Strontium 90 "Police Academy" (1997)
Strontium 90 was a quartet that briefly existed in 1977, and it featured the three musicians who would soon become The Police: Sting (aka Gordon Sumner), Andy Summers, and Stewart Copeland. Who was the fourth member? That would be Mike Howlett, who had previously been the bassist for the progressive rock band Gong from 1973 until 1976, and who had sung the lead vocals on that band's 1976 album Shamal. It was Howlett who assembled Strontium 90, who recorded a half-album's worth of studio demo tracks and performed one live show before disbanding. Twenty years later, long after the Police saga had ended, a CD titled Police Academy was issued in 1997, containing studio and live tracks recorded in '77 by Howlett and the future Police men.
According to Howlett's liner notes, the recordings on Police Academy mark the first time the Police trio worked together, in the studio and on the stage. At that time, like Howlett, the three future Police men had progressive rock backgrounds: singer and bassist Sting had previously played in a jazz-rock band called Last Exit; drummer Stewart Copeland had previously played with Curved Air; and guitarist Andy Summers had played for short periods with the Animals (on their 1968 double album Love Is) and Soft Machine. Police Academy captures these musicians at a pivotal time in rock history, shortly after the punk rock scene had emerged in opposition to progressive rock, and the prog musicians in Strontium 90 sounded ready to embrace that new wave.
Three of the songs were written by Sting, and those tracks will be of interest to Police-philes. The studio track "Visions of the Night" and the live "3 O'Clock Shot" both give hints of the punk sounds heard on the 1978 Police debut album Outlandos d'Amour. The former was actually rerecorded by the Police as a B-side for the 1979 "Walking On The Moon" single. The latter song has the same guitar riff as "Be My Girl" on the Police debut, with lyrics that foreshadow those of the final Police album Synchronicity from 1983. On both songs, Sting comes across as an angry protest singer. And then there's a solo Sting recording of "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic", the song which became an international chart-topping single for the Police in 1981. Howlett states that Sting recorded this take in Howlett's home in 1976 just after he wrote the song. This spontaneous and understated recording conveys the song's emotions very effectively, and it makes one wonder why the Police waited until their fourth album to record it.
The other four studio demo tracks were written by Howlett, and are less interesting. "Electron Romance" is the one that had the most potential for new wave success. Otherwise, Howlett's songs sit more in a prog vein. "Towers Tumbled" is the best of them; Howlett sang the lead vocal on that track, and the instrumentation by the Police men makes it an edgier art-rock piece than most of his Gong recordings. But "Lady of Delight" and "New World Blues" are underwhelming; Summers' guitar sounds are the saving grace of the latter song. The CD ends with live versions of "Electron Romance" and "Lady of Delight", which (like "3 O'Clock Shot") were recorded at a Gong-related event in Paris on May 28, 1977. Howlett was clearly the star of these two tracks, and he and Sting are both sometimes barely audible, but Sting's background vocals did inject a small dose of punk rock intensity into the show's prog atmosphere. "Lady of Delight" continues to not impress, but "Electron Romance" achieves a slightly better synthesis of prog and punk, with a few surprising minutes of '60's-style jamming, to boot.
There are differing accounts of how Strontium 90 ended and how the Police began. But Sting and Howlett did collaborate at least one more time, on a 1978 single credited to a fictitious band called Fast Breeder & The Radio Actors, titled "Nuclear Waste", which also featured Steve Hillage and Nik Turner.
Strontium 90 "Police Academy" (Pangaea 61868 10003 2 7) 1997
Track Listing:
1. Visions of the Night
2. New World Blues
3. 3 O'Clock Shot - Live
4. Lady of Delight
5. Electron Romance
6. Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
7. Towers Tumbled
8. Electron Romance - Live
9. Lady of Delight - Live
According to Howlett's liner notes, the recordings on Police Academy mark the first time the Police trio worked together, in the studio and on the stage. At that time, like Howlett, the three future Police men had progressive rock backgrounds: singer and bassist Sting had previously played in a jazz-rock band called Last Exit; drummer Stewart Copeland had previously played with Curved Air; and guitarist Andy Summers had played for short periods with the Animals (on their 1968 double album Love Is) and Soft Machine. Police Academy captures these musicians at a pivotal time in rock history, shortly after the punk rock scene had emerged in opposition to progressive rock, and the prog musicians in Strontium 90 sounded ready to embrace that new wave.
Three of the songs were written by Sting, and those tracks will be of interest to Police-philes. The studio track "Visions of the Night" and the live "3 O'Clock Shot" both give hints of the punk sounds heard on the 1978 Police debut album Outlandos d'Amour. The former was actually rerecorded by the Police as a B-side for the 1979 "Walking On The Moon" single. The latter song has the same guitar riff as "Be My Girl" on the Police debut, with lyrics that foreshadow those of the final Police album Synchronicity from 1983. On both songs, Sting comes across as an angry protest singer. And then there's a solo Sting recording of "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic", the song which became an international chart-topping single for the Police in 1981. Howlett states that Sting recorded this take in Howlett's home in 1976 just after he wrote the song. This spontaneous and understated recording conveys the song's emotions very effectively, and it makes one wonder why the Police waited until their fourth album to record it.
The other four studio demo tracks were written by Howlett, and are less interesting. "Electron Romance" is the one that had the most potential for new wave success. Otherwise, Howlett's songs sit more in a prog vein. "Towers Tumbled" is the best of them; Howlett sang the lead vocal on that track, and the instrumentation by the Police men makes it an edgier art-rock piece than most of his Gong recordings. But "Lady of Delight" and "New World Blues" are underwhelming; Summers' guitar sounds are the saving grace of the latter song. The CD ends with live versions of "Electron Romance" and "Lady of Delight", which (like "3 O'Clock Shot") were recorded at a Gong-related event in Paris on May 28, 1977. Howlett was clearly the star of these two tracks, and he and Sting are both sometimes barely audible, but Sting's background vocals did inject a small dose of punk rock intensity into the show's prog atmosphere. "Lady of Delight" continues to not impress, but "Electron Romance" achieves a slightly better synthesis of prog and punk, with a few surprising minutes of '60's-style jamming, to boot.
There are differing accounts of how Strontium 90 ended and how the Police began. But Sting and Howlett did collaborate at least one more time, on a 1978 single credited to a fictitious band called Fast Breeder & The Radio Actors, titled "Nuclear Waste", which also featured Steve Hillage and Nik Turner.
Strontium 90 "Police Academy" (Pangaea 61868 10003 2 7) 1997
Track Listing:
1. Visions of the Night
2. New World Blues
3. 3 O'Clock Shot - Live
4. Lady of Delight
5. Electron Romance
6. Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
7. Towers Tumbled
8. Electron Romance - Live
9. Lady of Delight - Live
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