ROXANNE
It was in this context that Miles arrived in the studio. He listened to everything and his verdict was terrible, end of story.
- ‘It’s crap! This is not what people want to hear and it’ll never work’.
Stewart was crushed. He’d wanted to persuade his brother to give him a chance, without success. However, Miles was patient and fair. He liked the three guys and he wanted to help them.
- ‘OK, is there anything else I could listen to, even the outtakes?’
- ‘That’s it Miles, you’ve heard it all, that’s all there is’ said Stewart. ‘If you don’t like it you don’t like it. But it’s a nightmare, noone wants to release our music or be our manager. You’re my brother, you could help us! You’ve got good contacts at A&M, you could play them some of our songs.’
- ‘Stewart, you don’t understand. Nobody will want them!’
The conversation carried on between the two brothers, and the others listened. Sting must have been seething. He realized that he had spent his life working on his technique and his writing, all for nothing. He felt that all the bands who were currently successful and squatting in the charts were rubbish, that they couldn’t play nor write. And worse, Stewart wouldn’t even accept any of his songs…
- ‘What about Sting’s song?’ interrupted the sound engineer.
- ‘Let’s hear it’ said Miles.
- ‘Forget it’ replied Stewart. ‘If you think that what you’ve already heard won’t work, then this one is even less likely to succeed. It’s a love song and no-one wants to listen to love songs!’
Sting said nothing, but he must have felt very uncomfortable. Maybe he should have agreed to go off with Gerry, his mate from the band Last Exit, to play on a cruise ship, earning some money. Because here, he was not getting anywhere.
- ‘Look, I came here to listen to your music, so let me hear it all!’ said Miles
Stewart tried to protest, but no-one heard him because the sound engineer had switched on the machine and was playing the song. The first chords of Roxanne rang out across the studio, drowning out Stewart’s voice.
At the end of the song, nobody said anything. Sting felt embarrassed and stared at the floor.
He knew that once more they would throw in his face that he was living in the wrong time…
- ‘Guys, you’ve written a classic’ said Miles, excitedly.
Sting lifted his head.
- ‘Go on, let’s hear some more. I’ll take a cassette and tomorrow I’ll get you a deal.’
The band stared, amazed, as Miles slapped them frenetically on the back. Then he kissed Sting and told him ‘I knew I could count on you!’
