Gordon Sumner (better known as Sting), Stewart Copeland, and Andy Summers give their first performance as The Police in 1977 at a nightclub in Birmingham, England. Sting and Copeland had formed the band several months earlier with another guitar player, Henry Padovani, who had quit the band, but this was the first show featuring the trio that proved to be a hit-making combination.
Sting, nicknamed for a black and yellow shirt he frequently wore to his early gigs, was born in Newcastle, England. Before becoming a full-time musician, he worked as a teacher and ditch digger. Playing bass, saxophone, and keyboards, as well as singing, Sting played in Newcastle jazz clubs in his early 20s, when he met drummer Stewart Copeland. Copeland was born to American parents in Egypt; his father was in the CIA. Summers, a classically trained guitar player from Blackpool, England, had played with numerous successful musicians, including Neil Sedaka, before joining the Police. Copeland and his brother created a record label that produced a single, "Fall Out," by the Police in 1978. A year later, the group signed a record deal.
The band toured America, then released a series of increasingly successful albums, including Regatta de Blanc in 1979 and Zenyatta Mondatta (including the song "Don't Stand So Close to Me") in 1980. The album hit No. 5 on the U.S. pop charts. Their next album,
Ghost in the Machine (1981), which included such hits as "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic," was even more popular. Their 1983 album, Synchronicity, was their biggest success to date, boasting hits like "Every Breath You Take" and "Wrapped Around Your Finger." Synchronicity was the group's last studio album. The band took a "sabbatical" after the album, and although the members played together live a few more times, they never recorded together again. All three later released solo albums, but only Sting achieved international stardom as a solo artist.
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