After releasing a string of hugely successful singles and albums throughout the 80's, cracks began to show in The Police during the group's 1983 Shea Stadium concert, where Sting felt performing at the venue was his 'Everest', and he decided to leave the band and pursue a solo career. After the 'Synchronicity' tour ended in March 1984 the band went on hiatus while Sting recorded and toured his 1985 solo debut album, the jazz-influenced 'The Dream Of The Blue Turtles'. Stewart Copeland also had a project that he could turn to, and recorded and filmed 'The Rhythmatist', an album and film which was the result of his pilgrimage to Africa, where he recorded local drums and percussion, with more drums, percussion, other musical instruments and occasional lead vocals added later by Copeland. The previous year Andy Summers had rekindled his partnership with Robert Fripp, and released the second of their collaborative albums 'Bewitched', five of whose tracks were composed by Summers. He also recorded a couple of instrumentals for the 1984 film '2010: The Year We Made Contact', releasing them as a single, with 'To Hal And Back' as the b-side. In June 1986 the Police reconvened to play three concerts for the Amnesty International, and in July of that year they reunited in the studio to record a new album. However, Copeland broke his collarbone in a fall from a horse and was unable to play the drums, so the sessions were abandoned, and with a re-recording of 'Don't Stand So Close To Me' being released in October 1986 as their final single, the band finally called it a day later that year. As all three members of the band were actively recording during 1984 and 1985, we can take a stab at putting together their sixth album by taking tracks from their three solo projects of the time. Obviously Sting's album would sound most like The Police purely due to his vocals on the songs, and while Summers' and Copeland's contributions are mostly instrumentals, that wasn't unheard of on their previous records, and they slot in quite nicely between Sting's songs. I've just made a slight edit to Copeland's 'Serengeti Long Walk' to remove a spoken vocal part which didn't really fit with the rest of the tracks, and the cover is based on a superb painting by Aged Pixel.
Track listing
01 Shadows In The Rain (Sting)
02 Franco (Copeland)
03 We Work The Black Seam (Sting)
04 Parade (Summers)
05 Another Day (Sting)
06 Gong Rock (Copeland)
07 To Hal And Back (Summers)
08 If You Love Somebody Set Them Free (Sting)
09 Bewitched (Summers)
10 Serengeti Long Walk (Copeland)
11 Fortress Around Your Heart (Sting)
