The Police; Their 1st Choice For Guitarist

[toyah]

from the next issue of GOOD TIMES Magazine, the column Rhythm Tracking by Jimi La Lumia

THE POLICE & LOUIE
Many regulars know that in the late 70s, The Police got their start in England, during punk, as the backup band for Cherry Vanilla. RCA had signed the then high profile Vanilla, and The Police's manager, Miles Copeland, decided to hitch a ride on Cherry's publicity and RCA support,by having his boys serve as an opening band for Cherry, and also fill in some open slots for her set(Sting became her bass player, Stewart Copeland became her drummer.)
At that time(1977/78) the guitarist for The Police was Henri Padovani; The Police got their act together by being Cherry Vanilla's shadow, and also by being an opening act for another then high profile NY based punk act, Wayne County & the Electric Chairs.We all know that by the time The Police had become high profile,that their guitarist was a guy named Andy Summers.The Police were unhappy with Padovani,and wanted something different.Here's the part that many didn't know until Andy Summers himself revealed it in his recently released autobiography; Andy Summers was not the first choice to replace Henri Padovani.
While doing all the dates they did with Vanilla, Stewart and especially Sting were bowled over by the brilliant Louie Lepore, guitarist and co song writer for Cherry Vanilla.Lepore is probably one of the greatest ,unheralded players of that era, and Summers recounts how Sting and Stewart wined and dined him and tried everything they could to get him to leave Vanilla(even Cherry didn't know of this until the Summers book came out.)Louie was in love in Cherry, they were a unit, an early proto type of what Pat Benatar and Neil Gerardo would become in the early 80s,and he had no intention of leaving Cherry or walking away from the RCA deal (which went bad very quickly anyway.)
Actually, when Cherry Vanilla went into the studio to record her first RCA album, "Bad Girl",the plan was to use Louie on guitar and their keyboard player Zecca Esquibel,and have Sting and Stewart provide the bass and drums on the album; if this had happened, the "Bad Girl" album would have become high profile once The Police became the biggest band of the 80s.But it wasn't to be. Lepore had his NY bandmates flown over to play on the album,and Sting and Stewart,having been turned down by Louie, found Andy Summers.
As to the departed original guitarist ,Henri Padovani, he joined the band that The Police had spent half a year opening for,Wayne County & The Electric Chairs,after that band's guitarist, another unsung hero named Greg Van Cook,had been sent off into the wilderness.
One has to wonder what the sound, style, and ultimate fate of The Police would have been if Lepore had become their guitarist; they would certainly have been more rocknroll than they wound up being. The "Bad Girl" album material seemed to influence Sting and Co as Vanilla tunes like "I Know How To Hook", "So 1950s" and "No More Canaries" seemed to pave the way for "Roxanne", "Born In The 50s", and "Canary In A Coalmine",songs that didn't yet exist when The Police were backing Vanilla.
You can hear the brilliant Louie Lepore on the newly reissued ,re mastered limited edition Japanese pressings of the two 70s Vanilla albums, "Bad Girl" and "Venus D Vinyl" and decide for yourself.
70s SUPREMES
I finally broke down and spent almost seventy dollars on myself (for my birthday) for the three CD box set "The Supremes; This Is The Story,the 70s Albums Vol.1,1970-1973 The Jean Terrell Years". As a long time Supremes fan, I continued to support the group in the 70s when Diana Ross left for a solo career and was replaced by a then unknown singer named Jean Terrell.Jean went on to lead the "new" Supremes into the Top 40 many times over a three year period,with several Top Ten visits, including a great duet with the Four Tops ("River Deep, Mountain High"),as well as "Up The Ladder To The Roof" and "Stoned Love".
Rumour had it that Motown honcho Berry Gordy Jr. didn't want the new Supremes to succeed; he felt that his diva, Diana Ross, was the sole reason for the Supremes success ,and that if the group continued to succeed in her absence,it would send the message that maybe Ross wasn't quite as special as he wanted us to believe she was.
For whatever reasons, after their early multiple successes, the rug seemed to be pulled out from under the group, despite some great records that didn't get the push from Motown. The last single with Jean, "Bad Weather" had been written for the group by Stevie Wonder during the "Superstition" period,but it seemed that Motown didn't want this to happen.Mary Wilson's combative stance with Gordy certainly didn't help, and everyone knows what happened to the late Florence Ballard; Gordy's initial affection for the Supremes had turned into a nasty infection, or so it would appear. Regardless, the group's work with Jean Terrell is breath taking and well worth checking out.





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[Frau_Blucher]

Interesting that there was another consideration even between Padovani and Summers. Henri actually posted here once and emailed a couple of members, stating how the Police's music was never really his thing to begin with. The Wayne County link with the Police themselves is interesting because Henri did mention having played and recorded them - I didn't realize the immediately preceding link.

[club80]

[quote][i]Originally posted by Blir[/i]
<br>Interesting that there was another consideration even between Padovani and Summers. Henri actually posted here once and emailed a couple of members, stating how the Police's music was never really his thing to begin with. The Wayne County link with the Police themselves is interesting because Henri did mention having played and recorded them - I didn't realize the immediately preceding link.
[/quote]

I'm not surprised by Henri's response, given the vast difference in sound that "Fall Out" had with everything that followed.



We didn't sell a lot of records, but somehow we left an impression.
-Johnny Ramone-

[club80]

[quote][i]Originally posted by club80[/i]
<br>[quote][i]Originally posted by Blir[/i]
<br>Interesting that there was another consideration even between Padovani and Summers. Henri actually posted here once and emailed a couple of members, stating how the Police's music was never really his thing to begin with. The Wayne County link with the Police themselves is interesting because Henri did mention having played and recorded them - I didn't realize the immediately preceding link.
[/quote]

I'm not surprised by Henri's response, given the vast difference in sound that "Fall Out" had with everything that followed.



We didn't sell a lot of records, but somehow we left an impression.
-Johnny Ramone-
[/quote]

Well...now that I think about it, "Next To You" wasn't that different than "Fall Out"



We didn't sell a lot of records, but somehow we left an impression.
-Johnny Ramone-

[toyah]

Padovani became a full fledged member of The Electric Chairs by that band's second album, Storm The Gates Of
Heaven" and he stayed on for the David Cunningham produced "Things Your Mother Never
Told You", and then, when Wayne had a falling out with the band and returned to
America, The Electric Chairs remained with Safari Records and released a Wayne-less
single, "So Many Ways", which did nothing, that was the end of the band, and by 1980 Wayne
had become Jayne County;
here's a clip of Padovani with the band (checkerboard coat)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3zqSDFATRg

[Max Murdoc]

So how do The Supremes fit in all this? [:D]

[toyah]

...sorry, didn't edit the second half beyond The Police piece...
but,,,,,, Motown led to Disco, which led to New Wave, so there ya go....