At
least its members seem to understand them better.
"People
don't really change," guitarist Andy Summers told The Associated Press.
"We're the same three (jerks) we always were. I'm actually quite proud of
the fact that it's gone on as long as it has."
The
Police had initially planned to end their 30-year reunion tour a year ago in
Giants Stadium, bringing full circle to a career where the first
Things
were going so well, both personally and as a business, that they kept adding
legs; the reunion tour will end as one of the five biggest money-making rock
tours of all time.
The
full circle idea stuck, however. The 96th and final show of the tour will be in
At
the simplest level, Summers said it has been immensely satisfying to see the
faces of fans who had grown up listening to songs like "Roxanne,"
"Don't Stand So Close To Me" and "Every Breath You Take."
"I'm
in front of the stage and you literally see people break out into sobs or kiss
each other and jump around expressing joy," he said. "It's been quite
emotional in many ways."
Some
things never change: Summers was stuck in the middle between the "two kids
scrapping on either side," headstrong singer and composer Sting and drummer
Stewart Copeland, the volatile anchor of the band's meld of punk rock, reggae
and jazz.
Copeland
is a visceral musician, one who sees music as a spontaneous exercise of joy and
who loves the creative process. Copeland views Sting as a musical genius, but
one sure of his ideas and not really interested in collaboration. Now that
Copeland has spent several years composing film music, hiring musicians to play
exactly the notes he wrote, he can understand why he drives Sting nuts.
"When
he exercises his right to have it the way he imagined it, it's a problem for
both him and me," he said. "I just can't do it. I can't remember it.
I have my own ideas. I'm incorrigible."
When
he was 25 years old, he couldn't understand all this, said Copeland, now 56.
Sting,
Copeland and Summers would occasionally socialize after the band broke up in
1984, "but not really to the extent where we were able to clear up all of
our misconceptions about each other," he said. "It was really good
for us to figure out what made the band work and what didn't work, so we could
appreciate each other unconfused by these other issues."
Working
with Sting has been inspiring, he said, "but, man, I need to breathe
sometimes."
He
doesn't want to overemphasize the conflicts, because Copeland said they've
really been having a good time on the road.
Copeland
gave another hint to his personality when he trashed the band's performance
over the Internet after the first couple of gigs. "We are the mighty
Police and we are totally at sea," he wrote on his blog.
The
last leg of the tour has contained the best shows, he said.
"As
we're getting more into it and less uptight about living the legend, it is
actually becoming the stuff that got us here," he said.
So
is this really the end?
"Yes,"
Copeland said. "It was the commitment in the beginning that made it
possible, that it was a finite commitment. That has actually made it a lot of
fun."
Same
question to Summers. Is this really the end?
Yes,
but ...
Maybe
it's because he's seen the history of bands like the Eagles, who are now a
fully functioning recording and touring unit again after once saying hell would
freeze over before they would reunite.
"I'm
fully prepared to say that was it, we're fine and we're done," Summers
said. "On the other hand, I'm fully prepared if someone comes back in a
couple of years and says we ought to give it a go. You have to consider it.
"A
lot of bands, like the Eagles and probably numerous other ones, everyone sort
of matures and they realize that it's fantastic business and the impetuosity
that comes with being very young and walking away from something that is really
successful, you kind of get over that."
He said he doesn't expect it to happen, but "that's the
model that's out there for me."