An Arresting New Development - Page 4

In late 1977, The Police rereleased "Fall Out" on Miles's independent record label, I.R.S., and The Police caught a break: guest-writer Mick Jagger gave the single a positive review in the music weekly Sounds. While the record would eventually go on to sell 70,000 copies, the only real work The Police got as they began to record the debut album in early 1978 was a Wrigley's chewing gum commercial (which they landed through the contacts of Sting's actress wife, Frances)—for which the three had to dye their hair blond. "It looked pretty grim," was Summers's later reminiscence: "no work, no money, and bright blond hair." To help make ends meet Sting had also been doing some modeling and a couple of commercials, but his focus was his band.

The Police began recording Outlandos d'Amour (the title would come later) on January 13, 1978—"Truth Hits Everybody" being the first completed song—with £1,500 provided to them by Miles Copeland, who would periodically attend the recording sessions at Surrey Sound. On one of these visits, he first heard "Roxanne"—and immediately knew he had a hit on his hands. As he related it in 1981, "[. . .] I immediately thought it was fantastic and the next day I took it to A&M Records, who agreed to put it out as a single." Miles's negotiating strategy was novel: he was willing to sign sans advance in exchange for a higher royalty rate on sales. On March 22, the deal was inked and he officially became The Police's manager. "Roxanne" was released by A&M only a little more than two weeks later. However, despite good reviews, the single flopped—largely because of a BBC ban (not equivalent to the nationwide ban the Sex Pistols had endured) due to the supposedly risqué subject matter (prostitution)—and sold only about 10,000 copies. Still, Miles was able to garner the band a similar contract for "Can't Stand Losing You." This second single, released August 24, initially fared no better, though in October it did peak at #42 on the UK charts. Still, this was not the breakthrough the band had hoped for. Nonetheless, A&M had by this time decided to release Outlandos d'Amour (Miles had come up with the title), for which The Police received a £10,000 advance—enough to pay off their debts.

Meanwhile, although Sting had landed a small part in a major movie, by the fall The Police had been part of yet another failed tour (in support of the punk band Chelsea, of whom Sting was a big fan), and it seemed as if The Police were never to garner the momentum necessary to break through. At that point, it was decided The Police needed to make themselves known to the vast American audience. Along with another Copeland brother, Ian (who worked as a booking agent for musical acts), Miles designed a guerrilla-style tour: The Police would play a number of small shows in varied areas in rapid succession in the hopes that once enough small pockets of interest bad been established those small pockets would merge as a general wave of interest in the band, which would swell until the band became widely known in the US. (This was largely modeled after the strategy which had broken the Sex Pistols in the US, although that band was already a phenomenon in the UK when they first toured America.) Before this could get underway, though, The Police were once again almost ended before they really got a chance to start, and again it had to do with Sting: while getting made up for an October 2 appearance on the TV show "The Old Grey Whistle Test," an aerosol can exploded in Sting's face. Luckily, though, the worst that happened was that Sting's eyes were sensitive for a few days (he had to wear sunglasses for the band's gig the following day). On October 16 a now-healed Sting and The Police appeared on BBC Radio 1's "Kid Jensen" show, then immediately packed up and left the country.