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I'll Be Watching You: Inside the Police 1980-83 Gallery- Taschen 2007 - click here for gallery
The insider: The Police on tour photographed by guitarist Andy Summers This book, somewhere between photojournalism and an illustrated diary, follows The Police around the globe between 1980 and 1983. From the American West to Australia to Japan, Summers recorded not only the band members rehearsing and partying‹the proverbial sex, drugs, and rock and roll he also photographed fans, landscapes, still lifes, and passersby in a reportage style reminiscent of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Frank. Containing over 600 photos and filled with diary-style entries, I'll Be Watching You is a sumptuous volume beating with musical energy, nostalgia, and atmospheric beauty. A must for photo buffs and Police fans alike. |
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 Exhibition: View Gallery of Images from the Exhibition From 2007-2008 the II'll Be Watching You: Inside The Police, 1980-83 exhibition toured worldwide in support of the Taschen book release and the Police world tour. Thousands of people experienced this unique show of fine art prints by Andy.
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Toronto +
Links to press articles: TORONTO (CP) - An exhibition of photographs at the Edward Day Gallery shows
behind-the-scenes images of British supergroup the Police in cities around
the world. The photos are among those in Summers's new book, also titled "I'll Be Watching You" (Taschen). "It really is a behind-the-scenes perspective of that era," said Kelly McCray, co-director of the gallery. "He has a good eye, a good perspective. ... You've got images of the fans and you've got images of sort of the darker sides as well, where I think there's a contemplation of what success is." One "incredible" image in the show, titled "Starstruck," shows a mob of fans waiting for autographs as the group prepares to exit from a limo, said McCray. "Their eyes are just glazed over, and you can just see the expression in their faces - it's like . . . I've reached God." The exhibition has been following the group on tour and appeared earlier this year in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Miami. Future stops include London, Paris, New York, Copenhagen and Tokyo. "I'll Be Watching You" continues at the Edward Day Gallery until Aug. 14. Admission is free. On the web: Los Angeles +
Links to press articles: "When you're traveling around in a large entourage and being in a group where you're supposed to share ideas, photography was a way for me to have autonomy over my own universe," Summers said Monday by phone from his Los Angeles home, where he was packing as the band — Summers, Sting and drummer Stewart Copeland — prepares to hit the road again for its highly successful reunion tour. Having amassed almost 25,000 images from his time on the road, Summers collated them and boxed them away in his attic. The images remained hidden for nearly 20 years, until a friend suggested Summers pull together his impressive collection. So out of the dust came the aptly titled book "I'll Be Watching You: Inside the Police 1980-83," the recently released work Summers compiled that blends hundreds of his pictures with dated journal entries. "We're all fans of the Police, and there's so much mystery surrounding the time the band ceased to function together," said Nina Wiener, who edited the Taschen book. "The book gives us that inside access, and the real shocker is what a great photographer Andy is." Taschen recently distributed 1,500 signed and numbered limited-edition copies of the book worldwide, attached with a lofty $400 price tag. In October, a smaller coffee-table version with identical content will retail for $39.99. The images certainly feed the pervasive sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll stereotype. Among them: a crazed fan attempting to score an autograph through the band's limo window, a maid offering room service, a naked girl stretched out beside a guitar and Sting luxuriating like a god in a glistening body of water. "Do you hate touring or love it? The meat grinder of hell or the heaven of adoration?" Summers writes in one entry, dated Dec. 3, 1982. "But the fact that 'they' are thrilled to see you — with their 50,000 faces turned in your direction every night — you become part of the bacchanalia…. You shrug and then leap like a rabid dog on to the stage." "I wanted the book to have the quality that you're on the inside and everyone else is looking at you," Summers said of the compilation. "You're below them, and they're looking down at you all the time." Graying former groupies, cowboy boot-clad hippies and a handful of celebrities turned out at Santa Monica's Bergamot Station on Friday night to catch a glimpse of 32 black-and-white pictures from the book, which will be exhibited at the Frank Pictures Gallery until July 13. "I wanted the exhibit to reflect that rock 'n' roll lifestyle," Summers said Friday, as he stood in the center of the room wearing a cool black jacket. "I couldn't have it all be straight. I wanted to show the uh, width of the experience," he joked, pointing to an image of a woman's curvaceous body. "I see the paparazzi all have fast motor drives and shoot many pictures to find one that will work," he added, motioning toward the numerous photographers surrounding him. "My method is much, much slower. I'm like a hunter creeping up on a deer through the forest, waiting for the right moment." Lead singer Sting recalled Summers' camera as a constant presence on tour. "I sort of got used to having Andy's camera in my face," Sting said. "His photos were more candid, nothing like those awful photo sessions that I hate." "It just feels like so long ago when I look at these," said Copeland. "I was a 25-year-old kid. That was the old Police who aren't connected to who we are at all now. We're all older and wiser, totally the same people, but our foibles have been cast in stone." Jeremy Piven, who plays harsh agent Ari Gold on HBO's "Entourage," said he intended to buy two of Summers' photos, including one of Copeland drumming, which he plans to hang above his own drum set. "It's like the way Hunter S. Thompson wrote," Piven said. "Through Andy's photos, we suddenly get to see the belly of the beast and be on tour. It's real art." Summers, 64, will continue to lug his heavy equipment across the globe on the current tour, finding a creative outlet through photography and writing. "I have to write in my journal or I start to lose it," he said. "Particularly right now, when there's so much furor around the Police tour. You meet so many new people and get lost in the sea of events, so you have to write it down so you don't forget what it was." Though the backstage folly may have evaporated, the band insists being back on the road hasn't changed discernibly. "A lot of it's really the same," Summers said. "It's completely comfortable to me. It was much stranger not being in the band, actually, because the experience we went through was very intense and vivid. It imprinted deeply and doesn't just fluff out a few months later." "I'm a much truer man, and no one is throwing TVs out of windows now," Sting said with a smile. "It kind of feels like mom and dad got back together; it's a warm feeling. My instincts were perfect."
And only “Extra” is with Sting, drummer Stewart Copeland and guitarist Andy Summers at a private showing of Andy’s classic Police photos in L.A., where they discuss life on the road – the second time around. “Everything is different, but nothing has changed,” said Stewart. “I think it’s like Mom and Dad getting back together again,” Sting added. “It’s like riding a bike,” Andy insisted. “What was weird was the bit in between where we weren’t playing together.” Sting decided to call up the band and reignite old flames in order to make music once again. It was a decision that’s now resulting in sold-out arenas! “I was thinking, ‘What would I do to surprise people? What would I do to surprise myself?’ So I called the guys up they didn't believe it either,” Sting recalled. But he managed to gather the boys, even though they risked those notorious clashes again. “We navigate better than we used to,” Sting said. “You know, we used to be at each other’s throats.” Twenty years later, things have definitely changed! “We're all really fond of each other and have been ever since day one 30 years ago,” insisted Stewart. “We’re just opposite, and we groove on it.” “We're a little more grounded,” Andy agreed. “We've all had children since then. I think having children is very grounding.” “We have teenage children,” Stewart said. “And when you've raised teenage children, that makes it easier to deal with bass players.” Twenty years and several kids later, Sting says things have changed a lot for him, too. “I’m very shy,” Sting insisted. Sting, shy? The same man who had women throwing panties at him for years? He can’t possibly get over that! Added Sting, “Having panties thrown at me? No, I like it.” Still a rock star! Boston +
Links to press articles: "Check out the The July Seen -- Boston.com and Bill Brett's photos Las Vegas +
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I'll Be Watching You: Inside The Police, 1980-83
