After The Police...
After hectic tours, gigs and recording sessions from 1977 to 1981, The Police took a break in 1982 before going back into a recording studio with a new sound and creating their greatest album, Synchronicity, in 1983. They planned to record a live album in the summer of 1984 but it never happened. They were supposed to record their sixth album at the end of 1984 but that didn't happen either. They brought out their own solo material once again in 1985 and finally went into a recording studio in 1986, although they were to wish they hadn't bothered. The power struggle between Stewart Copeland and Sting which began as early as 1978 (and can be evidently heard in their live gig in America that year) reached a head and the recording sessions for one song, a revised version of Don't Stand So Close To Me lasted three weeks with Andy Summers completing his guitar work on the FIRST DAY.
The tension between Sting and Stewart had always been there. Sting once played a gig with a cracked rib after a bust-up with Stewart backstage, and, on their second album Reggatta De Blanc, Stewart says "The other one was a complete bullshit" before one of his songs, On Any Other Day, begins. His remarks seemingly refer to Sting's Walking On The Moon which is the previous song on the album. The early stage of the conflict is shown at a live date in Boston in 1978. At the start of Next To You, the opening song, Sting and Stewart both make announcements to the audience at the same time. At the start of the next song, So Lonely, Sting shouts to the audience "I feel so lonely!" "I'm not surprised", retorts Stewart. As if this wasn't enough on the one night, as they begin to play Truth Hits Everybody, Sting says "It's nice to be back" whilst Stewart is counting "one, two, three, four". Thank God that Andy Summers was there to play the guitar so magnificently on all of the tracks so that the crowd could concentrate on the music and not just the next time there would be evident friction between Stewart and Sting.
All this culminated in a battle over who the band leader was, and yet this battle did not include Andy's own personality and characteristics. In my opinion Stewart was the band leader. He did all the ground work in the early days that allowed them to get their chance with A&M Records, keeping it all going in 1977 when they had no money. At this time he also wrote the songs and it was in his house that The Police's first single, Fall Out, was released on Stewart's own Illegal Records label.
Anyway, this is a fairly complete list of solo work produced by the three.
Andy Summers:
Albums:
I Advance Masked (1982, US 60) - with Robert Fripp
Bewitched (1985) - with Robert Fripp
XYZ (1987)
Mysterious Barricades (1988)
Golden Wire (1989)
Charming Snakes (1990)
World Gone Strange (1991)
Guitarness (1993) - with John Ethridge
The Last Dance Of Mr.X (1997)
Strings Of Desire (1998) - with Victor Biglione
Green Chimneys, The Music Of Thelonious Monk (1999)
Peggy's Blue Skylight (2001)
Scored Soundtracks For:
Down And Out In Beverly Hills
End Of The Line
Out Of Time
Weekend At Bernie's
Poochinski
Contributed Soundtracks For:
2010
Wild Life
The Deceivers
Albums Featured On:
Nothing Like The Sun (Sting, 1987)
Stewart Copeland:
Albums:
Klark Kent (under the artist name of "Klark
Kent") (1978?)
The Rhythmatist (1985)
The Equalizer And Other Cliffhangers (1988)
Animal Logic (1989, US 106) - in group Animal Logic
Animal Logic II (1991) - in group Animal Logic
Kollected Works (under the artist name "Klark Kent") (1995)
Scored Soundtracks for many films and operas including:
Rumble Fish
San Francisco Ballet's King Lear
Wall Street
Talk Radio
She's Having A Baby
See No Evil, Hear No Evil
Taking Care Of Business
Hidden Agenda
Riff Raff
Raining Stones
Highlander 2
Bank Robber
Airborne
First Power
Out Of Bounds
The Wide Sargasso Sea
Afterburn
Babylon 5
She's All That
Good Burger
Pecker
Soundtracks for computer games:
Spyro The Dragon
Alone In The Dark 4 (released summer 2001)
Wrote:
Holy Blood And Crescent Moon (two-hour piece for full
orchestra and 14 singers)
Horse Opera
The Cask Of Amontillado
The Stars Thay Played With Lucky Joe's Cards (drums and full
orchestra) for the Seattle Symphony
Played Sessions For:
Peter Gabriel
Stanley Clarke
Simple Minds
Produced:
Lloyd Cole & The Commodores single Jennifer She Said
Sting:
Albums:
The Dream Of The Blue Turtles (1985, UK 3, US 2)
Bring On The Night (1986, UK 16)
Nothing Like The Sun (1987, UK 1, US 9)
The Soul Cages (1991, UK 1, US 2)
Sting - Acoustic Live In Newcastle (1991)
Ten Summoner's Tales (1993, UK 2, US 2)
Fields Of Gold - The Best Of 1984 - 1994
Mercury Falling (1997)
Brand New Day (1999)
Albums Featured On:
Brothers In Arms (Dire Straits, 1985) - backing vocals
on "Money For Nothing"
Green Chimneys - The Music Of Thelonious Monk (Andy Summers, 1999) - vocals on
"'Round Mignight"