Police drummer Stewart Copeland has been involved in an arresting variety of projects lately. One of those projects includes putting together a new book titled Stewart Copeland’s Police Diaries that features entries from the personal diaries dating back to his famous band’s early years.
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The book, which is available for pre-order now at Rocket88Books.com and is expected out sometime this fall, features scans of the original pages of the pocket diaries Copeland kept from 1976 to 1979.
Stewart Copeland’s Police Diaries also includes the drummer’s new background commentary and a variety of rare photos of The Police from the group’s formative years.
“I found these diaries and the story that they contain, which, the fun part is the starving part when we didn’t even have any songs to play,” Copeland explained in a YouTube video promoting the book. We didn’t have ‘Roxanne,’ we didn’t have ‘Message in a Bottle.’ We just had these crap punk songs, and yet the bond that we shared was kind of a beautiful thing.”
Three hardback versions of the book have been produced, including a standard Classic edition. A Signature edition, limited to 500 copies, is signed by Copeland and comes packaged with a CD of previously unreleased home demo recordings Stewart made in 1977 and 1978, and a poster of the Police’s Outlandos d’Amour album cover.
Also initially offered was an Ultimate edition of the book, limited to 100 copies, which was the same as the Signature version, except it featured a leather-bound cover and also included a signed and numbered high-quality print of a Police portrait that’s signed by Copeland. However, that version is sold out according to the Rocket 88 Books company.
Copeland also has announced that he will be releasing a deluxe reissue of his 1980 debut solo album, Klark Kent, on November 17. The album, which can be pre-ordered now, is available as a two-LP set, a two-CD collection, and in digital formats.
The reissue features newly remastered versions of the full album, which Copeland released under the moniker Klark Kent, as well as non-album singles and two previously unreleased studio recordings. The CD and digital versions also will include 12 previously unreleased demos of the songs from the Klark Kent album.
In advance of the reissue, the non-album single “Too Kool to Kalypso” has been made available via all digital music services.
Klark Kent was the first solo album released by any of The Police’s members.
Meanwhile, Copeland also has three more 2023 concerts, all scheduled this week, as part of his Police Deranged for Orchestra tour—on October 19 in Carmel, California, and October 21 and 22 in Erie, Pennsylvania. The shows feature Copeland performing reimagined Police songs with orchestral accompaniment. Visit StewartCopeland.net for more information.
