Nigel Gray - Every UK Number 1

The Intro

Hot on the heels of their first number 1, Message In a Bottle, new-wave/reggae three-piece The Police were ruling the charts once again with this follow-up. And in a year of really hip number 1s, Walking on the Moon is one of the coolest.

Before

Their second album, Regatta de Blanc (which loosely translates into French as ‘White Reggae’) had been recorded between February and August. Although their label, A&M Records, had wanted to capitalise on their band’s growing wave of support with a bigger budget and more famous producer, The Police insisted on returning to Surrey Sound in Leatherhead with co-producer Nigel Gray.

Unlike their first album, Sting, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers struggled to find enough new material to record and considered remaking debut single Fall Out. Digging out old material from before they were a band, they added new elements to flesh out the songs. Walking on the Moon, however, was brand new.

Sting came up with it while drunk one night in a Munich hotel following a gig. Slumped on the bed, the room spinning around him, he got up and started singing ‘Walking round the room, ya, ya, walking round the room’. In the morning he remembered the riff and wrote what he had down, but realised it was a rather dull premise for a song, so he changed the lyrics. He later admitted the song became the recollection of his first girlfriend, Deborah Anderson, and likened leaving her house in a loved-up state was akin to walking without gravity. Sting was a keen jazz buff, and one of his favourite tunes was John Coltrane’s Giant Steps, so the title also found its way in naturally to the opening line.

Originally conceived and demoed as a rocker, The Police and Gray decided a song about space should sound spaced out. Rather than delve into reggae as they often did, Walking on the Moon became a very successful experiment in dub. This genre, originally an offshoot of reggae, had been developed by pioneering producers including King Tubby, Augustus Pablo and Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry in the late-60s. They would reshape songs, often removing vocals and laying emphasis on the rhythm section, adding echo and reverb. It sounds brilliant when stoned.

A key instrument used in dub was the Roland RE-201 Space Echo unit, and The Police bought one with the money from their first hit, Roxanne. Drummer Copeland added the Space Echo to Walking on the Moon, using it to repeat not the preceding note, but the one before that. Doing so on the rhythm track created the wobbly, stuttering effect that makes it so atmospheric. The combination of Sting’s memorable three-note bass line with the drums was more than good enough on its own, but the icing on the cake was Summers’ idea to add the clanging guitar echo after the bass notes throughout.

Review

Were it not for Every Breath You Take, Walking on the Moon would easily rank as my favourite Police number 1. I love dub, in small doses, and it makes for great headphone music. Sting gets a mostly free pass for his often irritating vocal here, so great is the bass. If you think too much about it, the way he sings the title could still annoy – it is a cod-Jamaican accent, there’s no escaping it. It’s there again on the ‘Keep it up’ refrain at the end too. However, his least annoying performance comes in the least successful element of the song – the ‘Some may say/I’m wishing’ my days away’. The lyrics to this section don’t really fit the rest and just seem like rhymes for the sake of it.

I love the idea of likening new love to being as amazing as stepping out on to the Moon. The music is in complete contrast to that idea though, sounding edgy and mysterious. I guess there is a good comparison to be had with the great unknowns of what happens next in a love affair and moonwalking. Anyway, I’m rambling. I just wish there was a 12-inch version, which could have explored the outer reaches even more, really emphasising the echo.

Taking a literal approach for the video, Sting, Copeland and Summers were recorded at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on 23 October 1979. They’re mostly pretending to play live, although Sting has an electric guitar rather than a bass, and Copeland is whacking his drumsticks against a Saturn V rocket. As with their last video, Derek Burbridge directs and Sting looks rather menacing, until all three crack up while dicking about inside.

After

Walking on the Moon very nearly made it to Christmas number 1, which would have made for a distinctly un-festive chart-topper and final number 1 of the 70s. What replaced it was even less cheery.

The Info

Written by

Sting

Producers

The Police & Nigel Gray

Weeks at number 1

1 (8-14 December)

Trivia

Births

14 December: Footballer Michael Owen

Deaths

9 December: Boxing promoter Jack Solomons

Meanwhile…

10 December: Stunt performer Eddie Kidd performs an 80ft motorcycle jump.

14 December: Doubts are raised over the convictions of the four men in the Carl Bridgewater case. Hubert Vincent Spencer is charged with murdering 70-year-old farmer Hubert Wilkes. The farmhouse where Wilkes was murdered was less than half a mile away from the one where Bridgewater had been killed.

The Intro

Formed in the ashes of punk, The Police were one of the most successful new wave bands, combining rock, punk, reggae and jazz influences. They had five UK number 1s between 1979 and 1983 and sold over 75 million records, making them one of the bestselling bands of all time. And singer-songwriter Sting went on to become very famous indeed as a solo star.

Before

Two thirds of The Police first teamed up in late November 1976, when Stewart Copeland met Gordon Sumner. Copeland was born in Alexandra, Virginia, but moved to the UK briefly in the 60s and again in 1974 to become the road manager for prog rock group Curved Air. He then became their drummer, but the band had split by the time of his first encounter with Sumner.

Sumner, from Northumberland, was a teacher who performed bass with the Newcastle Big Band and Phoenix Jazzmen on his time off. While with the latter he earned his nickname due to a black and yellow striped jumper he was fond of wearing. He co-founded the jazz fusion group Last Exit in 1974 but they split the same year as Curved Air.

Copeland was inspired by punk and suggested to Sting they form a new group and join the scene in London. Sting moved there in January. He was less keen on punk, but ambitious to succeed and saw how it could create opportunities. Corsican guitarist Henry Padovani became the third member.

The Police performed their debut gig in Newport, Wales on 1 March 1977, which apparently only lasted 10 minutes. Two months later came their first single, Fall Out, on Illegal Records, founded by Copeland, his brother Miles Copeland III and Paul Mulligan, their manager.

That May, Sting was invited by former Gong member Mike Howlett to perform in his new project Strontium 90. When the planned drummer became unavailable, Sting took Copeland along. Also in Strontium 90 was Andy Summers. The Lancashire-born guitarist had previously played with Eric Burdon and The Animals and with Kevin Ayers. Strontium 90 recorded some demo tracks and among them was Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic, a future number 1 for The Police.

Sting was becoming frustrated with Padovani’s ability and asked Summers to join The Police. Summers would only do so if he replaced Padovani but Sting and Copeland couldn’t go through with telling him, but only two gigs later, Summers issued them with another ultimatum and Padovani was out. He joined Wayne County & The Electric Chairs.

Sting became more excited about the avenues The Police could explore in their new line-up, and the songs came thick and fast. But they were struggling for money, and it was the opportunity to star in an advert for Wrigley’s Spearmint Gum, directed by Tony Scott, which resulted in the trio dying their hair blonde. The advert never aired, but there peroxide cuts made them stand out, as did their looks in general, particularly Sting.

Copeland III leant The Police money to finance their debut LP, Outlandos d’Amour. Released in November 1978, it had been preceded by Roxanne in April. This reggae-influenced tale of a prostitute was claimed by their label to have been banned by the BBC, which wasn’t true. But they did ban the follow-up Can’t Stand Losing You due to the sleeve pic of Copeland hanging himself. Neither single, nor their next, So Lonely, charted.

However, in February 1979 Roxanne was released in the US and it did pretty well, peaking at 32. It was re-released in the UK and following a performance on Top of the Pops it scored them their first hit, climbing to 12. Suddenly they had momentum. A US tour was followed by a re-release of Can’t Stand Losing You, which was a number two smash.

In the same month the re-release of Roxanne catapulted The Police to stardom, they recorded Message in a Bottle at Surrey Sound Studios. In September it became the first single from their second album Regatta de Blanc. This was, incidentally, the same month the film Quadrophenia, based on The Who album from 1973, was released. Sting played Ace Face.

The central guitar riff to Message in a Bottle had been thought up by Sting and was intended for a different song originally. The arpeggiated guitar part before the third verse was Summer’s idea. Copeland’s drumming, later considered by Summers to be his finest drum track, was overdubbed from around six different parts.

https://youtu.be/MbXWrmQW-OE

Review

Me and The Police have a strange relationship. With their unique mix of different genres including dub, reggae and jazz, I should in theory have a lot of time for them. And at least two of their number 1s are brilliant. But I’m often put off by Sting’s voice. I’m really not a fan of his attempt to sound black and I’m surprised in today’s #cancelled culture that it isn’t more widely criticised. Thankfully he reins it in during their later years but it’s here in full effect. The ‘o’ at the end of many of the lines is irritating and rather patronising.

I can’t deny the band themselves sound great, though. Without the polish of the later years, there’s a real muscularity to their sound, and all three put in a great effort. And Sting’s lyrics, in which a castaway puts a message in a bottle to try and find love, only to discover a year later ‘a hundred billion bottles on the shore’, from likeminded souls, are rather poignant. Love the music behind Sting every time he sings the title moodily, too. It’s quite a lengthy track but at the same time flashes by all too quickly. I’d love to hear a longer version.

The official video, as seen above, mostly features the band miming to the track in a dressing room, intercut with shots of a city and the band performing live. Sting mostly looks rather menacing, while Copeland manically drums on parts of his drumkit.

After

Despite The Police’s varied influences, Message In a Bottle is a great pop song, and a deserved chart-topper. It also went to number 1 in Ireland, and five in Australia, but somehow failed to catch on in the US. All three band members still regard it highly and Summers thinks it’s their best ever track. Number 1 for three weeks in the autumn of the year, The Police would soon follow it up with an even better single.