The Police by Lawrence Impey

In the late 1960s, while at Millfield School in Somerset, I was fortunate to attend the English classes of a lovely lady called Miss Kenyon. Here I met a...

In the late 1960s, while at Millfield School in Somerset, I was fortunate to attend the English classes of a lovely lady called Miss Kenyon. Here I met a lanky, irrepressible American who, as I soon discovered, shared my enthusiasm for the music of Jimi Hendrix, The Cream and the other heroes of the age. Stewart and I would later spend much of our half-terms in the basement of his parents’ orange residence in leafy St Johns’ Wood, listening to as many records as we could lay our hands on.

After leaving school we remained in touch and when Stewart entered the music business I was the obvious choice for photography, some for publicity shots for his first role as a professional musician in Curved Air, others for the cover of his solo project as Klark Kent. When I produced the images seen here, I had already taken some photographs of The Police (Sting, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers) but due to a change in lineup Stewart wanted a reshoot. My previous session with the band had been outdoors, taking place on the roof of a flat in Mayfair, but this time I lugged my ancient flash kit round to Sting’s basement in Bayswater. As usual, the band were pulling faces, fighting and jumping about all over the place and I shot many reels of HP5. It was fun, as photo sessions should be.