Stewart Copeland is a music journalist’s dream – every little thing he says is a pull-quote. He’s about as far removed as you can get from the current crop of media-trained pop stars afraid of putting one syllable out of line in case it dents their Instagram follower tally.
The Police’s drummer is on brilliant form for our latest cover feature – a long overdue headline appearance in Classic Pop for one of the 80s’ biggest bands.
Although it has seemingly been overstated, the trio’s backstabbing has become almost as famous as their back catalogue over the years – and Stewart’s barbs in our interview this month still come thick and fast, doing little to refute that reputation. It’s mostly tongue-in-cheek, of course, and only the most romantic of music fans could believe that their favourite bands get on famously all of the time.
Some of the greatest moments in recorded music have come via an atmosphere of competition or conflict. Whether it be Lennon and McCartney trying to outdo each other in The Beatles or the power struggles for supremacy that have regularly made New Order and Depeche Mode such fraught entities, a certain amount of tension can go a long way in pushing bands to excellence. The Police often took inter-band strife to the next level, though, but valiantly quit while they were ahead. Was there ever a group – the aforementioned Beatles excepted, of course – who packed it in when still able to fill stadiums and top charts around the world?