An Evening With Stewart Copeland: The Princes Hall (Aldershot)
Saturday 26th October 2024
Unusually there was no listening to music involved in this 'gig', and these were the words shouted out to the crowd by legendary drummer, composer and writer, Stewart Copeland, as he sauntered onto stage last night.
Quite how the drummer of the biggest rock band of the early 80s found himself here in the slight backwater of Aldershot, chatting about his life and career (with the help of an interviewer), is something to ponder. But here he was, engaging and amusing for over an hour and a half, to a sadly less than full venue (more used to pantomimes and tribute acts).
For a music geek like myself, the lack of music was strangely not that big of a deal, because the next best thing to listening to it, is listening to one of people who actually lived their life out playing it. And there are probably few more naturally engaging interviewees than Copeland - in fact the interviewers job was merely to throw in a few prompts and try and keep him on track.
He talked openly about his childhood in the Middle East, discovering more about his father's career in the CIA (and being a friend of Kim Philby) and the shock of transitioning to life in a boarding school in Somerset.
He is one of life's natural hustlers, and there was much amusement as he regaled us with his first professional gig, as drummer with prog rockers Curved Air, before his attempt to enter the world of punk, with the early version of The Police - not to mention the hilarious side project of Clark Kent, which got him his first taste of Top Of The Pops (albeit masked up to create a sense of mystery).
He was quick to praise his (now seemingly definitely) former bandmates Sting and Andy Summers and how their disparate talents somehow meshed to create the magic of The Police. And despite the well known fall outs over the years, he says they all get on very well together, as long as they don't play or talk about music!
The second half slightly skimmed over the next forty years - understandable I guess, given that most in attendance will have been there on the strength of The Police. But that still left ample time for him to tell stories of how he ended up getting his first film score with Francis Ford Coppola on 1983s Rumble Fish (Matt Dillon and Mickey Rourke). Then there have been the seven operas he has written (with an eighth on the way), not to mention scoring a weird live action theatrical version of Ben Hur (which he also narrated on horseback).
Lastly, we heard about his return to ensemble playing as part of the jam band supergroup, Oysterhead, with Phish's stellar guitarist, Trey Anastasio, and bass wizard Les Claypool from Primus. This was all about him having to adjust to playing on the hoof with no real set list and fans expecting something different every night.
All in all, a great night of musical geekiness, delivered by a genial and engaging host - well worth checking out if you get the opportunity.
Comments