Music

Andy Summers, a former bandmate of Sting's in England's most popular trio The Police, was born in Blackpool in 1942.

We're not sure whether he's being secretive himself, or whether those around him were deliberately or inadvertently taking pleasure in making him look younger, but Andy's true date of birth seems only to have been officially confirmed around the year 2010. And so the poor man has taken a few years off his life. Today, everyone agrees that he's indeed celebrating his 82nd birthday.

While Sting, ten years his junior, was taking his first steps in professional life as a teacher, Andy had already been making a living playing music for a long time. His first job was in the orchestra of a luxury hotel in Bournemouth. Everything has to start somewhere! Next, he tried his hand at rhythm'n blues with Zoot Money, then, one thing leading to another, accompanied Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Soft Machine or Eric Burdon (New Animals), with whom he left for the United States and settled there. 

Back in his homeland, he continued to play with Mike Oldfield and David Essex. In May 1977, he joined Sting and Stewart Copeland in The Police and showed his predecessor, Frenchman Henry Padovani, the way out. Thus began The Police's six glorious years. Between “Outlandos d'Amour” (1978) and “Synchronicity” (1983), five albums were enough to make an indelible mark on pop music's history. Even today, their best-known tracks, such as “Every Breath You Take” and “Roxanne”, have reached or surpassed a billion listens on the most popular of platforms. Although his involvement in the writing of Police hits remains limited, far from the flashy solos, his sophisticated guitar interventions bring a unique cachet to “Walking On The Moon” and “Message In A Bottle”, for example. He even won a Grammy Award in 1980 for the experimental instrumental “Behind My Camel” on the “Zenyatta Mondatta” album. His pal Robert Fripp (King Crimson), another six-string ace, certainly appreciated it...

It was with Fripp, in fact, that he recorded the ambitious but often abrupt “I Adance Masked” in 1982, before Police's scheduled demise. Summers rediscovered his immoderate appetite for instrumentals and electric fiddling. However, he waited until “XYZ” (1987) to make his solo career official, a far cry from the heady pop of Police. The only album on which Summers' voice can be heard, and more pop-rock than its predecessors (and successors), “XYZ” was unfortunately a commercial failure.

Although he took part in the episodic reformations of The Police (1992/2003/2007), the guitarist preferred to go off on his own. Andy Summers is hardly stingy with his collaborations, from jazz to Brazilian hump, or with his own recordings (some fifteen albums to his credit). In 2024, he published eVertiginous Canyonse, atmospheric postcards often reminiscent of Vini Reilly (Durutti Column).

(MH with AK - Photo: © Etienne Tordoir)
Photo: Andy Summers at the Ultieme Hallucinatie in Brussels (Belgium) to promote his album “XYZ” in August 1987.