Hi I'm Jeff Edgers National Arts Reporter for the Washington Post.

So I wrote this story because when I was 14 years old in 1984

I was walking through the school cafeteria in a day staring at this associated press clip telling me that my favorite band,

the police, was breaking up. And they were breaking up after their most successful album, Synchronicity.

So when I got the chance to find out why that happened and what drove the creation of that

record, well, do I need to explain myself? Here's the story. In December 1982,

1982, the police flew to the Caribbean to record their fifth album.

The executives at A&M records were excited.

A year earlier, the trio had leavened their raw guitar-driven sound with moody keyboards and

scronky saxophone fills for their fourth album, Ghost in the Machine, generating hit singles like

every little thing she does is magic and spirits in the material world.

Suddenly they were filling arenas.

But the atmosphere at Air Studios on the island of Moncerat quickly turned sour.

Guitarist Andy Summers snare. of Moncerat, quickly turned sour.

Guitarist Andy Summers sniffed at lead singer Stings' demo of every breath you take,

as cheesy pop. Not worthy of a band he still insisted was a guitar trio. Drummer Stuart Copeland bristled when the singer tried to give him orders.

And Sting, who had been contemplating going solo, was tired of pretending this was still a democracy.

Why were they arguing about whose songs were best?

Wasn't it obvious?

Even their usually unflappable producer, Hugh Padham,

phoned up his manager looking for a way to escape the island.

These were the circumstances under which the police recorded one of the most popular records of the 20th century.

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