The Police/Trivia

• Creative Differences: They disbanded in 1986 after Sting and Stewart Copeland couldn't agree on which drum machine to use.
  • That was just the "straw that broke the camel's back" according to Copeland. The band had already almost broken up while recording Synchronicity and Sting had a solo career going on.
  • Specific pre-breakup example: Andy and Stewart weren't impressed when Sting showed them "Next to You", feeling that its lyrics weren't aggressive or political enough, and suggested replacements. Sting refused to change anything. Stewart was also dismissive of the Blues Rock slide guitar solo, calling it "old wave".
• Creator Backlash: Sting says that he'd throw about half of Zenyattà in the trash, and the other bandmembers agree that the album's quality suffered from a rushed production (it was finished on the day that their world tour started). Andy said he became disenchanted with their direction around Ghost, when the "fantastic raw-trio stuff" got drowned out by all the horns and synths, and "we ended up backing a singer doing his pop songs".
  • Producer Nigel Gray thought the title of "Behind My Camel" was a sign of Andy undergoing this:

He didn't tell me this himself but I'm 98% sure the reason is this: what would you find behind a camel? A monumental pile of shit.

• Hipgnosis: Did the cover art for the British "De Do Do Do De Da Da Da" picture sleeve.
• The Pete Best: Henri Padovani was the band's first guitarist. He only got to record the first single ("Fall Out"/"Nothing Achieving", in 1977) before being replaced by Andy Summers.
• What Could Have Been: Sting recorded 13 demos and only 6 made it to Ghost In The Machine. The 6 originals that didn't make it were pretty awesome. One question -- why hasn't he properly released them later?
  • When the trio got back together in 1986 for one last-ditch attempt at recording, Stewart Copeland broke his collarbone in a horse-riding accident the day before and couldn't play the drums. Summers admitted that they lost the opportunity to dampen hostility by just jamming around, and they ended up disbanding for good.

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