The Police are back — at least in theaters showing the new documentary “Can’t Stand Losing You: Surviving the Police,” which opens Friday. Based on guitarist Andy Summers’ autobiography “One Train Later,” the film explores the story of the band’s origins, as well as their mammoth 2007-2008 reunion tour a quarter of a century after the band’s breakup.
Before you head to theaters, here’s a look back at some things you probably didn’t know about the Police:
The band went blond because of Wrigley’s gum
Broke and hungry for a gig in 1977, the band happily agreed to play a punk band in a Wrigley’s commercial directed by Tony Scott (who would later direct “Top Gun”). Wrigley’s demanded Summers, Sting and drummer Stewart Copeland dye their hair blond (a look that was associated with punk at the time). The peroxide look became the Police’s trademark. “We needed the money. There’s a shot of us carrying a 6-foot-long packet of Wrigley’s across the room,” Summers told blogtalkradio.com. The commercial never aired and is considered lost.
Sting hated when the other band members tried to contribute songs
For the album “Zenyattà Mondatta,” Summers recorded an instrumental track called “Behind My Camel.” Sting refused to play bass on it, so Summers dubbed his own bass, with Copeland on drums. When the track was finished, Sting took it out to the garden behind the studio and buried it. It later won a Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental. “He’s not a team player, doesn’t share credits and makes comments in the press to that effect,” Summers says in the film.
An exploding can of hair spray almost nixed their first major TV appearance
Backstage, just before appearing on Britain’s “The Old Grey Whistle Test” in 1978, Sting had a can of hair spray explode in his face. Luckily, there was an eye hospital nearby, so Sting managed to get treated quickly and return in time for the show, which he played wearing a giant pair of sunglasses.
Their third album title is meaningless
“Zenyattà Mondatta” — two made-up words that formed the title of the third album — “means everything,” Copeland said in an interview. “Being vague it says a lot more.” “Reggatta de Blanc,” the second album title, was a goofy way of saying “white reggae,” while “Outlandos d’Amour,” the first, was meant to evoke the idea of “outlaws of love.”
Andy Summers first heard ‘Roxanne’ while he was drifting off to sleep
Summers and his pregnant wife Kate had invited Sting to stay with them in 1977. Summers was falling asleep when he heard Sting noodling away on “Roxanne” in the next room. He thought it was a nice lullaby for his unborn child.
Summers played with Neil Sedaka
A decade older than the other band members, Summers had bounced around from band to band, working with Eric Burdon and the Animals and even Mike Oldfield for an orchestral performance of “Tubular Bells” (the theme for “The Exorcist”), before forming the Police.
Copeland grew up in Beirut
The son of a CIA officer, he spent the late 1950s and most of the ’60s there. He later said Sting’s song, “Invisible Sun,” the lyrics of which support the IRA hunger strikers of 1981, made him think of the widespread bloodshed going on in Beirut in the early ’80s.
Sting grew up watching ships
In Wallsend, northeastern England, milkman’s son Gordon Sumner spent his youth with ships looming over the neighborhood. His recent Broadway musical, “The Last Ship,” was inspired by those memories.
The Police got a big boost from Copeland’s brothers
Ian Copeland was a booking agent based in Macon, Ga., in 1977 who helped land the club dates that made the Police a sensation. Meanwhile, Miles Copeland III was the Police’s manager and later founded IRS Records.
‘Every Little Thing Is Magic’ was a song in the attic
Sting, who at the time was doing jazz music, wrote the song in 1976 but didn’t use it on the Police’s first three albums because it didn’t sound like the punk-reggae-New Wave band. By the time the Police recorded their somber, heavy fourth album, 1981’s “Ghost in the Machine,” Sting felt it could use a lighter track and dug up “Magic.” His bandmates had to be talked into performing the song, which topped the charts in the UK and hit No. 3 in the US.