Name: Stewart Copeland: The Police Are Not Breaking Up (Spoiler: They Broke Up) | Letterman
Uploaded: 2022-06-15T21:47:18.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Stewart Copeland: The Police Are Not Breaking Up (Spoiler: They Broke Up) | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-06-15. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Stewart Copeland: The Police Are Not Breaking Up (Spoiler: They Broke Up) | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-06-15. Transcript available.

my next guest founded and plays drums for one of the leading bands in the world
the first film he
wrote and directed so what at its world premiere in new york city last night
and starting this
saturday showtime will be airing the police the synchronicity concert ladies
and gentlemen please
welcome stewart copeland nice to see you oh shucks uh when you founded the band
uh did you have any
notion at all that you would uh in a very short period of time become uh
considered to be the
number one uh rock and roll band in the world well it wasn't that short a time
as a matter of fact
it was about seven years and it seems like an overnight success to a lot of
people but in fact
it was a long um it was a long climb yeah but we were optimistic when you first
started touring
in fact when you first started touring not only this country but the world it
was pretty much
self-contained wasn't it just you guys in a rented truck and you'd show up
anywhere and do a show
that's right there was just three of us and our tour manager well we had three
we had four roadies
sting andy me and kim turner yeah we weren't very good as roadies though uh
there was also i was
reading this afternoon one show in the northeast uh helped me with this where
maybe it's just a bar
and like very small crowd turned out does that ring a bell there were so many
you know there's lots
where just small crowds turned out yeah now when you would show up and there
would be a tiny crowd
would you say well forget this let's move on well there's one gig in poughkeepsie
which will
we all will remember or was it millimantic who knows anyhow it was the night of
the big game the
big football game and so nobody came to the show yeah that's bad scheduling
yeah the few people who
were at the show were watching the game in fact we were watching the game in
fact we all watched the
game until the game was over and then you know by that time we'd got talking to
the five or six people
who were in there and um and so then they went to their tables in front of the
stage and we went
around the back way onto the stage and then came on and played our show by
which time we already had
shared a few gags with everybody you know this would have been a memorable show
for that uh
that five people those five people tell me about uh so what the movie premiered
last night
that's right well i missed my own premiere i was at a place again bad
scheduling there was my world
premiere my baby this film um it's about punks which is a very um strange
subject you know like
punks happened seven years ago as well but they're still there in england fizzling
and popping you know
in fact there's more of them uh the fashions the music fashions and so on have
moved on
ten generations down the line all the thinkers and the johnny rotten's and
everything have all moved on
but they're still there out in the wilds of uh urban britain they're still
there still unemployed and
they will never be employed so they've you know they've dyed their hair pink
and they've they've
got got on a uniform which disqualifies them from participating in society how
much time did you
spend with these people i spent about a month i suppose me and a little um it
was about a five-man
crew did they uh did you have an instant rapport with them or were they
suspicious of you mr a
multi-billionaire rock star well i did wonder about that as a matter of fact i
wondered how they would
respond to me being there so the five-man crew four of them in front and me
behind but actually they
turned out to be marshmallows you know the hostile attire you know all that the
leather and the change
and the studs and the safety pins is to ensure that no way will anyone hire
them you know they go
down every thursday and get their welfare check and you know like they have
this terrible fear that one
day the the officer will say ah we have a job for you and they oh no so they go
and put on some more
peroxide onto their hair and put in some more you know yeah and you know
because they don't want
it they don't they don't want to blow the gig right they'll be taking a job
away from somebody who needs
it the uh the movie is called so what and uh we're going to look at a bit of it
now is there any
explanation that we need here have we pretty much uh you explained it for us
they're pretty self
explanatory i think all right and uh this will be as a playing all over the
country released in the
regional areas well this is amazing that this show is the promotion is going
all over the country but
actually right now it's just playing at the eighth can i plug it sure please do
okay it's playing at
the eighth street playhouse the eighth street playhouse yeah all right in new york
that's in new york
city it's very it's very colorful and you want to see more of this now was your
impression that that
when these guys oh yeah i know when these guys are 45 are they still going to
be uh i don't know what's
going to happen to these guys when they're 45 maybe maybe they'll turn into
pumpkins or something
what happened to all the hippies you know i guess you know something happened
to them so something
will happen to the punks too or probably not though because unemployment's so
bad you know maybe they
never will fit in you mentioned uh earlier about it took you seven years from
the inception of the
group to to the success that you've enjoyed the last uh three or four years or
so uh is this going
to be the last uh uh formal tour and there people are talking about the band is
yeah it's coming apart
breaking up taking a break what are you going to do no we're um we're just
taking a long break and
we did this last year as a matter of fact we took a long break and everyone
said the band's breaking up
and everything but two weeks later you know i get a call from andy and andy
gets a you know sting gets
a call from me and you know and we're back we're back in the shop you know yeah
this will probably
happen this time you know in fact it's already started we intended a year off
we're not going
to see each other but already we're starting to think well what about you know
the live album and
you know and there's actually we're going to be back seeing each other again so
it's sort of an
unofficial vacation or hiatus yeah now do you guys get along all right or is
this a little some
friction here and there or well right now we get along very well you know right
now you get along
right now that's true it varies but uh morale is very good right now in the
periods when you're not
getting along what would be an issue that would cause you not to get along you
know i come down
at breakfast and you know like sting's got two fried eggs and i got one this is
the kind of issue that
can split apart you know the greatest thing in rock and roll you know because
the point is that you
know when you're when you're when you're the goose that lays the golden eggs
and everybody you know
opens doors for you you know takes care of you are you happy mr copeland and
everything you start to
feel like you know like all these little things well no i'm not happy as a
matter of fact you know
because of some stupid little thing you know and um and so basically it's all
part of just you know
not growing up when you're in a group sure people don't realize when you're on
stage performing that
you had to undergo the pressure that day of somebody else ordering two fried
eggs that's right somebody
you know like hotel managers were fired you know that's right this is not an
easy life ladies and
gentlemen uh anyway i i hope that you don't break up i hope you get some time
off and uh hope you that
you can come back around again the next time you tour this country and uh
congratulations on all the
wonderful success of the band mr stewart copeland ladies and good luck with the
movie also uh we'll be right
back