Andy Summers
Encyclopedia
Andy Summers is an English guitarist born in Poulton-le-Fylde
Poulton-le-Fylde
Poulton-le-Fylde is a market town in Lancashire, England, situated on the coastal plain called the Fylde. As of the 2001 United Kingdom census, it had a population of 18,264. There is evidence of human habitation in the area from 12,000 years ago and several archaeological finds from Roman...

, Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. Best known as the guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...

 for rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 band The Police
The Police
The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For the vast majority of their history, the band consisted of Sting , Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland...

, he has also recorded twelve solo albums, collaborated with many other artists, toured extensively under his own name, published several books, and composed several film scores.

Name

Andy Summers' birth name is Andrew James Summers. For a brief two-year period, Summers spelled his name Somers, but subsequently reverted to using his real family name
Family name
A family name is a type of surname and part of a person's name indicating the family to which the person belongs. The use of family names is widespread in cultures around the world...

 Summers.

Early life

During his early childhood, his family moved to Bournemouth
Bournemouth
Bournemouth is a large coastal resort town in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. According to the 2001 Census the town has a population of 163,444, making it the largest settlement in Dorset. It is also the largest settlement between Southampton and Plymouth...

 in the county of Dorset
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...

. After years of piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

 lessons, he took
up the guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

 at the age of thirteen. By age sixteen he was playing in local club
Club
A club is an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal. A service club, for example, exists for voluntary or charitable activities; there are clubs devoted to hobbies and sports, social activities clubs, political and religious clubs, and so forth.- History...

s. By nineteen, he had moved to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...


with his friend Zoot Money
Zoot Money
George Bruno Money, known as Zoot Money is a British vocalist, keyboardist and bandleader best known for his playing of the Hammond organ and association with his Big Roll Band...

 to form Zoot Money's Big Roll Band
Zoot Money's Big Roll Band
Zoot Money's Big Roll Band was a British rhythm and blues, soul and jazz group formed in England in early autumn 1961.-History:An early line-up had Zoot Money as vocalist and Al Kirtley on piano but in the band's best-known form Money himself played Hammond organ. Bassist/vocalist Paul Williams...

.

Pre-Police Career

Summers' professional
Professional
A professional is a person who is paid to undertake a specialised set of tasks and to complete them for a fee. The traditional professions were doctors, lawyers, clergymen, and commissioned military officers. Today, the term is applied to estate agents, surveyors , environmental scientists,...

 career
Career
Career is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as a person's "course or progress through life ". It is usually considered to pertain to remunerative work ....

 began in the mid sixties in London as the guitarist for the British rhythm and blues
British rhythm and blues
British rhythm and blues developed as a major musical movement in the early 1960s in London and other urban centres in the UK as predominately young white male musicians attempted to emulate the style and recordings of African American rhythm and blues artists...

 band
Musical ensemble
A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...

 Zoot Money's Big Roll Band, which eventually came under the influence of the spreading psychedelic scene and morphed into the acid rock group Dantalian's Chariot
Dantalian's Chariot
Dantalian's Chariot were a British psychedelic rock band that formed in 1967. Led by keyboardist and bandleader Zoot Money, and also featuring Andy Summers , they are best remembered for their single "Madman Running Through the Fields", and for their live performances, which featured early...

.
After the demise of Dantalion's Chariot, Summers joined The Soft Machine
Soft Machine
Soft Machine were an English rock band from Canterbury, named after the book The Soft Machine by William S. Burroughs. They were one of the central bands in the Canterbury scene, and helped pioneer the progressive rock genre...

 for a period of six months and toured the United States. He then joined The Animals
The Animals
The Animals were an English music group of the 1960s formed in Newcastle upon Tyne during the early part of the decade, and later relocated to London...

, now known as Eric Burdon and the New Animals, with whom he recorded one album: Love Is.

After a period of five years in Los Angeles, mostly spent at Northridge University, he returned to London with his American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 girlfriend Kate Lunken. Back in London, Summers recorded and toured with a number of acts, including Kevin Coyne
Kevin Coyne
Kevin Coyne was a musician, singer, composer, film-maker, and a writer of lyrics, stories and poems. The former "anti-star" was born on 27 January 1944 in Derby, UK, and died in his adopted home of Nuremberg, Germany, on 2 December 2004....

 and Kevin Ayers
Kevin Ayers
Kevin Ayers is an English singer-songwriter and was a major influential force in the English psychedelic movement...

.

In 1977, Summers was invited by ex-Gong bassist Mike Howlett
Mike Howlett
Mike Howlett is a Fijian-born musician, Grammy Award winning producer and teacher based in the United Kingdom and Australia....

 to join his band Strontium 90
Strontium 90 (band)
Strontium 90 was the name of a short-lived 1977 British band with members Mike Howlett , Sting , Stewart Copeland , and Andy Summers...

, along with future Police mates Sting and Stewart Copeland
Stewart Copeland
Stewart Armstrong Copeland is an American musician, best known as the drummer for the band The Police. During the group's extended hiatus from the mid-1980s to 2007, he played in other bands and composed soundtracks...

.

The Police (1977-1984)

Summers achieved international
International
----International mostly means something that involves more than one country. The term international as a word means involvement of, interaction between or encompassing more than one nation, or generally beyond national boundaries...

 fame as the guitarist for The Police
The Police
The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For the vast majority of their history, the band consisted of Sting , Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland...

, which he joined in 1977. Emerging from London’s punk
scene, the Police gained international fame with many hit songs, including Message in a Bottle
Message in a Bottle (song)
"Message in a Bottle" is a 1979 song by The Police, from their second album, Reggatta de Blanc.The song is ostensibly about a story of a castaway on an island, who sends out a message in a bottle to seek love. A year later, he has not received any sort of response, and despairs, thinking he is...

, Roxanne
Roxanne (song)
"Roxanne" is a hit song by the rock band The Police, first released in 1978 as a single and on their album Outlandos d'Amour. It was written from the point-of-view of a man who falls in love with a prostitute.- History :...

, Don't Stand So Close to Me
Don't Stand So Close to Me
"Don't Stand So Close to Me" is a 1980 song and hit single by the British rock band The Police. It concerns a schoolgirl's crush on her young teacher and the teacher's nervousness about the situation. The Police won the 1982 "Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal"...

, Every Breath You Take
Every Breath You Take
"Every Breath You Take" is a song by The Police on the band's 1983 album Synchronicity, written by Sting and Andy Summers . The single was one of the biggest hits of 1983, topping the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for eight weeks and the UK Singles Chart for four weeks. It also topped the...

, and Every Little Thing She Does is Magic
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
"Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" is a song by British rock group The Police from their album Ghost in the Machine. It was also a hit single that reached the top of the charts in the United Kingdom in November 1981 and hit number three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart that same...

. In 1980, his song "Behind My Camel
Behind My Camel
"Behind My Camel" is the eighth track from the 1980 album, Zenyattà Mondatta, by the British rock band, The Police. The song was composed by guitarist Andy Summers and was the first one to be composed solely by him during his career in The Police...

" won the Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental. In early 1984, after seven years and record sales around eighty million, the Police disbanded with the members going their separate ways.

Post-Police (1984-2007)

Summers' solo career has included touring, recording
Recording
Recording is the process of capturing data or translating information to a recording format stored on some storage medium, which is often referred to as a record or, if an auditory medium, a recording....

, composing
Musical composition
Musical composition can refer to an original piece of music, the structure of a musical piece, or the process of creating a new piece of music. People who practice composition are called composers.- Musical compositions :...

 for films (including Down and Out in Beverly Hills
Down and Out in Beverly Hills
Down and Out in Beverly Hills is a 1986 American comedy film based on the French play Boudu sauvé des eaux, which had previously been adapted on film in 1932 by Jean Renoir. Down and Out in Beverly Hills was directed by Paul Mazursky, and starred Nick Nolte, Bette Midler and Richard Dreyfuss...

and Weekend at Bernie's
Weekend at Bernie's
Weekend at Bernie's is a 1989 American comedy film directed by Ted Kotcheff. A comedy starring Andrew McCarthy and Jonathan Silverman features the two as a couple of young insurance agency employees who discover their boss is deceased...

), writing books, and exhibiting his photography
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...

. In 1992, Andy Summers served a brief stint as Musical Director on the short-lived Dennis Miller Show. In March 2005, he made his debut at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....

 playing the premier of Dark Florescense, a concerto composed for him and classical guitarist Benjamin Verdery. His 2006 biography One Train Later was voted music book of the year in the UK’s Mojo magazine, and is to be released as a documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 in 2011 by Yari pictures.

The Police Reunion (2007–2008)

On the 2007 Grammys award show The Police appeared playing "Roxanne
Roxanne (song)
"Roxanne" is a hit song by the rock band The Police, first released in 1978 as a single and on their album Outlandos d'Amour. It was written from the point-of-view of a man who falls in love with a prostitute.- History :...

" and subsequently announced that they would be going
on tour. The Police Reunion tour
The Police Reunion Tour
The Police Reunion Tour was a 2007–2008 worldwide concert tour by The Police, marking the 30th anniversary of their beginnings. At its conclusion, the tour became the third highest grossing tour of all time, with revenues reaching over $340 million...

 began in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 on 28 May 2007, and continued until August 2008 becoming
the third highest grossing tour of all time.

Awards

He was voted number one pop guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...

 for five years in Guitar Player Magazine before being inducted into the
Guitar Player Hall of Fame. In 2003, along with his band mates Sting and Stewart Copeland
Stewart Copeland
Stewart Armstrong Copeland is an American musician, best known as the drummer for the band The Police. During the group's extended hiatus from the mid-1980s to 2007, he played in other bands and composed soundtracks...

 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...

..

In 2008, Andy was awarded an honorary doctorate by Bournemouth University
Bournemouth University
Bournemouth University is a university in and around the large south coast town of Bournemouth, UK...

.

Guitars

  • Fender
    Fender
    Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, commonly referred to as simply Fender, of Scottsdale, Arizona is a manufacturer of stringed instruments and amplifiers, such as solid-body electric guitars, including the Stratocaster and the Telecaster...

    • 1963 Fender Telecaster
      Fender Telecaster
      The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele , is typically a dual-pickup, solid-body electric guitar made by Fender.Its simple yet effective design and revolutionary sound broke ground and set trends in electric guitar manufacturing and popular music...

       either purchased from Eric Clapton
      Eric Clapton
      Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...

       and then customized by Andy after he bought it (as he stated in '97 to Guitar World Magazine), or purchased from a student with most of the customization already done (as he told Fender when they wanted to make a tribute guitar)
    • 1961 Fiesta Red Fender Stratocaster
      Fender Stratocaster
      The Fender Stratocaster, often referred to as "Strat", is a model of electric guitar designed by Leo Fender, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares in 1954, and manufactured continuously by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation to the present. It is a double-cutaway guitar, with an extended top...


  • Gibson
    Gibson
    Gibson may refer to:* Gibson Amphitheatre* Gibson Appliance* Gibson Girl* Gibson Guitar Corporation* Gibson * Gibson Generating Station-Places:In the United States:* Gibson, Arkansas* Gibson, Georgia* Gibson, Iowa* Gibson, Louisiana...

    • 1958 Gibson
      Gibson
      Gibson may refer to:* Gibson Amphitheatre* Gibson Appliance* Gibson Girl* Gibson Guitar Corporation* Gibson * Gibson Generating Station-Places:In the United States:* Gibson, Arkansas* Gibson, Georgia* Gibson, Iowa* Gibson, Louisiana...

       ES-335
    • 1957 Gibson
      Gibson
      Gibson may refer to:* Gibson Amphitheatre* Gibson Appliance* Gibson Girl* Gibson Guitar Corporation* Gibson * Gibson Generating Station-Places:In the United States:* Gibson, Arkansas* Gibson, Georgia* Gibson, Iowa* Gibson, Louisiana...

       Les Paul
      Les Paul
      Lester William Polsfuss —known as Les Paul—was an American jazz and country guitarist, songwriter and inventor. He was a pioneer in the development of the solid-body electric guitar which made the sound of rock and roll possible. He is credited with many recording innovations...


  • Roland
    Roland
    Roland was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the Matter of France. Historically, Roland was military governor of the Breton March, with responsibility for defending the frontier of Francia against the Bretons...

    • Roland
      Roland
      Roland was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the Matter of France. Historically, Roland was military governor of the Breton March, with responsibility for defending the frontier of Francia against the Bretons...

       G-303 Guitar Synthesizer controller

Pedalboards

  • A custom Pete Cornish
    Pete Cornish
    Pete Cornish is a British designer of electric guitar effects and other electronic musical instruments. He is mainly noted for his elaborate fully custom guitar pedalboard systems...

     Guitar pedalboard
    Guitar pedalboard
    A guitar pedalboard is a flat board or panel which serves as a container, patch bay and power supply for effects pedals for the electric guitar. Some pedalboards contain their own transformer and power cables, in order to power a number of different pedals. Pedalboards assist the player in...

  • Roland
    Roland
    Roland was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the Matter of France. Historically, Roland was military governor of the Breton March, with responsibility for defending the frontier of Francia against the Bretons...

     GR-300 Guitar Synthesizer
  • Moog
    Moog synthesizer
    Moog synthesizer may refer to any number of analog synthesizers designed by Dr. Robert Moog or manufactured by Moog Music, and is commonly used as a generic term for older-generation analog music synthesizers. The Moog company pioneered the commercial manufacture of modular voltage-controlled...

     Taurus 205A Synthesizer Pedals

Studio albums

  • I Advance Masked
    I Advance Masked
    I Advance Masked is a 1982 album by Andy Summers and Robert Fripp. The album consists of 13 instrumental tracks.-Side one:# "I Advance Masked" – 5:14# "Under Bridges of Silence" – 1:41# "China – Yellow Leader" – 7:09# "In the Cloud Forest" – 2:30...

    - 1982 (with Robert Fripp
    Robert Fripp
    Robert Fripp is an English guitarist, composer and record producer. He was ranked 42nd on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and #47 on Gibson.com’s "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time". Among rock guitarists, Fripp is a master of crosspicking, a technique...

    )
  • Bewitched - 1984 (with Robert Fripp
    Robert Fripp
    Robert Fripp is an English guitarist, composer and record producer. He was ranked 42nd on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and #47 on Gibson.com’s "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time". Among rock guitarists, Fripp is a master of crosspicking, a technique...

    )
  • XYZ
    XYZ (Andy Summers album)
    XYZ is a 1987 album by Andy Summers. It is the only Andy Summers solo album to feature his vocals, though an uncredited vocal by Summers appears on World Gone Strange. The title "XYZ" comes from the middle names of Summers's three children...

    - 1987
  • Mysterious Barricades - 1988
  • The Golden Wire - 1989
  • Charming Snakes - 1990
  • World Gone Strange
    World Gone Strange
    Allmusic's review of the album consisted of a single sentence fragment: "Not really standard jazz, but some fine playing."-Track listing:All songs written by Andy Summers.# "World Gone Strange" - 6:14# "Ruffled Feathers" - 4:23# "Bacchante" - 6:28...

    - 1991
  • Invisible Threads - 1993 (with John Etheridge
    John Etheridge
    John Michael Glyn Etheridge is a British jazz/fusion guitarist associated with the Canterbury Scene....

    )
  • Synaesthesia - 1996
  • The Last Dance of Mr. X - 1997
  • Strings of Desire - 1998 (with Victor Biglione)
  • A Windham Hill Retrospective - 1998
  • Green Chimneys: The Music of Thelonious Monk - 1999 (with vocals by Sting on the track "'Round Midnight")
  • Peggy's Blue Skylight - 2000 (with vocals by Deborah Harry
    Debbie Harry
    Deborah Ann "Debbie" Harry is an American singer-songwriter and actress, best known for being the lead singer of the punk rock and new wave band Blondie. She has also had success as a solo artist, and in the mid-1990s she performed and recorded as part of The Jazz Passengers...

     on the track "Weird Nightmare")
  • Earth + Sky - 2004
  • Splendid Brazil - 2005 (with Victor Biglione)
  • First You Build a Cloud
    First You Build A Cloud
    First You Build a Cloud is a 2007 album by rock guitarist Andy Summers and classical guitarist Ben Verdery, on the Rare Recordings label. The album consists of 12 guitar duets, Verdery playing acoustic and Summers playing electric.-Origin:...

    - 2007 (with Ben Verdery)

Singles

  • Parade / Train - 1984 (with Robert Fripp)
  • 2010 / To Hal and Back - 1984
  • Love is the Strangest Way / Nowhere - 1987

With the Police

  • Outlandos d'Amour
    Outlandos d'Amour
    The LP initially flopped, due to low exposure and an unfavourable reaction from the BBC to its first two singles, "Can't Stand Losing You" and "Roxanne" . As Sting describes:...

    (1978)
  • Reggatta de Blanc
    Reggatta de Blanc
    Reggatta de Blanc is the second album by The Police, released in 1979. It features the band's first two number 1 hits, "Message in a Bottle" and "Walking on the Moon".-Background:...

    (1979)
  • Zenyattà Mondatta
    Zenyatta Mondatta
    Zenyattà Mondatta went to #5 in the U.S. and #1 in the UK and Australia, spurred by the success of the Sting-penned singles "Don't Stand So Close to Me" and "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da"...

    (1980)
  • Ghost in the Machine (1981)
  • Synchronicity (1983)

Miscellaneous

  • Love Is - 1968 (with Eric Burdon & The Animals)
  • Matching Head and Feet
    Matching Head and Feet
    Matchng Head and Feet is a studio LP by artist Kevin Coyne which was released in 1975.-Track listing:All songs written by Kevin Coyne except where noted.# "Saviour" - 5:31# "Lucy" - 3:02...

    - 1975 (with Kevin Coyne
    Kevin Coyne
    Kevin Coyne was a musician, singer, composer, film-maker, and a writer of lyrics, stories and poems. The former "anti-star" was born on 27 January 1944 in Derby, UK, and died in his adopted home of Nuremberg, Germany, on 2 December 2004....

    )
  • Sarabande - 1976 (with Jon Lord
    Jon Lord
    Jonathan Douglas "Jon" Lord is an English composer, pianist and Hammond organ player.Jon Lord, also known as 'Hammond Lord', is a classically trained piano player. He is recognised for his Hammond organ blues-rock sound and for his pioneering work in fusing rock and classical or baroque forms...

    )
  • Flashback - 1978 (with Eberhard Schoener
    Eberhard Schoener
    Eberhard Schoener is a German composer, conductor, arranger, and keyboard player."My message is the music. The goal of my life is to create an original form of contemporary music in which the opera, jazz, ethnical and electronic music melt together...

    )
  • Video Magic - 1978 (with Eberhard Schoener)
  • Video Flashback - 1979 (with Eberhard Schoener)
  • Ataraxis-2007 (With Deeyah
    Deeyah
    Deeyah , born August 7, 1977 in Oslo, Norway, is a Norwegian singer,music producer, composer, film maker and human rights activist of Punjabi/Pashtun descent. She adopted the name Deeyah in 2002...

    )

External links

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