Ranked by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the greatest guitarists ever, The Police’s Andy Summers announces Australian dates for his critically acclaimed show, The Cracked Lens + A Missing String, to be known here as ‘An Evening With Andy Summers’.
A celebrated author and photographer with recent exhibitions in France, Summers offers fans a fantastic and intimate evening playing guitar(s) including The Police classics, and sharing stories along with his celebrated photographic work he’s taken over the years. This multimedia show gives fans a great insight into his work and a moment with a legend.
Melbourne Recital Centre, MELBOURNE – Tuesday September 24
The Tivoli, BRISBANE – Wednesday September 25
City Recital Hall, SYDNEY – Thursday September 26
Hindley Street Music Hall, ADELAIDE – Friday September 27
A five-time Grammy Award winner, an inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Guitar Player Hall of Fame, with the keys to New York City and recipient of the Chevalier De L’Ordre Des Arts et Des Lettres by the Ministry of Culture in France, Andy’s innovative guitar style created a paradigm shift for guitarists in the 80s and has been widely imitated ever since.
“The Police were a new kind of power trio, and Andy Summers was the main reason,” wrote Rolling Stone magazine. “Quickly moving away from punk, he recast jazz chords and reggae rhythms as headlong rock & roll. Summers played as sparely as possible, constructing clipped twitches or dubby washes of sound, leaving ample room for Sting and Stewart Copeland.”
“His tone and style were just absolutely perfect — he left space around everything,” Rush’s Alex Lifeson said. “And he can handle anything from beautiful acoustic playing to jazz to hybrid kinds of stuff.”
While Andy Summers is best known as the guitarist for The Police, the legendary musician has forged a successful solo career with collaborations with Sting, jazz legend Herbie Hancock, King Crimson, guitarist Robert Fripp and more.
The prolific musician has released 13 fusion-based solo albums, including his 1990 jazz-rock on 1990’s record Charming Snakes and 1995’s Synaesthesia. His diverse solo career has also included numerous exhibits showcasing his photography and scores composed for films like Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986) and Weekend at Bernie’s (1989).
You can hear his influential guitar work on The Police classics like ‘Message in a Bottle’, ‘Can’t Stand Losing You’ and the Grammy-winning ‘Every Breath You Take’. In 2006 his autobiography One Train Later was released to great success and was voted the number one music book of the year in the UK. The film Can’t Stand Losing You based on the book had a theatrical release in the US by Cinema Libre in March 2015.
Recent photography exhibitions include A Certain Strangeness at the Pavillion Populaire in Montpelier France where it broke all attendance records, followed by a six month run at the Bonnafanten Museum, Maastricht in the Netherlands. The travelling exhibition was also seen at Leica galleries in London, Hamburg, Munich, Paris New York and Leica headquarters in Wetzlar, Germany. Leica Camera and Fender Guitars collaborated in 2017 to make limited editions in matching designs of a Leica M camera and an Andy Summers Signature Stratocaster, re-named the ‘Monocaster’ to reflect the decoration of the guitar with Andy’s black and white photographs. Rocket 88 Books in the UK published a book of his short stories – Fretted and Moaning in 2021.
In 2023 Andy returned to Brazil with singer /bass player Rodrigo Santos of Red Baron (Barao Vermelho) and Joao Barone of the Paralamas do Succeso in their trio, Call the Police, who play to sold out performance in South America. He has recorded The Police hit ‘Bring on the Night’ with the Italian guitar group Forty Fingers and has recently released an instrumental version of ‘Roxanne’.