The founding member of the iconic 70s and 80s band can also claim Star Wars fame
What do you get when you cross a founding member of The Police, a CIA legacy, a Hollywood composer, an opera buff, and a man who once took on Darth Vader for a musical score? The answer is Stewart Copeland and he is bringing his no-holds-barred spoken word show, Have I Said Too Much? to Hull City Hall later this month.
Best known for bashing out timeless hits like Message In A Bottle, Roxanne, and Every Breath You Take, Copeland did not just ride the wave of New Wave with The Police; he helped create the tsunami, selling more than 75 million records, winning Grammys, BRITs, and earning a place in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. What followed was a whirlwind of creative reinvention, scoring Hollywood films (Rumble Fish, Wall Street), writing operas and ballets, forming supergroups, publishing books, making documentaries, and composing for Star Wars: Droids.
Promoters of Have I Said Too Much? said: “Now aged 72, Copeland takes to the stage solo – not with a drum kit, but with a mic, a sharp tongue, and a truckload of stories that are stranger, funnier, and far more thrilling than fiction. Have I Said Too Much? is a front-row pass into the mind of one of rock’s most irrepressible characters.
“Expect tales from the soundstage of a galaxy far, far away. If you thought rock ‘n’ roll was chaotic, try composing music for lightsaber duels and intergalactic chases.
“From his spy-thriller upbringing (his dad helped found the CIA – true story), to bandmate battles with Sting, Copeland will take audiences on a riotous ride through the highs and lows of rock stardom, artistic reinvention, and intergalactic gigs.
“Witty, sharp, irreverent, and always larger than life, this is your chance to experience the rock star behind the drum kit – unplugged, uncensored, and unmissable.” Copeland became an all-time great after recruiting Sting and Andy Summers into his band, The Police, in 1977.
They became one of the most influential bands that Britain has ever produced before disbanding at the height of their fame in 1986, periodically returning for one-offs and a reunion tour in 2007, which was the highest grossing in the world. Copeland and Summers have recently been in the news for suing their former bandmate Sting for alleged lost royalties for songs they sang together between 1977 and 1984.
Copeland said of the band’s heydays: “It was everything we ever dreamed of and more, yet there was a strange sense of disquiet. There was a strange sense of vertigo.
“That’s the best word I can think of to describe the fact that we were just flying high over humanity and it was really wonderful to be the centre of that attention. But there’s a point where there’s such a thing as too much love, too much adoration, and that becomes oppressive.”
Tickets for Have I Said Too Much? at Hull City Hall, on Sunday, September 28, are on sale now. Book at the Hull City Hall box office, call 01482 300 306 or visit hulltheatres.co.uk