One Train Later: Andy Summers

 

One Train Later is written from the view point of Andy Summers having plenty of time to kill before the last Police performance, prior to the band folding (for the first time). Therefore having long timebetween waking in the morning and the evening show, to contemplate the past and what brought  him to that point of success, thoughts tempered by certain frustrations. There are good insights into the exhilaration and excesses of the mid to late 60's London music scene, and Summers reminding (or in many instances revealing to me) the number of bands he passed through: Zoot Money's Big Roll Band, Dantelion's Chariot, Soft Machine, the New Animals, Kevin Ayers Band, with all of whom he was trying to play more than just an average lead guitar. The 3 year break from the performing music scene in LA in the early 70's, but eventually getting back to the cold, bleak, 3 day week Britain with wife and soon a family. Meeting with Sting and Copeland (still with Curved Air, and about to marry the band's lead singer) and the early days of Police.  The appearance of punk and the trio's enthusiams for throwing over the staid and stale musical order. Their gradual discovery of reggatta de blanc through a fuller exposure to Bob Marley records. The fame that slowly grew but then snowballed with the Police - the grind of world tours that would kill three marriages, the related excesses, the drugs, the unfaithfulness - unsurprisingly echoing Kevin Gilbert's libretto to Shaming Of The True. Summers doing lots of  indulging but at the same time still trying be a better guitarist, practising and putting the jazz and the modern classical (e.g. of Bartok) into the punk and reggae. And somehow finding some time to record with fellow, former Bournemouth resident, Robert Fripp. Then the slow but inevitable falling apart of Police.

 

I must admit  the book was difficult to start, into but  whether Summers modified his rather arty farty language after  the first 100 pages, or I became tolerant to it, rperhaps needs another read of the book. from me However, there was a point when the book became a page turner  e.g.  for the last 300 pages, rather than annoyed with somewhat precious wordage. He is candid about his relationships with his wife, (who he married, divorced and remarried), Sting and Copeland, and his beliefs. In all, Summers has the language and vocabuary to give a real sense of what is to be a jobbing pop/rock man, trying to break into the fame and fortune. Then having done it, being a caged and frustrated superstar interminably on the road still required to find new fans in new countries, although already selling truck loads of albums - and on those short breaks coming too slowly back to reality whilst being pressurised about the next LP.

 

Check it out.

 

Bob? (As in Blackadder?)

 

Sounds good! I think I'll order it from Brussel's Watersones bookshop!

 

Thanks !

 

If you enjoyed A Cure For Gravity you'll like this one as well.

 

Good that the thread has been revived. I didn't know it was there. Now I would like to find a copy for myself.