LONDON: British pop and rock icon Sting is being sued by his former bandmates from The Police over alleged underpayment of royalties for songs they recorded between 1977 and 1984.
According to a report from BBC News yesterday, guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland have filed a civil case at the High Court, claiming they were underpaid for their contributions to hits such as ‘Roxanne’ and ‘Every Breath You Take’.
Although neither received a writing credit for those songs, they argue the band had an ‘oral agreement’ in 1977 to share income, which was later formalised in written contracts.
Sting, whose real name is Gordon Sumner and who wrote all of the band’s biggest hits, denies underpaying his former bandmates.
Formed in 1977, The Police became one of the UK’s most commercially successful bands.
Their 1983 hit ‘Every Breath You Take’, from their fifth album Synchronicity, became a US number one single.
The track was later recognised as the most-played radio song of all time and was famously sampled by P Diddy and Faith Evans for their 1997 song ‘I’ll Be Missing You’.
However, the band disbanded in 1984 due to personal and musical disagreements.
In 2022, Sting said he felt the band was holding him back.
While Sting was the primary songwriter, Summers and Copeland did make contributions to their albums. Summers has often claimed that he originated the iconic guitar riff on ‘Every Breath You Take’.
Sting maintains that no ‘oral agreement’ was ever in place, but that Copeland had suggested such an idea to “keep things sweet” with his bandmates.
Regardless, the agreement was formalised in 1981 and revised again in 1995 and 2016.
© New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd
