1977-02-17

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Sting and Stewart meet Cherry Vanilla's band
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Date: 1977-02-17
Location: London, England, UK
Attendees: The Police, Zecca Esquibel, Louie Lepore, Cherry Vanilla

The Police rehearse. Stewart Copeland finds a flat in Fulham. Sting and Stewart Copeland jam with Cherry Vanilla's band for the first time.


Louie Lepore:

"I recall arriving at some “flat” somewhere in London, which is where Stewart lived, walking up a long flight of stairs, and entering a room filled with lots of musical equipment - drums, amps, etc.

We were introduced to the bass player - Sting, and the drummer - Stewart. Sting had his bass on and was a bit reserved, and Stewart was jovial and energetic. I remember feeling a bit nervous cause I could tell they were older than me (I was 21 1/2 years old at the time- the baby of the troupe - Cherry and Zecca being older also), but plugged into an amp and got a sound I thought was decent. If memory serves, Zecca was there but didn’t play because there was no keyboard. Cherry relied on me to “teach” the guys the songs, so when we were about to get started, I began to explain the song structure - Foxy Bitch was the first song - and in the middle of my explaining, Sting stopped me in mid-sentence and said (verbatim) “Just play the song”!

So I said - okay. The song opens with a four bar guitar riff, then the band comes in. When Stewart and Sting came in, it was really loud and felt like I knew these guys for a long time! I remember well as the seconds were passing, that I better be on my game cause these guys were really tight!

Remember, it was just us three - no piano! I was like - wow, this sounds great! It was as if they knew the song already, which leads me to believe they had listened to that demo tape.

I believe Cherry joined in and sang. I think we got to the end of the song after that first try, and I was excited by the way it sounded!

I don’t remember much of what we played after that. I don’t think we stayed very long, just did some “breaking of the ice”!"

See also

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External links

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References

sources: Stewart Copeland's diaries, Louie Lepore, The Police: A Visual Documentary by Miles, Police File No. 15


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