Sting stung by Stewart's 'Police raid'

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Sting stung by Stewart's 'Police raid'

Dick Burns...

09:04am 27th January 2006

Sting and his former bandmate from The Police, Stewart Copeland, have fallen
out over rights to the group's hit songs.
The multi-millionaire singer and actor was outraged at the drummer's efforts
to obtain the rights to Police hits such as Roxanne, Can't Stand Losing You,
Walking On The Moon and Every Breath You Take, so he can re-mix and
re-release them.

But Sting's not entertaining any such idea. For starters, Sting wrote the
songs and controls the rights and he told friends at various gatherings at
the Sundance Film festival, where his wife Trudie Styler screened her new
film A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints, that there was no way Copeland
would ever get his hands on his songs.

Copeland had his own film at Sundance - a rather disappointing documentary
of old backstage super-8 footage of the Police in their early years called
Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out.

After one screening, Copeland told the audience that he felt entitled to the
songs because he was as much a part of The Police as Sting. Maybe so - but
he didn't write the hits.

Sting went out of his way to be polite to Copeland, attending a party for
the documentary and being charming throughout.

But the very next day, Copeland launched his bid to re-activate The Police.

There's been bad blood between the pair for years. Sting has always wanted
The Police to be allowed to stand for what they achieved all those years
ago. He is adamant that he does not want to revisit that period of his life.

So the message in a bottle to Copeland is: "Leave the past alone." Actually,
it's much ruder. Something involving a truncheon.

Later, Sting and Trudie, flushed with the success of A Guide To Recognizing
Your Saints, which she produced, flew to Los Angeles to record a duet with
soul veteran Sam Moore for a new Moore album.

The track they were recording this week was an old Ray Charles number called
None Of Us Are Free.

Dick Burns...

So, it's OK to do a lame cover of a Ray Charles song, but making new
Police music has to be "left alone."

Someone needs to tell Gordon Sumner that the enemy of life is the
middle class, and the enemy of art is middle age. It's only in your 20s
and 80s that you make great art. Sting stopped being interesting for me
when he stopped singing and started talking through his songs.