Feature interview

Five albums in six years. 75 million records sold. Then, just like that, The Police walked away leaving us with songs everyone still knows: "Message in a Bottle," "Don't Stand So Close to Me," "Every Breath You Take." You know there are plenty of stories to tell and drummer and founding member of The Police Stewart Copeland is ready to tell them. Dubbed the "accidental archivist," he spent the years of the rise of The Police jotting down the secrets and surprises of the trio he formed with Sting and Andy Summers. Now, after 18 years away, he's coming back to New Zealand with a spoken world tour called Have I Said Too Much? It's an evening that dives into the wild ride of rock superstardom, the creative sparks and disasters fans never knew about, and the twists that took Copeland from punk-reggae anthems to orchestras and operas. The tour lands here in January. Stewart Copeland spoke to Jesse.