Police Drummer Stewart Copeland Calls Reunion Show “Unbelievably Lame”

“It usually takes about four or five shows in a tour before you get to the disaster gig,” Police drummer Stewart Copeland writes on his blog (yes, he has a blog). “But we’re The Police so we are a little ahead of schedule.” Thus reads the self-eviscerating post in which the drummer describes exactly how bad the band’s much-heralded reunion shows have been sounding to him. He explicitly details his take on the band’s second major reunion show in Vancouver with a blow-by-blow of his onstage musings (read Charles Cross’ review of the first show here). Oh, and he calls Sting a “petulant pansy.” Here are our favorite snippets from Copeland’s post: “I collect myself in the dark and start to warm up the gong with a few gentle taps. But I’m overdoing it. It’s resonating and reaching it’s crescendo before the stage has fully reached its position. Sort of like a premature ejaculation. There’s nothing for it so I take a big swing for the big hit. Problem is, I’m just fractionally too far away and the beater misses the sweet spot and the big pompous opening to the show is a damp squib. Never mind.” “I stride manfully to my drums. Andy has started the opening guitar riff to MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE and the crowd is going nuts. Problem is, I missed hearing him start. Is he on the first time around or the second? I look over at Sting and he’s not much help, his cue is me – and I’m lost. Never mind. “Crack!” on the snare and I’m in, so Sting starts singing. Problem is, he heard my crack as two in the bar, but it was actually four – so we are half a bar out of sync with each other. Andy is in Idaho.” “There is just something wrong. We just can’t get on the good foot. We shamble through the song [”Synchronicity”] and hit the big ending. Last night Sting did a big leap for the cut-off hit, and he makes the same move tonight, but he gets the footwork just a little bit wrong and doesn’t quite achieve lift-off. The mighty St
Picture: Police Drummer Stewart Copeland Calls Reunion Show “Unbelievably Lame” Published: 2007-06-01
Provider: Rolling Stone
Keywords: General