Stewart CopelandEvery so often, in amongst all the live music gigs you attend and love, it’s fabulous to break things up with something like this: a famous and universally loved musician getting up on a stage and chatting about their life and experiences in a relaxed and irreverent manner.
And when it’s such an engaging and uninhibited character like Stewart Copeland, it’s even better.
It’s hard to conceive of anyone not having heard of this legend, but for the uninitiated, Copeland was the legendary drummer and founding member of late 70s/early 80s ska-influenced pop/rock act The Police (now you can’t not have heard of them!).
Since that band disbanded forty-odd years ago, Copeland has remained extraordinarily active in the music, arts and entertainment fields, having composed soundtracks for major Hollywood films for the likes of Oliver Stone and Francis Ford Coppola, made films himself, written books and created music for opera and ballet. It’s a mighty CV.
Tonight’s spoken word-only show is in a Q&A format, with questions provided by Aussie media personality Sarah Tout and later by members of the audience. The Forum’s secondary room, the upstairs, fully seated Forum II, is jam-packed with eager punters breathlessly waiting for the great man to appear. And we are not disappointed.
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Copeland is in fine fettle this evening, bursting onto the stage with the type of energy only he possesses (only made all the more astonishing when you consider the bloke is moving into his mid-seventies). That energy does not ebb one iota for the hour-long first ‘set’, quick break, and hour-plus second sitting, as he belts out one hilarious and compelling anecdote after another.
There are no contrived jokes here, no script, all he needs to carry the entire evening, well over two hours of scintillating entertainment, are his personality and his recollections of an extraordinary life well lived.
So, what did he talk about? His memories of his time in one of the most famous rock bands on the planet are arguably the most compelling moments of the evening. For example, the time they were on an island paradise in the Caribbean, completely at each other’s throats, struggling badly to complete what was to be their final ever album, Synchronicity.
They learned that former Beatles producer George Martin was staying just across the way, so they sent guitarist Andy Summers down the hill, across the creek, and up the other side to basically beg him to come and help them finish the record. In the end, all Martin did was give some basic motivational advice and send Summers on his way, but it helped them complete the record, and it became a masterpiece, a magnificent final statement and swansong (these words being the opinion of this scribe, rather than that of the evening’s protagonist).
The way the band came together is another gripping story: how Copeland first pursued Sting to be in his band, and how they both then pursued Summers. Their relationship now, especially between Copeland and Sting (the key antagonist of the story), how there is great and enduring love and affection between them, except when they are playing music together – how all the old conflicts re-arose, literally within minutes of them commencing rehearsals, during the reunion tour the band did in 2007-8. But how that conflict was actually the ‘secret sauce’ that made The Police what they were.
The Klark Kent story is a riot: in the early 80s, in and around his commitments in The Police, Copeland wrote and recorded a little side project called ‘Klark Kent’, all by himself, ostensibly as a bit of a joke. But it ended up being picked up and given its fifteen minutes of fame, culminating in a performance on the BBC, with Copeland in heavy face paint and Sting miming the bass whilst wearing an ape mask!
Even the bloke’s childhood was fascinating: his dad was a CIA operative who helped install American puppet dictators into oil-rich nations in Africa and the Middle East.
Most of the stories are accentuated by huge photos beamed onto the massive rear-screen behind them, photos of his childhood, photos of his family and earlier bands, photos of his time in The Police, photos of Copeland conducting huge orchestras and choirs using a drumstick as a baton.
What a character. What an enviable life. Stewart Copeland: Have I Said Too Much is truly an evening out of the box. Check it out if you can.
