Andy Summers


Andrew James Somers, known professionally as Andy Summers, is an English singer and guitarist who was a member of the rock band the Police. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the band in 2003. Summers has recorded solo albums, collaborated with other musicians, composed film scores, and exhibited his photography in galleries.

Early life

Andrew James Summers was born in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire. During Summers' childhood, his family moved to Bournemouth, then in Hampshire, England. After several years of piano lessons, he took up the guitar. At an early age he played jazz guitar. In his teens he saw a concert by Thelonious Monk and Dizzy Gillespie in London that left a lasting impression. By sixteen he was playing in local clubs and by nineteen he had moved to London with his friend Zoot Money to form Zoot Money's Big Roll Band.

Musical career

Pre-Police career

Summers' professional career began in the mid-1960s in London as guitarist for the British rhythm and blues band Zoot Money's Big Roll Band, which eventually came under the influence of the psychedelic scene and evolved into the acid rock group Dantalian's Chariot. In September 1966, Summers was the first guitarist encountered by Jimi Hendrix after landing in the UK. The young Summers is portrayed in fiction as one of the "two main love interests" in Jenny Fabian and Johnny Byrne's 1969 book Groupie, in which he is given the pseudonym "Davey".
After the demise of Dantalion's Chariot, Summers joined Soft Machine for three months and toured the United States. For a brief time in 1968, he was a member of the Animals, then known as Eric Burdon and the Animals, with whom he recorded one album, Love Is. The album features a recording of Traffic's "Coloured Rain", which includes a 4minute and 15 second guitar solo by Summers. The LP also included a reworked version of Dantalion's Chariot's sole single "Madman Running Through the Fields".
After five years in Los Angeles, mostly spent studying classical guitar and composition in the music program at California State University, Northridge, from which he graduated in 1972, he returned to London with his American girlfriend Kate Lunken.
In London, Summers recorded and toured with acts including Kevin Coyne, Jon Lord, Joan Armatrading, David Essex, Neil Sedaka and Kevin Ayers. In October 1975 he participated in an orchestral rendition of Mike Oldfield's seminal "Tubular Bells".
In 1977, Summers was invited by ex-Gong bassist Mike Howlett to join his band Strontium 90, but was soon coaxed away by future Police bandmates Sting and Stewart Copeland.

The Police

Summers achieved international fame as the guitarist for the Police, which he joined in 1977, eventually replacing original guitarist Henry Padovani. Emerging from London's punk scene, the Police gained international renown with many hit songs, including "Message in a Bottle", "Roxanne", "Don't Stand So Close to Me", "Every Breath You Take", and "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic". During his time with the band, Summers twice won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance, first in 1979 for "Reggatta de Blanc" and in 1980 for "Behind My Camel".
Although Sting was the lead singer of the band, Summers occasionally contributed lead vocals, as in "Be My Girl/Sally", "Friends", "Mother", and "Someone to Talk To". Other notable Summers compositions from this period are "Omegaman", "Shambelle", "Once Upon a Daydream", and "Murder by Numbers" both co-written with Sting. In early 1984, after seven years together and record sales around eighty million, the Police disbanded.
Though not given songwriting credit, Summers wrote the guitar riff for "Every Breath You Take". It was recorded in one take with his 1961 Fender Stratocaster during the Synchronicity sessions. The song was number one for eight weeks. Sting won the 1983 Grammy Award for Song of the Year, and the Police won Best Pop Performance by a Duo Or Group With Vocal for this song. Summers provides an account of the session in his memoir, One Train Later.
As a member of the Police, Summers created a trademark guitar sound, which relied heavily on a chorus effect. He explained in 2017 how the sound came about:
"I created it sort of out of necessity; my mission was 'We’re going to play for two hours each night as a trio,' so I wanted to have this fantastic, coloured guitar sound that was different for every song. So, I used the Echoplex, then a chorus, and a few other pedals…envelope filters. As we went on, I acquired more stuff and got a Pete Cornish board. But what was driving it was to invade and push the edge of what the guitar was supposed to sound like, and make it really interesting over a show. So, it wasn’t just one straight sound all the time. I could move it around. And it was appreciated by many millions of people. Of course, it’s very tired and a bit 'retro' now; I’m not very keen on it anymore. But in those days it was new, fresh, and exciting."

Post-Police

Summers' solo career has included recording, touring, composing for films, and exhibiting his photography in art galleries around the world.
He recorded the duet albums I Advance Masked and Bewitched with guitarist Robert Fripp of King Crimson, as well as duet albums with Victor Biglione, John Etheridge, and Benjamin Verdery. His solo debut album, XYZ, was released in 1987 and is the only non-instrumental album in his catalogue. Although it included pop material, such as the single "Love is the Strangest Way", it failed to dent the charts. In 1987 Sting invited Summers to perform on his second album ...Nothing Like the Sun, a favour the singer returned by playing bass on Charming Snakes and later contributing vocals to "'Round Midnight" on Summers' tribute album to Thelonious Monk, Green Chimneys, in 1999. In the mid-1990s Summers briefly returned to a more rock-oriented sound with Synesthesia and The Last Dance of Mr X before recording a string of jazz albums.

The Police reunion

During the 2007 Grammys Award show, the Police appeared, playing "Roxanne" and subsequently announcing that they would be going on tour. The Police Reunion Tour began in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on 28 May 2007, and continued until August 2008, becoming the third highest-grossing tour of all time.

Circa Zero

In August 2013, Summers announced he had formed a new band, Circa Zero, with Rob Giles from the Rescues. Originally, drummer Emmanuelle Caplette was also a member of the band. Their debut show was 25 July 2013 at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles. The band's debut album, Circus Hero, was released 25 March 2014. It is titled after a malapropism of the band's name made by a radio disc jockey during an interview of Summers. The first single, "Levitation," was released to US adult album alternative radio on 3March 2014; and reached number 36 on the Japan Hot 100 chart.

Call the Police

In March 2017, Summers announced he had formed Call the Police, a Police tribute band, with two Brazilian musicians, Rodrigo Santos on bass guitar and vocals and Joao Barone on drums.

Material loss

On 25 June 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Summers among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.

Personal life

Summers was married to his first wife, the singer Robin Lane, in 1968. They divorced two years later in 1970. He married his second wife, Kate Lunken, in 1973 and they had one daughter in 1978, Layla Zoe Summers. They divorced in 1981 although they would then remarry in 1985. In 1987, Kate and Andy's twin sons Maurice X and Anton Y were born.

Awards and honours

The Police years

Guitars

The above is a list of equipment used by Summers from the 1980s. Since that time he has built a collection of 200+ guitars and uses a wide variety of amplifiers and electronic equipment.

Photography

His photography has been on display at art galleries around the world, such as

Solo albums

With The Police
With Eric Burdon and the Animals
  • Love Is
With Kevin Ayers
  • First Show in the Appearance Business
  • Too Old to Die Young
  • Yes We Have No Mananas, So Get Your Mananas Today
With Kevin Coyne
  • Matching Head and Feet
  • Heartburn
  • In Living Black and White
  • Sign of the Times
  • On Air
With Dantalian's Chariot
  • Chariot Rising
With Eberhard Schoener
  • The Book
  • Trance-Formation
  • Video-Flashback
  • Video Magic
With Strontium 90
  • Police Academy
With Zoot Money's Big Roll Band'