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SYNCHRONICITY by THE POLICE
by Johnny Black
As well as being the multi-platinum tombstone on the grave of The Police’s career, Synchronicity illustrates how mid-80s recording technology made it possible for a feuding band to record an album in the same studio without having to actually see each other.
Sting, in the process of breaking up with his actress-wife Frances Tomelty, had written several songs, including Every Breath You Take, at Golden Eye, the house formerly owned by James Bond author Ian Fleming, in Jamaica. Armed with these songs, they started work on Synchronicity, on 5 December 1982, at Air Studios, on the Caribbean island of Montserrat.
Producer Hugh Padgham recalls that, “Although the island is a kind of tropical paradise, making the album turned into a nightmare.” This was because, as well as Sting’s split from Frances, guitarist Andy Summers’ marriage was disintegrating. To compound their misery, the always edgy relationship between Sting and drummer Stewart Copeland, had deteriorated to the point where the pair could not bear to be together.
“For acoustic reasons, all of the band members played in different rooms,” says Padgham tactfully, “but I’d have to admit that it was also a very convenient way of keeping them all apart.”
Sting has, in fact, described Synchronicity as virtually a solo album. “Songs like Every Breath You Take, Wrapped Around Your Finger … were all about my life,” he points out. “I couldn’t involve this kind of personal work in a democratic process, at least not about the issues. So it was very clear to me during the making of this record that this was the end of The Police.”
One particular bone of contention was Sting’s insistence that Stewart should drum in a more conventional rock mode, rather than the reggae style which was virtually his trademark. “Whenever Sting and I had our fists around each others' throats,” remembers Copeland, “Andy would hold a two inch tape - the ring of good vibes - over our heads, chanting, 'I am nothing' until we stopped.”
After two weeks nothing had been completed, Padgham wanted to go home, and manager Miles Copeland had to fly in to force them back to work. Even so, Summers recalls six weeks being spent trying to record the bass and snare drum for Every Breath You Take, which Copeland still regards as a wonderful song blighted by, “an utter lack of groove. It's a totally wasted opportunity.”
At the start of 1983, recording moved to Le Studio, located in a ski resort near Montreal. “Sting would go ski-ing in the mornings,” says Padgham. “Stewart would come in and lay down some complex drum track, then Sting would come back while Stewart was ski-ing, and say, ‘What the fuck’s that? Take it off.’”
Eventually, though, Synchronicity was completed and, as Padgham observes, “Ultimately, out of all that tension, came a quite wonderful album.” Joe Public certainly thought so because on 23 July 1983, it topped the US album chart for the first of seventeen weeks, and had gone four times platinum before the end of 1984.
(Source : jOhnny Black, first published in the book Albums by Backbeat Books, 2005)
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by Johnny Black
As well as being the multi-platinum tombstone on the grave of The Police’s career, Synchronicity illustrates how mid-80s recording technology made it possible for a feuding band to record an album in the same studio without having to actually see each other.
Sting, in the process of breaking up with his actress-wife Frances Tomelty, had written several songs, including Every Breath You Take, at Golden Eye, the house formerly owned by James Bond author Ian Fleming, in Jamaica. Armed with these songs, they started work on Synchronicity, on 5 December 1982, at Air Studios, on the Caribbean island of Montserrat.
Producer Hugh Padgham recalls that, “Although the island is a kind of tropical paradise, making the album turned into a nightmare.” This was because, as well as Sting’s split from Frances, guitarist Andy Summers’ marriage was disintegrating. To compound their misery, the always edgy relationship between Sting and drummer Stewart Copeland, had deteriorated to the point where the pair could not bear to be together.
“For acoustic reasons, all of the band members played in different rooms,” says Padgham tactfully, “but I’d have to admit that it was also a very convenient way of keeping them all apart.”
Sting has, in fact, described Synchronicity as virtually a solo album. “Songs like Every Breath You Take, Wrapped Around Your Finger … were all about my life,” he points out. “I couldn’t involve this kind of personal work in a democratic process, at least not about the issues. So it was very clear to me during the making of this record that this was the end of The Police.”
One particular bone of contention was Sting’s insistence that Stewart should drum in a more conventional rock mode, rather than the reggae style which was virtually his trademark. “Whenever Sting and I had our fists around each others' throats,” remembers Copeland, “Andy would hold a two inch tape - the ring of good vibes - over our heads, chanting, 'I am nothing' until we stopped.”
After two weeks nothing had been completed, Padgham wanted to go home, and manager Miles Copeland had to fly in to force them back to work. Even so, Summers recalls six weeks being spent trying to record the bass and snare drum for Every Breath You Take, which Copeland still regards as a wonderful song blighted by, “an utter lack of groove. It's a totally wasted opportunity.”
At the start of 1983, recording moved to Le Studio, located in a ski resort near Montreal. “Sting would go ski-ing in the mornings,” says Padgham. “Stewart would come in and lay down some complex drum track, then Sting would come back while Stewart was ski-ing, and say, ‘What the fuck’s that? Take it off.’”
Eventually, though, Synchronicity was completed and, as Padgham observes, “Ultimately, out of all that tension, came a quite wonderful album.” Joe Public certainly thought so because on 23 July 1983, it topped the US album chart for the first of seventeen weeks, and had gone four times platinum before the end of 1984.
(Source : jOhnny Black, first published in the book Albums by Backbeat Books, 2005)