Mon, Feb 26, 2007 - Page 13 News List

Back on the beat

Two decades after their bitter breakup, the Police have reunited for a world tour. But will they gel as a band? And can they be nice to one another?

By Jon Pareles  /  NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE , NORTH VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA

Copeland interjected, "But there might be a lion, sir."

"Yeah," Sting said. "That's me."

For the Grammys the Police's allotted television time would hold a tightly abridged Roxanne. A crewmember was timing the song. "We're going for a clean 3 minutes 30," Sting said.

"What happens if we go over by seven seconds?" Summer asked. "Emasculation?"

"They'll take a Grammy away," Sting said.

Battles had been reduced to banter. The Police knew they would have to get along for a year to come. "I used to think that strife and struggle and tension were important in a band," Copeland said. "I no longer believe that. And in fact this band has been rescued by our refusal to fall into strife and confrontation.

"When we arrived here in Vancouver, we had big musical problems. And we didn't resolve them by shouting at each other, by getting angry at each other, by power plays, by any of that stuff. We resolved our musical issues by comity. The music was sick, and we had to use our social bond to get through and try different solutions to the musical problems.

"It sounds cool that angst, sturm and drang, produces music with fire. No. We're going to get to fire by love. Because we love each other."

Sting said: "There's more compromise now. There's more sense of, just relax and this will be OK." He paused. "So far."

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