The Police were quite a tight little band that really caught our attention but, did you know that….
Mr. Miles Copeland, Jr. ( the father) was a damn good trumpet player and arranger for The Glenn Miller Band? He worked as an Intelligence Officer (in the OSS, precursor to the CIA) and with the Central Intelligence Agency. Mr. Copeland (the father) was involved in intrigues with Saddam Husein (formerly of Iraq) schemes to overthrow Nasser of Egypt, keeping the hostages from being rescued before Reagan’s 1980 election which guaranteed Jimmy carter’s demise, and beau coup other CIA machinations.
Mr. Copeland married E. Lorraine Adie, a woman from Scotland who was a secret agent with SAS, British Secret Service during WWII. She also became a published, much in demand Paleo-Archeologist while stationed in the Middle East with her husband, as he moved form Embassy to Embassy in Syria, Lebanon, and the Levant. This couple had three sons; Miles Copeland III, the well-known record producer, booking agent, Ian Copeland, and composer Stewart Copeland, best known as drummer for The Police.
Miles III first major act was Wishbone Ash, one of my biggest influences. From the 1972 album ‘Argus’, ‘The King Will Come’ and ‘Warrior’ was just the beginning. ‘Just Testing’ came out in 1982 was incredible. It featured ‘Living Proof’ and ‘Master of Disguise’ .
Wishbone Ash took that English folk thing I love so much and morphed it into double lead guitars with double lead vocals. Progressive, yet rockin’. These guys were ahead of their time. Miles had a string of bands signed to his label, IRS Records, such as; Fine Young Cannibals (She Drives Me Crazy), Wall of VooDoo, The Buzzcocks, and The Police. He managed Sting’s solo career through seven releases that achieved major success.
Ian Copeland served in the infantry as a sergeant in Vietnam and was awarded The Bronze Star. While working with brother, Miles, He was Tour Manager for Wishbone Ash, helped break the band, Squeeze into the US market (Tempted), and his talent agency FBI, represented The Cure (Friday, I’m In Love), Nine Inch Nails, Simple Minds, Concrete Blonde (Joey), Iggy Pop, R.E.M. and The Police. Strangely enough, Courteney Cox (Friends and Cougar Town) was the receptionist (and a romantic interest) at his talent agency, before she was a star. Do tell…
Stewart Copeland was the killer musician, songwriter, producer, let alone an incredible drummer in The Police. He wrote most of the early Police tunes, until Sting began to make his prescence felt more fully, and even then continued to do arrangements and such. Stewart authored and performed the music for the television series’ ‘The Equalizer’, ‘Dead Like Me’, Babylon 5, the operas, ‘King Lear and ‘Crescent Moon’, the movies, ‘Talk Radio’, ‘Wall Street’, and ‘Highlander II’, to name just a few…. Stewart Copeland formed ‘Animal Logic’ with Stanley Clarke and Deborah Holland. This cut is called, ‘There’s a Spy In the House of Love’. He also plays drums periodically with Tom Waits and Peter Gabriel. He joined with Les Claypool of Primus and Tres Anastasio of Phish to create a band called, ‘Oysterhead’. Check out this live 3-piece killer performance of ‘Psuedo Suicide’.
This is one talented family!
