Stewart Copeland

[Drumbledore]

Drummer: Stewart Copeland
Main Styles: New Wave/Reggae, Soundtrack Scores
Main Band: The Police
Brief Summary: In 1977 founded the group The Police with bassist /vocalist Sting and original guitarist Henri Padovani (soon replaced by veteran session guitarist Andy Summers). The Police became one of the quintessential New Wave bands of the late 70's/early 80's with a distinct crossover reggae and rock sound, with Copeland's use of splash cymbals and Tama Octobans, a tightly tuned snare drum and toms, and later on electronic gear and racks of percussion, plus the group's clever use of reggae and Third World rhythms, whose influence can still be heard today. With their break up after five very successful albums, Stewart went on to write and score the soundtracks of literally dozens of movies, starting with Francis Ford Coppola's "Rumblefish" in 1983, "Wall Street", "Highlander II", "Talk Radio" and so on up until this day, as well as TV's "The Equalizer".

Other Fun Facts: Born in Virginia, the very young Copeland was raised in Beirut by his CIA father, Miles Copeland Jnr and his mother Adie, an archaeologist. After having a very orthodox musical education (Stewart is a true multi-instrumentalist), he maintains that it was listening to Arabic rhythms such as baladi that he heard as a youngster that gave him the ease to play reggae offbeats. Stewart's oldest brother, Miles Copeland III was The Police's manager (as well as the founder of IRS records) whilst his other brother Ian was their booking agent.

He also has done the music for the Playstation Game Spyro The Dragon and it's sequels.