The Police

The Police were a three-piece rock band consisting of Sting (vocals, bass guitar), Andy Summers (guitar, vocals) and Stewart Copeland (drums, percussion, vocals). The band became globally popular in the early 1980s, playing a style of rock that was influenced by jazz, rock and reggae music. Their 1983 album, Synchronicity, was number one in the UK and the US and sold over 8,000,000 copies in the US. The band broke up in 1984, but reunited in early 2007 for a one-off world tour lasting until August 2008, in celebration of the 30th anniversary of their hit single "Roxanne" and also, to a lesser extent, that of their formation as a group. To date, The Police have sold more than 50 million albums worldwide. Rolling Stone ranked The Police number 70 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

The Police were founded by American-born drummer Stewart Copeland in early 1977. After the demise of his progressive rock band Curved Air, Copeland was anxious to form a new three-piece group and join the burgeoning London punk scene. Singer-bassist Sting and guitarist Henry Padovani began rehearsing with Copeland in January 1977, and they recorded their first Police single, "Fall Out"/"Nothing Achieving," the following month. Acting Manager Paul Mulligan paid for the recording of the single. In March and April, the threesome toured as a support act for Cherry Vanilla as well as Wayne County & the Electric Chairs.

Although there was never an official split, each band member pursued his own solo career after the Synchronicity tour ended in March 1984. In June 1986, the trio reconvened to play three concerts for the Amnesty International A Conspiracy of Hope Tour. In July of that year, a tense short-lived reunion in the studio produced only subdued re-recordings of "Don't Stand So Close to Me" and "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da". The former was released in October 1986 as their final single together in the form of "Don't Stand So Close To Me '86" (a substantially reworked version of the 1980 original), appeared on the compilation Every Breath You Take: The Singles, and made the UK Top 25. By this time, it was clear that Sting had no intention of continuing with the band, having already released a successful solo debut LP in 1985, the jazz-influenced The Dream of the Blue Turtles.

The Police opened the 49th Annual Grammy Awards on 11 February 2007 in Los Angeles, California,announcing "We're The Police. And we're back!" before launching into "Roxanne." A&M[9] Records, the band's record company, promoted the 2007–2008 reunion tour as the 30th anniversary of the release of their first single and not indeed that of the band's creation. ABC reported, "This year marks the 30th anniversary of the release of 'Roxanne,' the single that broke the Police in the United States." The single was released in April 1978.

The Police opened their Reunion Tour in Vancouver on May 28 in front of 22,000 fans at one of two nearly sold-out concerts. Stewart Copeland gave a scathing review of the show on his own website,which the press picked up as a feud occurring two gigs into the tour. It was only meant to be tongue-in-cheek and the band took it as light-hearted as it was intended. In October 2007 the group played the largest gig of the reunion tour in Dublin, Ireland, in front of 82,000 fans.

The Police continued their reunion tour in 2008, and locations include New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Macau, Japan, Canada, USA, France, Germany, Norway, Denmark, UK, Serbia, Poland, Argentina and Brazil, where they played for 75,000 people. Henry Padovani joined the band on stage for the final encore of their show in Paris on September 29th. The Police as a 4-piece band played "Next to You" from the band's first album Outlandos d'Amour.

The Police and Best Buy announced August 4, 2008 that they will release a collector's set entitled "The Police: Certifiable." The set will include an entire concert recorded live in Buenos Aires, Argentina on the tour. The set will come in the following packages: 2DVD/2CD, 1 Blu-Ray Disc/2CD, and 3 premium 180-gram vinyl LPs with MP3 file key. The set will include bonus footage, including a documentary shot by Stewart's son Jordan entitled "Better Than Therapy." The set will be released on November 11, 2008 from Best Buy.