SoundWorks Collection Interview Series - The Police Guitarist Andy Summers - Can’t Stand Losing You: Surviving the Police
March 27, 2015 - 08:22 PM
This week we talk with Grammy Award® winning guitarist Andy Summers from The Police about his music documentary based on the memoir One Train Later, Can’t Stand Losing You: Surviving the Police tells of the rise of The Police.
During the band’s phenomenal rise and its dissolution at the height of their popularity in the mid-80s, Summers captured history with his candid photographs.
Utilizing rare archival footage and insights from the guitarist’s side of the stage, Can’t Stand Losing You: Surviving the Police brings together past and present as the band members reunite, more than two decades later, for a global reunion tour in 2007.
<img border=”0” alt=”podcast subscribe” src=”http://192.254.225.186/clients/soundworks/feed/itunes_podcast.png”></a> <iframe width=”640” height=”360” src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/qLOVwu2YGyg?rel=0” frameborder=”0” allowfullscreen></iframe> ### ABOUT ANDY SUMMERS: Andy Summers rose to fame in the early 1980’s as the guitarist of the multi-million record selling rock band - The Police. The Police were the number one band of the time and dominated the music scene and the media in the 80s with several number one records. Summers’ innovative guitar playing created a new paradigm for guitarists in this period and has been widely imitated ever since. Prior to the Police, Summers played with various bands in the London scene, including The Animals, Soft Machine, Kevin Coyne, and Kevin Ayers. After the band’s dramatic exit from the music scene, Summers continued to develop his interest in photography as well as touring, recording as a solo artist, composing for films (including 2010, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, The Wild Life, and Weekend at Bernie’s), writing books, and exhibiting his photography. In 2006 his memoir One Train Later was released to great success and was voted the number one music book of the year in the UK by Mojo Magazine. The documentary film Can’t Stand Losing You: Surviving The Police is based on the book and was produced by the Yari Film Group and is being released in North America by Cinema Libre Studio. In 2007/8 The Police reunited for a fantastically successful world tour which was the third-highest grossing of all time at the time. Summers had been a photographer since the early days of The Police, and has published four books of his photographs, many of which are featured in the film Can’t Stand Losing You: Surviving The Police. Exhibitions of his photos have taken place across the globe at the Leica gallery in Los Angeles, Paris/LA Photo Show, Kunst.Licht gallery in Shanghai, CCC gallery in Beijing and Photokina in Cologne Germany. Upcoming photography shows are scheduled for March in Sao Paulo in May and Rio de Janeiro in June with Globo newspaper. Recent projects include: the album Circus Hero from his new band Circa Zero!, which was released in April 2014 and working on music for a contemporary ballet with the pre- eminent photographer Ralph Gibson. Summers is in the Rock and Roll Hall of fame, the Guitar Player Hall of Fame, has the keys to New York City and has been awarded the Chevalier De L’Ordre Des Arts et Des Lettres by the government of France. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Kate, and has three children, all of whom were able to finally see their father perform during the 2007/8 reunion tour.