The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same - Page 3
© Greg Camden
However, instead of taking a low-key approach, Sting did the opposite: director Michael Apted had been hired to make a documentary film about the new band and the rehearsals leading up to their first show. Many found the film (entitled Bring on the Night) to be further proof of Sting's tremendous egocentrism, and it did supply much ammunition for these attacks: Miles's answering the band's desire for more money by pointing out that the people didn't pay to see them but to see Sting; Darryl Jones's musings on whether this was ever truly going to be a band instead of Sting's sidemen—and then being nowhere found on Sting's next album; the film's final number being Sting onstage by himself singing "Message in a Bottle." Perhaps a later reflection by Sting sheds light on why the film was made at all: "I wanted to make a big statement, to prove myself as a solo artist—solo album, documentary, tour, live album, one thing right after another."
In the end, the gambits worked: The Dream of the Blue Turtles ended up making the top 3, four of the album's singles made the top 20 (although three of the four fared much better in the US than in the UK, for some reason), and the album Bring on the Night made the top 20—an impressive feat for a live album. (It should be noted that the film won the 1986 Grammy for Best Long Form Video—ironic considering that The Police had never put a great deal of effort into their videos.)
In the summer of 1987, Sting returned to Montserrat to record his second solo studio album and his seventh overall. But it was the recording process for this album was different than it had been for any of the others. 1987 was near the beginning of the digital age of music, wherein compact discs and digital recording were being phased in. As digital recording had quickly become the standard in the music genres of classical and jazz, Sting decided to record his album in this format. It was a decision he came to regret. "I'll never use it again. It's a terribly scientific and methodical approach, and unless you fight against it, as I had to, it can take all the spark out of a record. I'm very much a hands-on guy, but from time to time even I had to leave this project." As a result, the album took four months to record—twice as long as Sting had ever spent on a record.
