Review: Greg Phillips. Photos: Jason Rosewarne.
Former drummer for The Police and talented composer in his own right Stewart Copeland’s “Have I Said Too Much?’ spoken word tour has arrived in Australia and last night it was Melbourne’s turn to be regaled upstairs at The Forum with stories from a colourful career. The format was simple, two comfy chairs, one for the host Sarah Tout and the other for the man himself, a table to hold his drink, a lamp for aesthetic purposes and a microphone. Above the two, a screen presented photographs of the topics they were referring to. The logistics were planets apart from the epic juggernaut that was a tour by The Police in their heyday.
Did he say too much? Well if you weren’t a fan of The Police, probably yes but then why were you there in the first place. The audience was full of keen devotees of the 80s new wave rock pioneers. Myself, I still remember fondly the band’s Festival Hall concert in Melbourne on March 14 1980, a gig highlight to this day. It was their first live performance of their song “Driven to Tears’ as I recall. Then of course leading up to this tour, I was fortunate enough to chat with Stewart for a tour promotion interview (Watch it here).
With the show divided into halves, the first ‘set’ included much information on Copeland’s childhood, growing up in Beirut with his brothers, Ian (“the cool one of the family, the motorcycle thief of the family”) and Miles (“who was not so cool, was a great businessman”). His sister Lenny was briefly mentioned too. Perhaps one of the most rewarding elements of the show were the little nuggets of information that were casually revealed, such as the American Community School that Stewart attended was the same school where Osama Bin Laden was educated. Different years but same school.
Copeland’s time in the Middle East was also significant as the starting point for his interest in African rhythms, a subject which was to become more important in the future. Despite Tout’s best efforts to keep Stewart on track and in sync with the photo carousel, the effervescent artist did often go off on many tangents, as he’d remember additional pieces of his jigsaw puzzle.
As Stewart’s father worked in the field of espionage, they were often on the move and the Copeland’s soon relocated to London, where Stewart was enrolled at the stuffy Milford School. Meanwhile his brother Miles had began to make inroads into the music industry, taking on management for prog rock bands such as Wishbone Ash, Caravan, and Curved Air. Via a healthy dose of nepotism Stewart was employed by Miles to tour manage Curved Air, which eventually led to his stint as drummer in that band and Stewart Copeland’s destiny was set in motion.
It was while in London that Stewart discovered Sting, eventually befriended him and they both sought to secure the services of impressive guitarist Andy Summers. As it turns out, serendipitously Summers had already decided that he wanted to join Sting and Stewart in a musical pursuit.
In last night’s show, Stewart went on to discuss the early days of The Police and outlined his time as a solo performer under the pseudonym of Klark Kent. The story of his disguised appearance on the UK music show Top of the Pops was hilarious, particularly as Sting and Andy were his masked band members.
After a short break Stewart returned for a ‘quick-fire’ round of questions, which took the show outside of its pre-planned format and into a more casual, less contrived space. In this session, Copeland divulged that he was a major fan of Jimi Hendrix and that his favourite Australian band was INXS. He also explained the origins of his foray into film soundtracks, beginning with Francis Ford Coppola’s Rumble Fish, with some amusing anecdotes about working with an orchestra for the first time.
He also went into more depth about working with The Police and in particular their album Ghost in The Machine. The stories surrounding the film he produced ‘Everyone Stares,’ were fabulous too. An after-party at the Sundance Film Festival, where all three Police members were reunited eventually led to The Police reunion tour.
Throughout the night, Stewart emphasised that while he and the rest of the band were constantly fighting, particularly with Sting, below the surface there was always much love and respect. Easy to say when there’s a multi million dollar court case pending in the London High Court around unpaid royalties for the track Every Breath You Take… a point that wasn’t mentioned in the night’s show.
Interestingly, overnight (and probably at the same time Stewart was speaking to us) the BBC reported:
“Sting has paid his former bandmates in The Police more than half a million pounds after acknowledging underpaying royalties, court documents show. In a filing at London’s High Court, the musician’s lawyers said Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland received a payment of “over $800,000” (£595,000) after they launched legal proceedings last year.
“The pair sued Sting and his publishing company in September, claiming they were owed between $2m (£1.5m) and $10.75m (£8m) in royalties for hit songs like Roxanne and Every Breath You Take. At a hearing on Wednesday, their lawyers said their claim could rise above £8m. Sting denies that they are entitled to a portion of his income from streaming and download sales.”
It will be interesting to see if more is said on the subject for the rest of Stewart’s Australian tour.
Towards the end of the show, Copeland took questions from the audience, which were asked in writing and placed in a drum shell at interval. Audience members wanted to know if more Klark Kent music was coming, if The Police would ever get back together, his favourite moment with The Police (Shea Stadium gig was the answer) and if he had any regrets (seems not). For fans of The Police and Stewart’s extensive work with film and orchestras, it was a fascinating insight. He also promised to return to Australia soon with the view of performing with a local orchestra.
Remaining Australian tour info at
https://www.birdsrobe.com/shows/stewart-copeland-have-i-said-too-much-australia-new-zealand-tour-january-2026
