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The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For the vast majority of their history, the band consisted of Sting (lead vocals, bass), Andy Summers (guitar) and Stewart Copeland (drums). The Police became globally popular in the late 1970s and are generally regarded as one of the first New Wave groups to achieve mainstream success, playing a style of rock that was influenced by punk, reggae, and jazz.

Their 1983 album, Synchronicity, was number one on both the UK Albums Chart and the US Billboard 200, and sold over 8 million copies in the US. The group disbanded in 1986, but reunited in early 2007 for a one-off world tour lasting until August 2008. The band has won a number of music awards throughout their career, including six Grammy Awards, two Brit Awards—winning Best British Group once, an MTV Video Music Award, and in 2003, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.[1] The Police have sold more than 50 million albums worldwide, and were the world's highest-earning musicians in 2008, thanks to their reunion tour.[2]

The Police were founded by American expatriate Stewart Copeland in early 1977. After the demise of his progressive rock band Curved Air, Copeland was eager to form a new three-piece group and join the burgeoning London punk scene. Singer-bassist Sting (Gordon Sumner) and guitarist Henry Padovani began rehearsing with Copeland in January 1977, and they recorded the first Police single "Fall Out" the following month. Sting was from a jazz-rock background, and wasn't very familiar with punk music, so the bulk of the song writing fell on Copeland, who penned the majority of the band's early repertoire, including "Fall Out", "Nothing Achieving", "Landlord" and "Dead End Job".

In March and April 1977, the threesome toured as a support act for Cherry Vanilla and for Wayne County & the Electric Chairs.[3][4] In May, ex-Gong musician Mike Howlett invited Sting and former Eric Burdon and the Animals guitarist Andy Summers to form a project band with him for a Gong reunion, which they named Strontium 90. The drummer Howlett had in mind, Chris Cutler, was unavailable to play, so Sting brought along Stewart Copeland. Strontium 90 recorded several demo tracks, and performed at a Gong reunion concert in Paris on 28 May 1977. An album with some of these live and studio tracks (along with the first recorded version of "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic") was released 20 years later in 1997 under the name Strontium 90: Police Academy. The foursome also performed at a London club as "The Elevators" in July 1977.[5]

Shortly after the Strontium 90 gig, Summers ran into Copeland, and sensing Sting's increasing dissatisfaction at Padovani's relative limited abilities, proposed to join the band on the condition that they would be a trio. Restrained by loyalty to Padovani, both Copeland and Sting initially resisted the idea, and the Police began performing as a four-piece version in July 1977. Shortly after two gigs at the Music Machine in London and at the Mont de Marsan Punk Festival, and an aborted recording session with producer John Cale on 10 August, Padovani was informed he was out of the band and Summers became the sole guitarist. Padovani went on to play with Wayne County & the Electric Chairs, eventually forming his own band, Flying Padovanis, and later becoming Vice President of IRS Records. The line-up of Copeland, Sting, and Summers was an unusual trio at a time when progressive rock, symphonic rock, and other sound trends lent themselves to musical ensembles with support players. Even for punk standards, three-men bands were a rarity. This line-up would endure for the rest of the Police's history.[6]

Paralleling these developments, in 1977/78, Sting and Summers recorded and performed (alongside other invited musicians) with German experimental composer Eberhard Schoener; Copeland also joined for a time. These performances resulted in three albums, each of them an eclectic mix of rock, electronica and jazz.[7] Various appearances by the Schoener outfit on German television made the German public aware of Sting's unusual high-pitched voice, and helped pave the way for the Police's later popularity.

The bleached-blond hair that would become a trademark of the band was a lucky accident. In February 1978, the band, desperate for money, was asked to do a commercial for Wrigley's Spearmint chewing gum (directed by Tony Scott) on the condition that they dye their hair blond.[8] Although the commercial was shot with the band, it was shelved and never aired.[9]

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