2014-12-13 (Stewart Copeland)
| Stewart jams with guests at the Sacred Grove | |
|---|---|
 a photo from today - copyright Dietmar  a photo from today - copyright Dietmar  a photo from today - copyright Dietmar | |
| Date: | 2014-12-13 |
| Location: | Los Angeles, CA, USA - Sacred Grove |
| Attendees: | Stewart Copeland, Thomas Lang, Jay Skowronek, Fabio Trentini, Dietmar, Megan Tobin |
Stewart Copeland jammed with guests at the Sacred Grove in Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Dietmar's report:
"It's 10:30am in the hills above Los Angeles – after a breakfast at the diner next to our hotel Fabio, Jay, Megan and I arrived at the Sacred Grove.
After ringing the bell for a second time Stewart Copeland opens. The studio is as comfortable as I remember it, decorated with sofas, pillows, antique chairs, carpets and lots of instruments and memorabilia. The lighting is a bit dim, with only some narrow windows letting in some of the December sun and some artifial lights.
Stewart is just being Stewart. So after some chatting, cokes and coffee the newbies don't feel initimidated for long. There's a lot of interesting stuff to see - a snare from Curved Air leans against a window, those Klark Kent instruments in the middle of the room (a Gibson SG, the Fender Telecaster Bass and a Fender Stratocaster that has seen the world with The Police, too). The Van Zaling bass "Fred" is still there, as is The Flag. And there's an old Roland Chorus Echo which was used so much on stage on the 80s!
Probably hundreds of other instruments there as well, a lot of them bought cheaply from ebay. Books, Grammys, photos, memorabilia, masks, prices... too much information.
The bell rings - and special guest Thomas Lang enters the Grove. Fabio knew him before. I was in touch with him for the PoliceWiki. And as he was in Los Angeles at that time due to an operation to his left hand he was a safe bet to be another guest at Stewart's place.
Although we were at the Sacred Grove for several hours we only played three numbers - but it felt right to spend most of our time there talking.
Fabio, Jay and I started with a kind of blues, because I had to do something "easy" to get warmed up. Didn't work at all. Everything I could play at home remained there - at least that's my impression - Stewart joined playing octobans and percussion, while Thomas Lang still rested his injured hand. Megan took photos all of the time.
The next song is our surprise for Stewart: "Theme For Kinetic Ritual". Again my guitar skills were reduced to cramps, but it was fine anyway. Stewart joined on several brass instruments and then percussion while Thomas Lang took over the octobans. The song is over, I'm sweating, because all the air gets into the Grove at the other side of the room. We're having a break, listen to the recording, have drinks and sandwiches.
After the break Stewart puts up a microphone - there's only one guy who can sing and that's Fabio. Stewart takes over the drums. Our song of choice is "Walking On The Moon". Thomas plays octobans while Jay starts filming with his cellphone. Soon we can imagine what Sting must have felt so many times: the song is way too fast!! And where the end was supposed to be the drummers just don't stop drumming, so we keep on and with Thomas on percussion and Jay on octobans we've got three drummers now. This means that the song becomes faster, even ridiculously so!
We stop the song with a Telemark landing of mine and everybody laughs. This was cool. Even my guitar was kind of OK. We don't feel the need for another song - we just go on chatting. I take photos of almost everything inside this room as I need them for a German magazine article.
Jay has got to leave for work. Stewart hands over the audio files to Fabio who's already looking forward to mixing them. We'll get the video files later. Fabio, Megan and I drive to Malibu with Thomas Lang where we have dinner at Duke's. Now there's another very talented and likeable drummer! Megan returns us to our hotel, where we wonder it is was all real..."
See also
This section needs more information.
External links
References
sources: personal experience
