Under the Volcano (2021)

Sting: Self

Quotes 

• Sting : Well, think the success of The Police really was a happy accident, because, it was the beginning of the MTV era. And we has a whole slew of videos already made and there was this channel, custom built, to receive these videos. And we became a staple on MTV, which, of course, added to our success.

• Sting : The Police wrote three albums in dingy, sunless recording studios in England and in Holland - where we would work from 10 in the evening till dawn. And we lived that kind of existence for a couple of years.

• Sting : It was a period of stratospheric success. And a part of that, the speed and the size of that success, also distorts your perception of it. And we were so filled with this forward momentum we didn't really get a chance to appreciate it - except for Montserrat, which allowed us to calm down.

• Stewart Copeland : After we finished The Police album, Sting stays there for a bit of a holiday. And the next band in is Dire Straits. And - the rest is history.

  Sting : [singing]  I want my MTV...

  Sting , Andy Summers , Stewart Copeland : [shouting]  I want my MTV!

  Mark Knopfler : I'd seen on MTV The Police doing an ad for it and I thought, well, if I stick that to "Don't Stand So Close To Me", those notes, that would fit. Anyway, we were recording "Money For Nothing" and I said to somebody, "I wish Sting was here." And somebody said, "Well, he is here. He's on holiday."

• Sting : Well, you know, the conflict in the band is kind of storied. Um. And it may well be exaggerated. Uh, but, for me it was a function of the creative process, you know. You have three alpha males trying to forge something that points in one direction and not three. Um, I mean, we weren't physically aggressive with each other; but, it got pretty heated in there. But, really, because we cared passionately about what each of us were doing. And, um, but, it was not - easy. So, it was great to have an environment around us where you could escape to. You know, I could go walking in the hills. In fact, I went up to the volcano a couple of times. You'd come back smelling of sulphur - like you'd been to hell.

• Sting : I went sailing past Montserrat a few years after the volcano erupted. And sailing past Plymouth and just seeing what looked like nuclear winter. It was covered in white dust. And this thriving, bustling Caribbean town was a ghost town. And it was frightening and upsetting, because, I had so many happy memories of that place with by bandmates, my children, my family.