In Defense of Ska Ep 145: Stewart Copeland (The Police, Klark Kent)

The Police exploded in the late 70s. By the early ’80s they were one of the biggest bands in the world with countless hits like “Roxanne,” “Every Breath You Take,” and “Don’t Stand So Close To Me.” They were classified as New Wave, but ska and reggae were prominent influences in their songs. Their popularity pre-dated the 2 Tone ska explosion. Nearly all of those bands—The Specials, The Selecter, Madness, The Beat, The Bodysnatchers, Bad Manners—opened up for The Police at some point. 

Today we bring on The Police’s drummer, Stewart Copeland. His drumming was highly informed by ska/reggae. In fact, he was the first member of the group to fall in love with the music. We discuss The Police’s career, 2 Tone ska, reggae drumming and also talk about his new book, Stewart Copeland’s Police Diaries. 

We also talk about how The Police were “fake punks” during the UK British movement, Stewart’s first time seeing The Specials at The Hammersmith Palais and talking to Madness’ singer Suggs about the show. We talk about UB40’s place in the 2 Tone scene, as well as the important role that Stewart’s brothers Miles and Ian played in all of this music gaining a larger audience. 

We talk about Don Letts role in popularizing reggae among punks, British skinheads, how Stewart discovered reggae in Berkeley (and how he found similarities to the Baladi music he heard as a child growing up in Egypt and Beirut.) And we talk about his weird side project Klark Kent, who actually scored a hit single before The Police! 

Plus, Stewart gives us an impassioned rant about music that is aimed at The Specials leader Jerry Dammers. 

If you’d like to support us and listen to early access, ad-free episodes with bonus content, check out our Patreon! 

If you like our theme song, go download the EP Lives by Slow Gherkin. They wrote the opening and closing songs for our podcast. You can get both tunes from their Lives EP. Also, check out Dan P and the Bricks two LPs. They provided the mid-roll ad transition music. 

Support the In Defense host Aaron Carnes by purchasing a copy of his book, In Defense of Ska. The 2nd, expanded edition of In Defense of Ska will release in Oct 2024. 

Co-host Adam Davis has a band called Omnigone. Their latest record, Against The Rest released on March 31, 2023. 

The In Defense of Ska editor Chris Reeves runs a record label called Ska Punk International. They have new releases coming out all the time.