Stewart Copeland has announced that he is set to re-release his Klark Kent album, this time as a deluxe 2CD and 2LP sets. It promises two previously unreleased studio recordings, as well as the single “Don’t Care,” a track that hit the UK Top 50. Best known as drummer and secondary songwriter in The Police, Copeland was actually the first member of the band to release a solo track, although he opted to use the ‘Klark Kent’ pseudonym rather than his birth name for the project.
As it happens, the Klark Kent collection featured Copeland performing all of the vocals and instruments entirely on his own. Released in 1980, Klark Kent was produced by Copeland and Nigel Gray, although the pair were slow to admit that it was Copeland’s songcraft. Indeed, Copeland initially described Klark Kent as “a young Hungarian ballet instructor trained by the CIA,” although by the time Copeland released his autobiography Strange Things Happen: A Life with The Police, Polo, and Pygmies in 2009, he openly admitted to the production.
Copeland founded The Police with bandmates Sting and Henry Padavoni in 1977. Propelled against the backdrop of punk, the band amassed a strong following, but by the time the band released their debut Outlandos d’Amour in 1978, Andy Summers had replaced Padavoni on lead guitar. Sting served as bassist and lyricist for the outfit, and composed many of their most notable hits like ‘Message In A Bottle’, ‘Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic’ and ‘Every Breath You Take’. Following the band’s breakup, Copeland changed direction, and has worked on a number of Hollywood projects as a composer. “Francis [Ford Coppola] was amazing” Copeland told Far Out in 2022. “Oliver [Stone] was very different. He wanted this theme to reflect what ‘he was going through’, and that theme to reflect what ‘she was going through’. This specificity was a great lesson.”
The deluxe edition of Stewart Copeland’s Klark Kent will be released on November 17th. BMG are overseeing the release, and the album can be pre-ordered on this site: https://klarkkent.lnk.to/KKDPR
