Sumner's Tales: Sting talks...

About the video shoot for the song...
"It's incredibly atmospheric, and I think the set design is brilliant - there's nothing but all those candles, yet it conjures up so many different feelings and possibilities about the song. When Kevin (Godley) and Lol (Creme) came to me with the idea, I got very excited because I realised that they really understood the imagistic approach I wanted. The whole concept is fairly esoteric - it's really a "Sorcerer's Apprentice" type of idea. The song is cunningly being shot at high speed in order to achieve a special effect when it's eventually played back at normal speed. At least, that's the theory..."
Playgirl, 10/83

On the idea that Fortress Around Your Heart is linked to Wrapped Around Your Finger...
"It is linked to Wrapped. Wrapped was a spiteful song about turning the tables on someone who had been in charge. Fortress, on the other hand, is about appeasement, about trying to bridge the gaps between individuals. The central image is a minefield that you've laid around this other person to try and protect them. Then you realise that you have to walk back through it. I think it's one of the best choruses I've ever written."
Musician, 8/85

"Synchronicity was a very personal statement for me, as opposed to a personal statement for the band. And the band was riding on the crest of a wave, but the music, the subjects were very personal to me... this was almost, and I'm trying to say this in a way that doesn't insult the other members of the band because I couldn't have done it without them - they're fantastic and I respect them - but this was almost a solo record in the sense that the subject matter was very personal to me. And I couldn't really share it. When I sat down with the band and discussed what we were going to tackle this was all I could write. Every Breath You Take, Wrapped Around Your Finger were all about my life. And so that was the end of the Police because I realised that I couldn't involve this kind of personal work in a democratic process, at least not about the issues. So it was very clear to me during the making of this record this was the end of the Police."
'In The Studio' Radio Show

About 'Someone To Talk To'...
"Maybe I had just split up from my wife. It was a nice thing I had on the guitar and I was disappointed that Sting wouldn't sing it. That would have given it more of an official stamp."
Andy Summers: 'Message In A Box' Liner Notes, '93

About 'Someone To Talk To'...
"Andy did his best on vocals but I too was disappointed that Sting didn't sing it. He was very touchy about lyrics."
Stewart Copeland: 'Message In A Box' Liner Notes, '93

'Wrapped Around Your Finger' appears on The Police's 1983 album, 'Synchronicity'. Apart from the standard release, this single was officially available in no less than six other formats. There were three different coloured sleeves (red, yellow and blue) each containing the standard black vinyl release, and the three picture discs available in clear plastic wallets, with each obverse featuring one of the band members. Record Collector magazine reported that 12,000 of the picture discs were pressed, but here's the rub: 10,000 of these were pressed with Sting's picture (see above) , with only a 1,000 each of Andy and Stewart. Whilst this allocation may have reflected A&M's perception of the importance of the various members of the band it was hardly tactful marketing for a band with tensions close to critical mass. The long and short of this, is if you get the chance, get copies of these singles - especially the Stewart and Andy ones. Amazingly, this song hasn't been covered by Sting since he went solo.

Review from Smash Hits

"Gorgeous, light and perfect music to have playing as someone massages that coconut sun oil between the shoulder blades. What you doing on Sunday afternoon. Sting? Andy? Stewart?"

Review from Sounds by Garry Bushell

"Amongst the talentless menagerie of nauseating narcissistic no-hopers who constitute today's chart 'acts' few are more revolting than this toad-like trio of dyed blonde pop midgets. I don't know which one's more unlikely, decrepit Curved Air drummer Stewart 'son-of-CIA' Copeland, Andy Summers or would-be cracked actor Sting (aka Gordon), the very plain pin-up with a face more lived in than a block of rotting tenement slums. Here 40 year old Gordon fancies himself as "a young apprentice" waxing all spirit-in-the-material-bank-vault to some ageing maharishi over the usual soporific plastic reggae beat. He sounds about as soulful as a drunken rambler with his privates hooked on a barbed wire fence. The pantomime mysticism of the verse leads into a chorus reminiscent of their real contemporaries, the Eagles, that the sycophantic slags who pose as radio programmers will willingly hammer into our brains as relentlessly as Chinese water torture. But the song's so mind bogglingly dull people are probably even now falling asleep listening to it on their car radios and causing nasty pile-ups. The worst thing about the Police is that they're somehow viewed as 'new wave', even radical in some quarters. But let's make no mistake, they've got very rich indeed by sucking the neck of Jamaican music like famished vampires and haven't put ONE PENNY back. At least Bowie raised 75 grand for his Brixton birthplace, what's "socialist" Sting done for Newcastle? How many homegrown reggae bands have the Police got behind after shamelessly building a career on ripping off black music. Answer on a postcard, c/o the Cayman Islands..."