Strange Things Happen: A Life with The Police, Polo, and Pygmies

“An excellent read.”

—St. Petersburg Times

“An often hilarious, always candid and astutely observed memoir chronicling a life observed, largely, from the vantage point of a drum throne.”

—Buffalo News

Rock legend Stewart Copeland, drummer for seminal pop trio The Police, shares his stories from before, during, and after his days with Sting and Andy Summers, in one of the most popular and influential bands of the eighties. Strange Things Happen indeed.

When Stewart Copeland gets dressed, he has an identity crisis. Should he put on leather pants, hostile shirts, and pointy shoes? Or wear something more appropriate to the tax-paying, property-owning, investment-holding lotus eater his success has allowed him to become? This dilemma is at the heart of Copeland’s vastly entertaining memoirin- stories, Strange Things Happen. Most people know Copeland as the drummer for The Police, one of the most successful bands in rock history. But they may not know as much about his childhood in the Middle East as the son of a CIA agent. Or be aware of his filmmaking adventures with the Pygmies in the deepest reaches of the Congo, and his passion for polo (Brideshead Revisited on horses). In Strange Things Happen we move from Copeland’s remarkable childhood to the formation of The Police and their rise to stardom, to the settled-down life that followed. It’s a book of amazing anecdotes, all completely true, that take us backstage in a life that is fully lived.

“Copeland’s confessions from the 2007–2008 reunion tour of the Police form a seamless and irresistible narrative...Readers feel as if they were on stage with him, Sting and Andy Summers, sharing with us the thrill of performing with one of the great bands of all time.” - Publishers Weekly

“The well-written and funny memoir is an entertaining journey through the strange rhythms, adventures, ritual, and mojo after the breakup of [The Police]...This is the stuff that makes rock-n-roll memoir.” - Sacramento Book Review

“[Copeland’s] multifaceted and generous embracing of many kinds of experiences give this book an especially rich texture. He has an entertaining style and a flair for the witty and well-timed anecdote.” - Library Journal