Andy Summers

Police Yourself 1988

Andy Summers, LA 1988

How did you meet Sting?

The first time I actually met him was in a studio. We’d been brought together by someone else and halfway through the session, Sting said, “You know, I was on a bill with you once.” I was getting quite well known in England at the time as a guitar player. While Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells was popular, there was an orchestra going around England playing the music symphonically. Sometimes Oldfield would tour with them and sometimes he wouldn’t, because he was a strange guy. One night in Newcastle, I was playing instead, and on the bill in this hall was a group called Last Exit, a Newcastle fusion group. Sting was the bass player. There we were on the same stage. At another time playing in Newcastle, I was staying in the same hotel as Curved Air. Stewart Copeland was the drummer. We had a long talk and two months later I found myself in a London studio with Sting and Stewart. We had all crossed paths in Newcastle and were brought together. I don’t much believe in things like that, but there were undercurrents—of synchronicity.