1980-06-05
| Stewart has interview appointments in London | |
|---|---|
| Date: | 1980-06-05 |
| Location: | London, England, UK |
| Attendees: | Stewart Copeland |
Stewart Copeland has appointments in London, England, UK - probably all Klark Kent promotional interviews at his home in Shepherds Bush.
Phil Sutcliffe interviewed Stewart at 02:00pm - here's his article from Sounds - June 28, 1980 (with kind permission for the PoliceWiki only):
CRISIS OF IDENTITY
WHO WAS THAT MASKED MAN? KLARK KENT, STEWART COPELAND AND PHIL SUTCLIFFE REVEAL ALL (NEARLY)
SOMETHING CAUGHT the corner of my vision, I spun round and there was Superman bounding straight towards the window and alighting on the sill with marvvellous grace.
But I blinked and... no, this man was wearing his tights outside his Y-fronts. It was only Stewart Copeland. He tapped on the glass like a hungry sparrow and Sonja Kristina let him in (through the door that is).
He sat down at a battered gate-leg table bearing much debris, mundane and exotic, a dirty cup, a book of matches from the Pyramids Hilton - a fair sample of Stewart and Sonja's aimiably non-colour-supplement abode. We began to talk about his controversial associate Klark Kent - a shadowy figure who already thinks himself such a star that he gets a stand-in to do his interviews.
Stewart craved indulgence for these delusions of grandeur. Apparently the problem is that Kent, teamed as romantic lead with his dusky discovery Fatima Al Wahbar, has become big box office in Middle East movies and feels he ought to be accorded the same reverence here. There again his eminence as founder-leader of the Church Of Kinetic Ritual can hardly have dampened his ego.
As Stewart said: "These guys get surrounded by apostles and before you can say hallelujah you have the Ten Commandments."
But, in all honesty, do you really want to know about a guy who's massive in Mesopotamia? Pausing only to remark that the 'Klark Kent' mini-LP is a gangling, gawkily humorous piece of plastic to have come from such a guru let's talk about the Police.
THEY ARE IN a rare period of reflection. They are writing songs, Sting in Dublin, Stewart in hot pursuit. The next move is to record their third album in Holland, then play Milton Keynes festival and remount the international tourgoround.
Meanwhile, Stewart has reached near-OD on raw success. He expresses no hyprocritical resentment of it - it's more that he has explained its outer limits, he's seen it.
"It gets really awe-inspiring," he said. "At times you feel like Dr Frankenstein standing back and watching while the monster you have created does its sworst. Look around. I'm tripping over these gold albums. The first one I couldn't wait to show people and talk about it and look at it - now I'm self-conscious."
He showed me his new basement studio. "You don't go for the flashy cars side?"
"This cost more than a Rolls Royce Silver Cloud," he replied with wry satisfaction, then pulled back to say how he often caught himself boasting about this or that new toy (though the studio is more a tool of his trade) and he knew it must get up people's noses so he was trying to start a tongue-biting campaign to batten down the bombast.
This must be hard as Stewart is an enthusiast, his blood is pure adrenalin. Because he's up it doesn't mean he's trying to put you down. However, now the's through what he calls the "nose-thumbing" phase of making-it he's more wary about appearances.
Of course, another factor that doesn't help is the ambiguous light success casts on those around the star: "My cup runneth over with appreciation. I crack a joke, make a silly face and everyone falls about. I don't mean people aren't genuine to me. I think tehy mostly do like me. But I've got enough of that. So being criticised by the press or whoever can be very good for us, even if it makes me splutter over my scrambled egg at the time."
See also
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External links
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References
source: Stewart Copeland's diary
