BBC - The Police in Montserrat (1981)
InformationThis
BBC 47 minute documentary "Police in Montserrat" was shown on UK
television back in the 1980's and it hasn't been broadcast outside of
the UK. This version includes several clips that did not make one of the
previous broadcasts. There is an extended intro, and additional footage
of all three band members being interviewed. In mid 1981, young Jools
Holland flew out to Montserrat with a small camera crew to film The
Police at work recording their fourth album,
Ghost In The Machine.
After the cold UK and rainy Netherland where the first three albums
were recorded, the island of Montserrat and George Martin's homely Air
Studio offered a welcoming, warm environment for the recording of what
many fans still consider to be the band's best album. After Jools'
introduction to the island we see Sting running up a hill to the studio,
and are thrust straight into a series of fascinating interviews and
videos. Jools talks to each band member in turn, asking Andy to explain
how he gets some of his effects and gets him to demonstrate his Roland
guitar synthesiser. Andy plays licks from several songs including
'Message In A Bottle' to demonstrate and 'Bring On The Night' and Jools
ask him about his influences before unceremoniously pulling out his
guitar lead after Andy plays a little 'funk' for him with the comment "I
think that's best left to James Brown...". Joined by Jools on keyboards
the pair then jam some blues tune and we get to see Andy play a little
bottleneck guitar - quiet a rare sight. Sting is interviewed in the
studio where he explains to Jools a little about the pressures of
songwriting, the desire to always try and better your last hit, and
tells how he wrote both 'Message In A Bottle' and 'Invisible Sun'. The
explanation for Sting's almost boyish enthusiasm during this interview
can now be revealed - he had just written a new song, 'Invisible Sun',
and this clip was not in one of the previous broadcasts. These few
minutes are definitely interesting, with Sting breaking the songs down
and explaining in detail how they were constructed. In further 'new'
footage, Sting then introduces his customised stand-up Van Zalinge bass,
'Brian', before he and Jools start jamming away where they are joined
by Andy Summers. Jools moves to Stewart Copeland and gets him to explain
his drum set-up and demonstrate some of the effects he employs. Stewart
describes how important the role of the drummer is at the start of
recording and explains in layman's terms his fascination for reggae,
demonstrating the key differences between the reggae beat and the
traditional backbeat. Stewart's obvious enthusiasm is almost contagious,
and at one point he neatly sums up the reggae beat as 'a paradigm for
the cosmos'. As if this wasn't enough, intercut between all these clips
are four full length videoclips shot in the studio for 'Spirits In The
Material World', 'One World (Not Three)', 'Demolition Man' and 'Every
Little Thing She Does Is Magic'. Other special features include two live
tracks from October 1978's appearance on the "Old Grey Whistle Test" TV
show , 'Can't Stand Losing You' and 'Next To You'. This was The
Police's big break on UK television and showcases early Police at their
best.
Related Documentaries
click on the thumbnails below to get full-size images
Technical SpecsVideo Codec: XviD ISO MPEG-4
Video Bitrate: 1944 kbps
Video Resolution: 704x536
Video Aspect Ratio: 1.313:1
Frames Per Second: 25.000
Audio Codec: 0x2000 (Dolby AC3) AC3
Audio Bitrate: 192kb/s CBR 48000 Hz
Audio Streams: 2
Audio Languages: english
RunTime Per Part: 53:47.600
Number Of Parts: 1
Part Size: 825 MB
Ripped by: DocFreak08
Live Tracker Stats
