Stewart Copeland
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Stewart Armstrong Copeland (born July 16, 1952) was the drummer for the band The Police.
Copeland was born in Alexandria, Egypt, the youngest of four children. His father was Miles Axe Copeland, Jr., a CIA agent. He spent his formative years in the Middle East, attending high school at the American Community School in Beirut, Lebanon where he played drums at school dances. Copeland attended college in California and came to England in 1975, playing drums for the progressive rock band Curved Air. When the group broke up he founded the Police with singer/bassist Sting and guitarist Henri Padovani (who was promptly replaced by Andy Summers).
Copeland was known for a blend of precise, energetic, kinetic and ingenious rock drumming along with a Reggae-influenced style (back beat with bass drum, instead of snare). His distinctive sound had mainly to do with a hard, high-pitched crack on a snare drum or rimshot, subtle hi-hat work with lots of understated flourishes and often playing only hi-hat with bass drum.
His drumming influenced two generations of drummers. Frequently cited recordings with the Police include:
- Outlandos D'amour: So Lonely, Roxanne
- Regatta de Blanc: Message in a Bottle, Bring on the Night, Walking on the Moon, The Bed's Too Big Without You
- Zenyatta Mondatta: Driven to Tears, Voices Inside my Head, Man in a Suitcase
- Ghost in the Machine: Every Little Thing, One World (Not Three)
- Synchronicity: Synchronicity", Synchronicity II, King of Pain, Wrapped Around Your Finger, Every Breath You Take
Copeland also recorded under the pseudonym Klark Kent, releasing several UK singles in 1978 with one, Don't Care, entering the UK charts that year) along with an eponymously titled 10-inch album on green vinyl released in 1980. He also released The Rhythmatist in 1985, the result of a pilgrimage to Africa.
Stewart's older brother Miles Copeland, III was the Police's manager, while his other brother Ian was their booking agent.
After The Police's demise in 1986 he wrote soundtracks for movies, television (The Equalizer) and video games, along with operas and ballets. He occasionally played drums for other artists such as Peter Gabriel. In 1983 he earned a Golden Globe for his scoring of Francis Ford Coppola's Rumble Fish.
Copeland wrote the original score for the Babylon 5 pilot film, The Gathering. When the show was picked up as a weekly series Copeland was not available and Christopher Franke of Tangerine Dream was hired. When a writer's edition of the pilot movie was released the original Stewart Copeland score had been replaced with a new one by Christopher Franke.it:Stewart Copeland