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Stewart Copeland
Stewart Copeland drumming with The Police
Background information
Birth name	Stewart Armstrong Copeland
Born	July 16, 1952
Origin	Alexandria, Virginia, United States
Genre(s)	Rock Reggae Pop New Wave
Occupation(s)	Drummer Singer Songwriter Director
Instrument(s)	Drums Vocals
Years active	1975 - present
Label(s)	A&M Records
Associated acts	The Police Klark Kent Oysterhead Gizmo
Website	www.stewartcopeland.net

Stewart Armstrong Copeland (born July 16, 1952) is an American musician, best known as the drummer for the band The Police and is an influential drum stylist. During the group's extended hiatus from the mid-1980s to 2007, he played in other bands and composed soundtracks.

Contents 1 Background 2 Drumming 3 The Police 4 Klark Kent 4.1 Singles 4.2 Albums 5 Later career 6 Personal 7 Trivia 8 References 9 External links

Copeland was born in Alexandria, Virginia [1], the youngest of four children of CIA agent Miles Copeland, Jr. and Scot Lorraine Adie, who was in British intelligence.

The family moved to Cairo, Egypt a few months after his birth, and Copeland spent his formative years in the Middle East attending Cairo American College. He started drum lessons at age twelve and by age thirteen he was playing drums for school dances. Later he moved to England and attended Millfield from 1967 to 1969. Copeland went to college in California, attending California Western University and UC Berkeley. He returned to England in 1975, playing drums for the progressive rock band Curved Air.

Copeland is known for a blend of precise, energetic, and creative rock drumming along with a reggae influenced style. His distinctive sound centers on a hard, high-pitched crack on a snare drum or rimshot, subtle hi-hat work with understated flourishes, while often playing only hi-hat with bass drum. Copeland's distinct use of a polyrhythmic approach solidifies his stance as an important drummer, subsequently influencing generations of drummers. His credit on Curved Air's Airborne album was "Heavy Artillery" rather than "drums."

Copeland is also noted for his heavy emphasis on the groove as a complement to the song, rather than displays of technical prowess. He once drove this point home at a drum clinic: Copeland announced that he would show the audience something "that very few modern drummers can do," and proceeded to play a simple rock beat for two minutes. Nonetheless, his playing often incorporates spectacular fills and subtle inflections which greatly augment the groove. Compared to most of his 1980's contemporaries, Copeland's snare sound was very bright and cutting. Another novelty was his use of splash cymbals. He also is one of the very few rock drummers who uses the traditional grip as opposed to most others that use the match grip.

Main article: The Police

In 1977, Copeland founded the Police with singer/bassist Sting and guitarist Henry Padovani (who was soon replaced by Andy Summers), which became one of the top bands of the 1980s.

Frequently cited recordings with the Police include:

• Outlandos d'Amour: "So Lonely," "Roxanne," "Can't Stand Losing You"
• Regatta de Blanc: "Message in a Bottle," "Walking on the Moon," "The Bed's Too Big Without You"
• Zenyatta Mondatta: "Driven to Tears," "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da," "Don't Stand So Close to Me," "Canary in a Coalmine"
• Ghost in the Machine: "Invisible Sun," "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic," "Spirits in the Material World"
• Synchronicity: "Synchronicity I," "King of Pain," "Wrapped Around Your Finger," "Every Breath You Take," "Synchronicity II"

Copeland also recorded under the pseudonym Klark Kent, releasing several UK singles in 1978 with one ("Don't Care") entering the UK singles chart that year, along with an eponymously titled 10-inch album on green vinyl released in 1980. In a 2006 online chat, Copeland revealed that A&M Records signed the Police in order to get Klark Kent.^[1]

• "Don't Care/Thrills/Office Girls" - 1978
• "Too Kool To Kalypso/Kinetic Ritual" - 1978
• "Away From Home/Office Talk"' - 1980
• "Ritch In A Ditch/Grandilinquent" - 1980

• Klark Kent - 1980
• Kollected Works - 1995

In 1982 Stewart Copeland was involved in the production of a WOMAD benefit album called Music and Rhythm.

In 1983, Stewart Copeland would compose the musical score and earn a Golden Globe nomination for his scoring of Francis Ford Coppola's Rumble Fish. The film directed and produced by Francis Ford Coppola from the S.E. Hinton novel also had a song released to radio on A & M Records "Don't Box Me In - Theme From Rumblefish" - a collaboration between Copeland and singer/songwriter Stan Ridgway, leader of the band Wall of Voodoo, that received significant airplay upon release of the film that year.

After The Police stopped touring in 1984, Copeland established a career composing soundtracks for movies (Talk Radio, Wall Street, See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Highlander 2, The Leopard Son, Taking Care of Business, West Beirut), television (The Equalizer, Dead Like Me, Droids, the animated Star Wars spin-off, the original pilot for Babylon 5), and video games (Spyro the Dragon), along with operas (Holy Blood and Crescent Moon) and ballets.

In 1985, Copeland released a solo album, The Rhythmatist. Featuring drums and percussion, the record was the result of a pilgrimage to Africa. In 1988 he followed up with The Equalizer & Other Cliff Hangers, an album collecting some of his soundtrack efforts.

In 1989, Copeland formed Animal Logic with jazz bassist Stanley Clarke and singer songwriter Deborah Holland. The trio had success with their first album and world tour but the followup recording sold poorly, and the band did not continue.

Copeland has occasionally played drums for other artists including Peter Gabriel. In 2000, he joined with Les Claypool of Primus (with whom he produced a track on the Primus album Antipop) and Trey Anastasio of Phish to create the band Oysterhead. In 2002, Copeland was hired by Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger of The Doors to play on a new album and tour, but after an injury sidelined Copeland, the arrangement ended in mutual lawsuits. In 2005, Copeland started Gizmo, a new project with avant-garde guitarist David Fiuczynski. The band made their U.S debut on September 16, 2006 at the Modern Drummer Drum Festival.

In January 2006, Copeland premiered his film about the Police called Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out at the Sundance Film Festival. In February and March, he appeared as one of the judges on the BBC television show 'Just the Two of Us' (A role he later reprised for a second series in January 2007).

At the 2007 Grammy Awards, Copeland, Andy Summers and Sting performed the song "Roxanne" together again as The Police. This marked the band's first public performance since 1986 (they had previously reunited only for an improvised set at Sting's wedding party in 1992 and for their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003). One day later, the band announced that in celebration of The Police's 30th anniversary, they would be embarking on worldwide The Police Reunion Tour on May 23rd 2007.

Copeland married Curved Air vocalist Sonja Kristina, and they had three sons together before divorcing in the early 1990s. Copeland had one other son with Marina Guinness, daughter of the Hon. Desmond Guinness and Princess Mariga Guinness. Copeland currently lives in Los Angeles with his second wife, Fiona, with whom he has three daughters.

Stewart's oldest brother Miles Copeland III, founder of I.R.S. Records, was manager of the Police and has overseen Stewart's interests in other music projects. Stewart's other brother, the now deceased Ian Copeland, was a pioneering booking agent who represented the Police, amongst many others.

• Stewart's hobbies include rollerskating, cycling along the beach in Santa Monica, film-making and playing polo.

• Copeland's official site
• A fan site
• Stewart Copeland at MusicBrainz
• Stewart Copeland at the Internet Movie Database
• Stewart Copeland Interview
• PUNKCAST#1013 Q&A at Walter Reade Theater NYC, Aug 5, 2006. (Realplayer, mp4)

The Police
Sting | Andy Summers | Stewart Copeland
Henry Padovani
Discography
Studio Albums: Outlandos d'Amour (1978) | Reggatta de Blanc (1979) | Zenyatta Mondatta (1980) | Ghost in the Machine (1981) | Synchronicity (1983)
Live Albums: Live! (1995)
Compilation Albums: Every Breath You Take: The Singles (1986) | Message in a Box: The Complete Recordings (1993) | Every Breath You Take: The Classics (1995) | The Very Best of Sting & The Police (1997, 2002)
Tours
Early Years (1977-80) | The Police Around the World Tour (Zenyatta Mondatta Tour) (1980-81) | Ghost in the Machine Tour (1981-82) | Synchronicity Tour (1983-84) | A Conspiracy of Hope Tour (1986) | The Police Reunion Tour (2007-08)
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