Summers told Classic Rock: “That was a complete f***-up. Everyone was desperate for us to get together again. Sting was off on his own. He’d made his solo record (1985’s The Dream Of The Blue Turtles). We were going to have a trial run at a studio in North London. Stewart went out on a horse the day before we started. Stewart (Copeland) was playing polo in those days. He fell off the horse, broke his collar bone and couldn’t play the drums. That was the end of it. And Sting didn’t want to write new songs. So all we did was a wanky new version of ‘Don’t Stand So Close To Me’. It was a pretty limp affair. If Stewart hadn’t come off his bloody horse it could have been a different story.”
Regarding the Police not carrying on past their reunion tour, Summers said, “If it was up to me I wouldn’t have let it go. It’s an interesting subject, and to do with fragility, frailty, ego and all that. I thought we could have gone on played for years. We could have made some great new records. I don’t want to get too personal. It’s sad. We could’ve done more, but it wasn’t to be. One of the greatest bands of all time got short shrift, I’m afraid to say.”
We asked Andy Summers if he was frustrated that although the band’s global reunion trek was a resounding success, superseding all expectations, the end result of a new Police album never came to fruition: “Y’know, I’ve been in this scene for a long time (laughs). I didn’t go in with those expectations knowing the personalities involved. I thought, there’s no way. . . Sting will do this tour, but there’s no way he’s gonna make a new album and get into that. Because, most of the truth is he’s sort of in denial he was ever in the Police. He is. That’s fine, if that’s what he wants to do. But I know that none of us will ever overcome it. He goes out and plays the songs of the Police. I’ve just come back from two weeks in Brazil playing the songs of the Police.”
