The Police in Australia, 1984 - interviews.

Interviews with Stewart, Andy and Sting at Melbourne Showground on the day of the final concert of their Synchronicity Tour on March 4, 1984. This was broadcast a week later on ABC's "Countdown" program. Chopped rather heavy-handedly during broadcast recording (I presumably didn't want the other program stuff) I have further edited it to tidy it up a little.

[@zzzaaa0990]

I don’t care what people say,but it was a very sad day when The Police broke up,their music is so unique,powerful songs that will always be remembered. A once in a lifetime band,brilliant vocals,brilliant guitarist and brilliant drummer. They came together by sheer accident while other groups grew up together as friends. Best 5 Police songs: Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic;Every Breath You Take;Don’t Stand So Close To Me;Synchronicity 2 and Message In A Bottle.

[@djizzah]

walking on the moon, roxanne drivent to tears

[@thornbird6768]

Agree , they disbanded way too soon , I was gutted when they did . But we all know it was basically Stings idea ❗️

[@colinargentblunstone]

The popular songs are certainly not the best songs

[@dancarter482]

@@colinargentblunstone _CONTACT_

[@finckel2682]

Sting and Stewart could not stand each other on set. They were basically like Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker of the punk scenario.

[@WhiteWolfDief]

When you look through the various interviews they gave during "Synchronicity" tour, this is the one where they look most relaxed and happiest. I think it was a relief for them to know the giant tour was over and a break (a looooong break) was ahead. Or then, their mood is just due to the Australian sun. ; ) The sunburned nose was maybe the only thing they still had in common at that time...

[@AraliaFresia]

Or maybe, people are more sane and coherent and reasonable only after they've purged all their demons, having cried and wept after beating the crap out of each other, and with the feeling of more crying to do. Anyone would be more relaxed when sad, that it would look like happiness to anyone else. =)

[@mrbungle7586]

Or it could be the snorting coke that explains everything lol.

[@austin78993]

Yeah you can tell on Stewart's face that he's happy because the workload is small and they aren't sick of each other. You can tell he wants to pick it up and do an album and the whole shabang again, but he knows they will just be at each other's throats again. You hate to see it.

[@headford265]

The Synchronicity album came out on June 14, 1983. The tour started at Comisky Park in Chicago on July 23, 1983. The tour ended on March 4, 1984 at the Showgrounds in Melbourne Australia. The tour had 105 shows in total. It was easily the biggest tour the Police had ever done back then. The tour went through North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. There were huge shows in Stadiums, like Sullivan Stadium, Shea Stadium, Oakland Stadium, The Orange Bowl, JFK Stadium and many more!

[@godfather7762]

You are very good

[@AraliaFresia]

That's important to point out, because on some misleading sites, there's New Zealand after this show. Someone pointed out to me that that was false and now so do you. So why is New Zealand listed after Australia? Also as you list them?

[@dayvideo64]

I was there!

[@thetr00per30]

"last concert for two years , 4 years, 6 months" try 25 years lol. The Police were all amazingly talented, people do not appreciate Stewart and Andy enough, taking nothing from Sting but it took all three to make the Police what it is .

[@parsak.sadjadi3763]

1986 Amnesty Tour: "Am I a joke to you?"

[@thetr00per30]

Fair enough, although not an entire tour but a single benefit concert, wasn't it?

[@parsak.sadjadi3763]

@@thetr00per30 Three benefit concerts.

[@MrOctober44]

People don't appreciate them enough, lol? Any video on KZbin with The Police is filled with comments talking about how Stewart is one of the greatest drummers ever

[@abbynormal34]

Stewart is funnier than hell.

[@AraliaFresia]

Stewart is lovable as a drummer but more so because he is just so strange and unique, and quirky.

[@rinohunter6190]

Andy always looks great!

[@_6079SMITH]

Sting was so much more chilled out and accommodating back then than he is now...

[@thornbird6768]

Stewart is such a darling ❤ he's much better at interviews than Sting , Andy is interesting to listen to also.

[@aprilflowers6074]

Stewart is dying inside during this interview poor thing xD

[@AraliaFresia]

Let's hope he doesn't die of kidney failure from all these years of holding back.

[@bonzoleum]

Absolutely.

[@CaesarDarias]

As the very moment the Sting interview was taking place in April 1984, the wheels were already turning for the Sting solo album which was released 14 months later.

[@FaboRinaldi]

They all look like Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer and Sting is sniffing non-stop. Man, the 80's.

[@maddalena9332]

2:13 that smile...😍

[@thereseb87]

he was and still is very good looking and charming

[@NathanHassall]

Sting & Stewart just had a coca cola!

[@abbynormal34]

Stink said he is up for it.

[@ImpartiallySpeaking]

Andy: ‘not really calling it a day!’ ...’just a sabbatical’ [...40 Years later!]

[@speakertreatz]

thanks very much for uploading

[@redskin133]

i think the initial idea was for the band to take a break. sting was still hedging his bets at this time and was not untill 86 he felt confident to be a solo artist in his own right

[@tommartin9144]

Stewart's face when the interveiwer says that their going into separate recordings looks like he's just hade 4 coffees and a coke.

[@erickcontreras113]

@Manaboot Adogg who

[@AraliaFresia]

He's bouncing up and down like he has to pee.

[@vincenttallarida6861]

More like four lines of coke!

[@RichV20]

New Coke

[@rustykuntz94]

Stewart took 1 for the team (Andy too) when he said it was a mutual decision to take time off after this tour. He later said he wanted to get right back at it after a short break & ride the wave of they're success. He didn't want to sound catty I'm sure here & that's why he kept the company line. Sting was about 95% sure here this was it w the Police. He never said that to the guys though till 3,4/5 years went by & they didn't get a call from him & it became obvious. There was Never a "Police has broken up" statement to the press.

[@guybeauregard]

The lack of statement was reportedly Miles Copeland's idea--keep the fans on edge, don't say anything definite, even when it was clearly over.

[@aquamarine99911]

Reading about the actual fights that took place while recording the Synchronicity album, I'm amazed they made it through a 9 months tour together. Stewart "It's my band, I brought us all together, I'm the best player" Copeland and Gordon "I'm the best looking, the singer, the songwriter:" Sumner REALLY didn't like each other.

[@RichV20]

@@aquamarine99911 They had no problem touring. They only saw each other when they got on stage. The main bickering and fighting was in the studio, especially on this record.

[@Nominay]

I wish they had done one more album. I wish Fortress Around Your Heart had been a Police song.

[@scottharrisohn6972]

classy interviewer, typical Aussie.

[@drummer78]

They technically weren’t wrong...they got back together two years later for the Amnesty International shows.

[@dayvideo64]

And did re record Don’t Stand for greatest hits in 86.

[@_6079SMITH]

​​@@dayvideo64 Did you ever hear the updated version of De Do Do Do that was out in 86 I think but could have been before ??? Bloody terrible it was.

[@dayvideo64]

@@_6079SMITH yes Indi. Wasn’t too good lol

[@RichV20]

I think they were tentatively scheduled to get together 2 years later in 1986 for a Greatest hits recording and see what happens, just in case. That did not go well.

[@drummer78]

@@RichV20 Although, that record was a huge seller. I

[@dalymc]

We saw you put that white baggie in your pocket...sniff sniff! Thank God he gave that sh** up!

[@andrewhurricane]

@LORDAKIRA2019 That's true. Sting did an excellent job of taking credit from Stewart & Andy.

[@stephenjohnston5223]

Stew is the best drummer of all time....arrogant ...no cool.....yes

[@AraliaFresia]

It's fun that Stewart Copeland claims not to be a good actor, but he is. He was very good at convincing everyone that Sting was the one who ended the Police, or let him be the one to save face and dignity, so that he could escape unscathed.

[@andyg4082]

He is absolutely agree 👍

[@sujalgautam9761]

@@AraliaFresia lmao what

[@AraliaFresia]

@@sujalgautam9761 yep. Watch Orchestralli. There's an interview in that 40 minutes or so, where he talks about how the three of them just wanted to start their personal lives and make babies, etc... they just didn't want to keep doing it.

[@RichV20]

@@AraliaFresia Andy already had a kid. Sting just had his second a month prior on tour. They can make babies and records at the same time.

[@EM-yk1dw]

They finished at the top.

[@alphabetaxenonzzzcat]

Sting doing his mockney accent in this interview.

[@garymorrison1009]

Ok .. so I’m imagining that Stewart is quite tall. How tall is the interviewer dude then?

[@christophaltmann8711]

Police world tour 83-84 proudly supported by Columbian coca growers.

[@LORDAKIRA2019]

@giuliopoli69 U didn't read their books. Stewart & Sting fought all the time & Andy had 2 break them up & referee them. Sting also isn't a team player, doesn't like sharing credit, & likes being in control of his groups.

[@hnthecptin4419]

Sting's damn high, lol

[@jonathangagne525]

If The Police had decided to make another, new; original, album, it would have been even better than Synchronicity. Y? They were just that good, that creative period

[@mrbungle7586]

@Fernando Cunha agree guys, they had plenty more to offer. It's a shame it never happened.

[@scottharrisohn6972]

they were unhappy at this point, coming apart at the seams

[@AraliaFresia]

@Fernando Cunha when you're that famous, there's no marijuana to be found. Only coke, or heroin. That was sort of a deal-breaker. That's my opinion. The creativity comes from the newness of smoking herb. When it's unavailable they would fight and the other drugs didn't help.

[@_6079SMITH]

It's funny as I'm not convinced a follow up to Sync would have been better. Can you imagine the pressure of trying to make a better one than an album that was at the top of the US charts for 8 weeks and sold multi millions worldwide ? Back in 84, I prayed for another album but alas it never happened, and you know what? In a way I'm glad it didn't happen as they went out on the perfect high. 👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@RichV20]

It would have been less rock and more soft rock and jazz, akin to Dream Of The Blue Turtles. A 6th Police album with Branford Marsalis as the guest Policeman on songs with the other 3 would've sounded great. But Andy and Stewart might have protested and the public wouldve shunned it.

[@Nigelxman]

Wow. How coked up is Sting?

[@Nightfall95]

Wall Of Voodoo playing during Sting's interview

[@davidhelmer9124]

It sounded like it

[@frankjamesbonarrigo7162]

They called it a day

[@steventucker80]

Stewart is a fuckin boss haha

[@richardbaker1782]

Stewart looks just like Ted Danson!

[@yossarian_yo]

I can't unsee it now!!

[@AraliaFresia]

Nowadays, in 2021, people are saying Stewart is looking like Andy Warhol.

[@TheKinoEye]

@00:33 I'm now online looking for a Balochi Dance performance, by The Royal Australian Aboriginal Kangaroos. So far zippo.

[@scottharrisohn6972]

little did Stewart and Andy know that it was the end

[@ULTIMATEPATCHES]

Sure doesn't look like it. Stingo however, was already gearing up for his solo album released the following year.

[@newzealandpromoter]

Hi David, if you still check these comments.... please reply with best way to get in touch. I am making a documentary about the Police and wonder if you have other archival material on VHS?

[@GiovaniB52]

Yea it was a joint decision for the police to break . There's an interview with Andy here on you tube and he explains why they were going around saying they were still to together and in reality they were not . Their managers and promoters had urged Sting , Andy , and Stewart to keep saying they were together so the fans would continue having interest in the police even though they disbanded ,with the hopes they would get back together , but they never did .

[@kemi3883]

Do you know what interview that was? I would like to watch it

[@AraliaFresia]

@@kemi3883 I know it's not the interview you were looking for, but Orchestralli at Timestamp 24:45 to 25:05 kzbin.info/www/bejne/aabXo5mdp7prqc0 it is explained clearly by Stewart how it happened. I should also point out that Andy was the one who didn't really have projects lined up or beckoning, like Sting and Stewart did, other than to get his wife Kate back. Sting was doing some acting in movies, and Stewart's commission with Francis Ford Coppola's need for a musical score for the film, Rumblefish. No matter how you do the math, though, all three of them needed to get their lives back, and not be owned by The Police.

[@AraliaFresia]

The first one interviewed kept bouncing up and down like he had to go pee-pee. And at the last moment there's a shrug like he's having a pee-shiver. He has Paruresis - that's why the band broke up because he couldn't deal with people watching him or talking to him in the bathroom. This is why Sting wrote "Every Breath You Take" and "Don't Stand So Close To Me"

[@robertnobody]

At 0:37 Stewart goes off babbling and has to be stopped by the host of the show...lol.

[@dgmc44]

Goodness, what CAN you mean?

[@laurenaho9254]

STEWWWWW

[@GiovaniB52]

Breaking up was a mutual agreement amongst them .I always thought it was incidental ..I didn't think they planned it that way

[@_6079SMITH]

Seemingly, Sting decided when they were on stage at the Shae Stadium that that was enough. I'm sure I read that somewhere. It was Sting's doing.

[@ChrisvonChamier]

Jesus sting, have another line

[@3hooks781]

Relentless pre show skiing of course...

[@superhipergoku]

but I thought that they broke up after one concert in Texas. Dont rember where I read it, but it seems that at that concert, in the backstage they had a fight, and Sting said he realised that they could not go more giant than that. Sting is a mysterious guy, he knows many things, he wouldnt say, ....well, probably in some lyrics

[@AraliaFresia]

No, the mysterious guy is Stewart, really. Sting mentioned feeling emotional in this interview, but that he "didn't really know how he feels yet" which seems to indicate it wasn't his game plan. Stop putting Sting on a lordship pedestal, because it's only an illusion.

[@angeladoll5444]

Yes Sting knows many things.

[@vincenttallarida6861]

Is that Philip Sumner with the hot blonde at 0:13?

[@buzzcrushtrendkill]

Little did they know that Sting had already made up his mind that this was the end of The Police.

[@paulwilkinson8099]

They knew before shea stadium

[@buzzcrushtrendkill]

@@paulwilkinson8099 Sting knew. Not anyone else.

[@paulwilkinson8099]

@@buzzcrushtrendkill from what i understand , he told them at shea that it dosent get any bigger than this and its time to call it a day . Unless i remembering wrong from Andy's book that he went onstage that night knowing that it was all over .

[@scottharrisohn6972]

@@buzzcrushtrendkill funny that Sting asked interviewer what they said. Little did they know....

[@AraliaFresia]

@@paulwilkinson8099 You're correct to validate that it was both Sting and Stewart's decision mutually, with Andy being also informed but yet more clueless of the significance of the other two's rapport on the matter. About this concert, I discovered an interesting factor here, when I'd read a comment on Stewart's Facebook page from someone who had mentioned being in the front row of this last show, and he noticed Sting was crying pretty much the entire concert, while the others were dry-eyed. In this interview Sting does mention feeling emotional, and that "he doesn't actually know how he feels about it" - which seems to indicate that it was not his decision. Stewart was commissioned in 1983, to write the score for Francis Ford Coppola''s Rumblefish and that task was in the wings. www.stewartcopeland.net/701/official-biography Sting and others would like to think that it was Sting that decided when to end the band but it was actually Stewart who was looking forward to doing his own projects, and it was rather, Sting who worried about his own musical career and future. Read it on SC's official website for yourself: ... "After his last concert with the Police in Australia in March 1984, Stewart began his move beyond the rock arena. He created the memorable score to Francis Ford Coppola’s Rumblefish, a strikingly original mixture of traditional percussion, electronically sampled car horns and ticking clocks that would earn him a 1984 Golden Globe nomination. Stewart followed this up with his 1985 docu-drama The Rhythmatist, a journey to Africa to explore the roots of rhythm. Soon afterwards, Oliver Stone called on him to write the scores for Wall Street and Talk Radio." ....

[@giuliopoli69]

I dont like Stewart expression.. He's a nice wonderful guy, but I think if he continued to stay with Sting, he had become a bas ass like him. Stewart was crushed between Sting and Andy, not as musician but as a man

[@THX-vp9fz]

ur paranormal

[@AraliaFresia]

Interesting comment. Yes, Stewart seems to have been shunned by his own family who ranted and raved more about going with Sting's opinions and feelings because he was the star. So when Stewart complained about something, nobody cared if Sting insisted it was the way forward. I get the feeling that Stewart felt like he blended into the upholstery while Sting got all the attention. That would warp his personality and affect him emotionally and cause trauma for sure. I love Stewart deeply but I'm no sycophant and I'll tell it like I see it.

[@giuliopoli69]

Stew arrogant? You just said a stupid thing

[@STP_Fantasma]

Lol they are all so high

[@AraliaFresia]

Where I live, marijuana is legal. Imagine that if weed had been legal back then, that the band The Police would have found it easier to navigate their collaborations, and personal lives much better, as well. You wouldn't have seen them fighting as much, and it wouldn't have become their trademark, all that wrestling and nasty, homocidal yelling from Sting.

[@dripstein6130]

weed isn't the cure for all of life's and peoples interpersonal problems you utopian hippie...

[@igorkuzmanovic5990]

@@dripstein6130 💯

[@traql]

stamos fumaos o se b a liam neeson en el segundo 14 ??

[@gaae2000]

They barely tour for Synchronicity no?. The album came out in August 1983 and final tour March 1984?

[@Render767]

it's a good thing Stewie keeps behind the drums 4 the most part-- sounds ridiculous & arrogant like a kid when he talks Now Andy -- wow he reminds me of Spinal Tap in this; the accent, what he says.. damn dude! life never revolved around the police nor u! Sting's the glue here -- damn I miss this band playing live when they were young & fresh

[@THX-vp9fz]

Stingfanboi :D

[@AraliaFresia]

I like Stewart, but I too, am upset by the stupid things he says, in "sour grapes" fashion, which probably stems from insecurity, things like "Jazz is the refuge of the talentless" and "jazz is more fun to play than to listen to" and "the problem with jazz musicians is that they all suck! Hahaaa!!" He needs to learn when to keep his big mouth shut and stop abusing his power and think of less manipulative ways to turn an awkward silence into peace at the dinner table. Sometimes I think he does this, for lack of comfortableness in his own skin.

[@angeladoll5444]

Finally a salient comment

[@mikemavz7279]

coke warriors lol

[@oliveroneill1388]

Where's the live album . Should be done for the fans

[@RichV20]

1995 release