continued, \u201cIt was slightly less of a trio album, although it was trio-dominated. But it was a little bit out of that [original idea].\u201d 1979\u2019s Reggatta de Blanc couldn\u2019t fall foul of that if it tried.<\/p>\n

That original idea was a simple one, born from a fateful jam at the Marquee Club where Summers figured that the raw chemistry of a clever duo could do with a few more fingers, and that gig was born from Sting witnessing Curved Air and figuring the group could do with, well, a bit more Sting. The result was a band who sounded like nobody else, but perhaps they were at their best when they were still solidifying what that sound even was.<\/p>\n

Copeland is in firm agreement, too. The drummer also cites it as the band\u2019s apex. And Mr Sting himself would proclaim, \u201cThat was where it all clicked. There was so much happening in my writing and singing, Stewart\u2019s and Andy\u2019s playing, and suddenly it all meshed together.\u201d <\/p>\n

Adding, \u201cWe had reggae influences in our vocabulary,<\/a> and they became synthesised into our infrastructure until it was utterly part of our sound, and you couldn\u2019t really call it reggae anymore. It was just the way we played. I think \u2018Reggatta\u2019 was that moment for us.\u201d You don\u2019t get better than that.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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