So, The Police are back then/Ornette Coleman Dissed @ Grammys

[The Region Legion]

Reforming for a world tour, apparently.

Rage, Smashing Pumpkins, now these guys... who's next?

God I hate starting threads.

EDIT: Just to add something to this rather pointless post, I'll put my complaint about the Grammy Awards in here too..

Ornette Coleman - free jazz legend - comes on with some bint who presents him with a lifetime achievement type thing. The crowd couldn't care less, and they FADE HIM OUT READING THE NAMES OF THE NOMINEES (presumably because he's not important enough, despite - you know - practically inventing a whole genre of music instead of just being another cookie-cutter singing whore) which is won by Carrie "Meat-thighs" Underwood. Who the fuck is that? What is Ornette Coleman doing there?!

Fucking sickening. Didn't help that Carrie (who was up against Corrine Bailey Rae and, bizarrely, Imogen Heap) then performed an utterly boring version of Desperado immediately afterwards. Set fire to them all.

[The Mumbler]

I almost never listen to them now, but they were the first band I ever liked enough to buy just about everything they put out (I was 10, 11 at the time). I was amazed to find that Andy Summers was already nearly 40 - in other words the same age as McCartney - and yet he was in the big teenybop sensation. It'd never happen now.

The best of their early stuff - Next to You, Roxanne, Born in the 50s, Can't Stand Losing You, The Bed's Too Big Without You, So Lonely - is fabulously tight and frenetic, with lots of space in the music. I know they were regarded as a joke by most journalists and even most bands, and after they split up, I could only really tolerate Sting's first LP, and no others. But they clearly meant an awful lot to me at the time.

Why have they got back together? Is it just money, or have they genuinely patched up their differences? Sting and Copeland really loathed each other quite early on.

[The Mumbler]

dp

[The Mumbler]

And again.

[The Mumbler]

Sending out an S.O...

[The Mumbler]

Eee-oh...

[The Region Legion]

Andy Summers did two great albums with King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp - 1982's "I Advance Masked" and 1984's "Bewitched".

And I once saw Stewart Copeland do a concert with King Crimson drummer Bill Bruford, which was pretty good.

So I guess if Sting joined forces with Adrian Belew, he could do something good. Otherwise, meh. Although for some reason I'm still glad they're back together.

[trotsky assortment]

I loved The Police at the time and still do.  However, this reformation fills me with indifference.

If the Fleetwood Mac reuinion is anything to go by as a model, we'll get a lacklustre album and a tour most of us can't afford tickets for.

[Labian Quest]

The best of their early stuff - Next to You, Roxanne, Born in the 50s, Can't Stand Losing You, The Bed's Too Big Without You, So Lonely - is fabulously tight and frenetic, with lots of space in the music.

I'm the same - I liked the early stuff a lot too, but I remember reading an unauthorised bio of Sting that went into quite a lot of detail about the band that Sting was in before The Police - a jazz band called Last Exit. The author said that it was generally agreed that a lot of The Police's best early work bore a startling resemblance to songs written by one of the members of Last Exit, does anyone here have any demos or anything by Last Exit? if so, I'd be very interested to hear them.

Why have they got back together? Is it just money, or have they genuinely patched up their differences? Sting and Copeland really loathed each other quite early on.

Apparently they used to get into a lot of fist fights because Sting thought Copeland was speeding up, which is not something drummers like to be told.[/quote]

[Lfbarfe]

Apparently they used to get into a lot of fist fights because Sting thought Copeland was speeding up, which is not something drummers like to be told.

Copeland had a word written on each of his toms, so that the kit, viewed from behind or above read 'FUCK OFF YOU CUNT'. It was aimed at the singer.

[MonkeyDrummer]

I was amazed to find that Andy Summers was already nearly 40 - in other words the same age as McCartney .

Paul McCartney is 64.

[niat]

Was nearly 40 (ie when The Police formed), not is nearly 40!

[The Mumbler]

Yes, I meant Summers was approaching 40 when they became famous. 37 when they had their first number one hit (1979).

He's wearing very well in the press photos. It's Copeland (like Sting, ten years younger) who's looking a bit long in the tooth.

[MonkeyDrummer]

Ahh, right. Sorry.

[Ciarán2]

There's a rather harsh article by Andrew Mueller in today's G2 about Sting's millions.

[aaaaaaaaaargh!]

Is it harsh, but fair?  I've never really liked Sting that much, probably because I hate his solo stuff.

[Ciarán2]

I'll let you judge. It's a reasonable enough viewpoint, I suppose, but it's on the uncharitable side to say the least.

Should Sting get £70m for the Police reunion?

Andrew Mueller
Wednesday February 14, 2007
The Guardian
 
The imminent comeback shows by the Police, 23 years after their rancorous split, will be one of the most profitable tours of this year or any year. Reports suggest that singer and bass player Sting could end up £70m richer.
Whatever pleasures may be derived from this tour, the satisfaction of rescuing a once great artist from penury will not be among them. Sting's bafflingly successful solo career - the most recent manifestation of which was a satire-defying album of medieval ballads played on the lute - has garnered him a fortune estimated at £200m. The question, then, is what the punter gets for making an absurdly rich man even richer.

The Police were a success story so incongruous as to be almost appealing. They were hopelessly out of place in the late-70s London punk scene they sought to infiltrate - a Geordie schoolteacher (Sting), the son of a CIA agent (Stewart Copeland, drums) and a veteran session hack (Andy Summers, guitar) who was, by the standards of the time, ancient at 35. They sounded engagingly odd, fusing skinny-tied new wave with reggae-influenced rhythms. They made several irresistible singles, including Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic and Message in a Bottle. Regrettably, the Police's budding charm was crushed beneath the epic pomposity of the band's leader, best epitomised by the gauche Nabokov name-drop in Don't Stand So Close to Me.
The short answer: no. Sting doesn't deserve £70m for swanning around the planet in luxury, being applauded by vast crowds for deigning to play some mildly amusing tunes he wrote three decades ago. However, some who recall his teeth-grindingly pretentious interviews over the years, or are still trying to dash the lyrics for The Russians out of their memories, might pay him far more to go away and keep quiet.

[Labian Quest]

Ta for the info, LFBarfe.

More Sting related stuff:

According to Viz, Sting's real name is 'Gordon Sting'

According to Angus Deayton on HIGNFY, 'Sting uses a meditation technique that enables him to make sex last for up to five hours...or even longer if he's doing it with someone else'

[depressed beyond tablets]

Bullshit. They were a force now they're just spent. I remember watching Cream getting back for a concert and nearly shitting all over myself. It really was that bad.

[Why I Hate Tables]

What is Ornette Coleman doing there?!

I suspect it was a bit of a joke. Okay, it wasn't, but it seems like one. Jazz legend, musical legend. Why did they give him an waward if they aren't going to acknowledge that musically (and as a person) he's more important than half the genetically modified tit carriers on ths show?

[Ciarán2]

Cream were fucking fucking SHIT.

[trotsky assortment]

I half expected they would be.  
I loved their studio work (or at least a fair chunk of it), but always found their live stuff to be noisy and rambling with Bruce shouting off-key.  I figured their reunion gigs might be like that and I wasn't about to fork out huge amounts of cash on the off-chance they weren't.

[Al Tha Funkee Homosapien]

I remember half watching their reunion gig on BBC4 ages ago and the drummer did a solo that lasted for probably about 45 minutes. Fair enough he's a pretty good tub thumper, but no need!

[Dusty Gozongas]

[...]The crowd couldn't care less, and they FADE HIM OUT READING THE NAMES OF THE NOMINEES (presumably because he's not important enough, despite - you know - practically inventing a whole genre of music instead of just being another cookie-cutter singing whore)[...]

There's usually a strict time limit for acceptance speeches at award ceremonies. You get used to it eventually. Audiences can admittedly be far more annoying than protocol but I imagine you can get used to that too if you live long enough. I'll let you know...

[The Region Legion]

There's usually a strict time limit for acceptance speeches at award ceremonies. You get used to it eventually. Audiences can admittedly be far more annoying than protocol but I imagine you can get used to that too if you live long enough. I'll let you know...

No no no - it wasn't an acceptance speech. He came on with some woman who said "Ornette Coleman invented free jazz, and now he's going to read the nominations for best female artist", and by the 3rd name his mic had been faded out and someone else took over saying the names - as if his voice wasn't good enough for them. Why even have him there?