OUTLAWS D’AMOUR: THE POLICE

The Police are not punk. The Police are not disco. The Police are not heavy metal. The Police are not power pop. The Police are the best rock 'n' roll band I've seen in years. I kid you not.

The group was formed by American drummer Stewart Copeland in January 1977 as much out of disenchantment with the old as infatuation with the new. Two years before, he had defected from college in California to join a British band managed by his brother Miles. The band was Darryl Way's, and during the course of its formation it metamorphosed into an approximation of Way's former successful group, Curved Air, taking its name, partial personnel, and the remnants of a reputation from the early 70's. For Copeland, the transition from college combo to limos and lights was initially exciting; then one day he worked out how many albums they had to sell to recoup the 40,000 pounds they'd just spent in the studio. "It suddenly began to dawn on me that the whole thing was completely bogus," he recalled. "The advances were so preposterously high that every album we made had to be a hundred thousand seller just to break even. Consequently, we couldn't take any chances—everything had to be commercial."