Andy Summers: Policemania

Reading Andy Summers’ memoir One Train Later is like watching the Beatles’ films Hard Days Night, Help and Let It Be in one marathon screening. The cinematic first-person autobiography is a detailed, droll and dramatic tale of humble beginnings and an impressive career, culminating with his long ascent to the lofty perch of ’80s pop superstardom as guitarist and songwriter in the Police.

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One Train Later, recently released in trade paperback, is cleverly framed around a single, pivotal day in Summers’ life. Aug. 18, 1983, was the pathos-filled date the internationally acclaimed Police played Shea Stadium in New York. It was almost exactly 18 years to the day the Beatles played the same venue under similar circumstances. “I believe we were only the second band to play there after the Beatles, so it was such a symbol of rock ‘n’ roll glory and success,” Summers says. “We were the No. 1 band in the world. We had the No. 1 album for four months in the summer of ‘83. You couldn’t really go much further than that.”

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Soon after their respective Shea gigs, the two bands drastically transformed: the Police completely dissolved within the following six months, with Summers, drummer Stewart Copeland and singer/songwriter/bassist Sting scattering to healthy solo careers. Less than a month after their well-documented Shea performance, the Beatles would completely cease touring, becoming iconic creatures of the studio. Today, the legacy of both groups thrives with a series of celebratory reissues and revivals. And now, 30 years after they originally formed and more than two decades since their final performances on Amnesty International’s Conspiracy of Hope tour, the Police have reunited – for a while, at least.

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Calling from a Vancouver hotel room just minutes before a rehearsal with his bandmates, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee was eager to discuss the fascinating One Train Later and his newest photo collection, I’ll Be Watching You. For fans who can’t get a ticket to the almost instantly sold-out Police reunion shows, these two editions are the next best thing to being there.

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In One Train Later (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press), Summers, 64, reveals how the band formed, how it broke up and other details of his life – on stage and off. He painstakingly includes both good and bad times with refreshing candor and sly, literate humor. “The point is, beneath all the fantastic, golden quality of that summer of ‘83, is the shadow side – which I get to, right on page one. It’s all been mythologized, with a band as famous as ours, obviously. With us, though, it wasn’t all darkness. There’s a great camaraderie as well.”

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One Train Later flows with an erudite narrative, straight from Summers’ remarkable memory. “At one point, I had 800 pages,” he says. “It was like half a tree. Then the process was to edit it down and turn it into a readable, coherent book, not just a burbling of everything you’ve ever thought of. I put books down quickly when I’m not loving the rhythm of the language. It’s like, ‘God, I don’t want to go through 300 pages of this; it’s so pedantic,’” he laughs.

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I’ll Be Watching You (Taschen Books), a deluxe, far-from-pedantic collection of Summers’ photos from 1980-1983, is a separately released, visually stimulating recap of his times in the middle of Policemania. “Fairly early on,” he says, “I bought a good camera and gradually started taking pictures of everything, and saved them all.”

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Summers, active in music since the early ’60s, has known immense mainstream success in genre-spanning work with the Police and soul-satisfying artistic freedom with an immense, often-challenging catalog of solo releases. Yet in Train’s afterword, he cites a lingering regret that the band – which abruptly left the scene while still a viable entity – never had an official goodbye tour. Is the current journey, which Summers hints may continue after the previously announced dates, a way of writing a final chapter on the Police?

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“Well,” he pauses. “Do you ever really want to finish it? That’s sort of like death and I don’t think we’re ready for that.”

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Catch the Police performing at Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tenn., Sat., June 16. www.bonnaroo.com. Tickets still available at press time. One Train Later and I’ll Be Watching You are available at most major booksellers and online. For more info, visit www.andysummers.com.