“Maverick” is a term liberally applied to the music industry’s larger-than-life managers.
But for Miles A. Copeland III, who took childhood picnics with Kim Philby, guided The Police to the world’s biggest stages and then found himself advising the Pentagon on how to win the propaganda war in Iraq, maverick is probably an understatement.
The son of a leading CIA spy, the wiles Copeland imbibed in his formative years, moving between Egypt, Syria and Lebanon, where coup attempts mysteriously followed his father’s placements, were put to good use navigating a UK music scene blown wide open after the punk revolution of the late-70s.
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With younger brother Stewart installed in the drumming seat, Copleand’s hustle catapulted The Police to “biggest rock band in the world” status.
During a wide-ranging career, he managed Squeeze and their keyboardist Jools Holland and set up the IRS independent label, which discovered R.E.M. and enjoyed chart-topping success with Fine Young Cannibals, The Bangles and The Go-Go’s.
Copeland’s lessons in management are revealed in his provocative and entertaining memoir, Two Steps Forward, One Steps Back.
Rule one is “the manager has to deliver home truths that the artist doesn’t want to hear” – even if that means telling Sting, your biggest charge for 25 years, that he’s forgotten how to write hit songs with a memorable hook.
“Sting is a unique artist in that he wanted to be told the truth, so when I told him the truth, he actually listened,” Copeland says from his Los Angeles home.
“So many artists just want to be told they’re great. Sting said he wanted to do this solo album his way. It didn’t sell. But he said he would make a change for the next record and that’s when we started having hits again.”
Copeland’s story begins in the Middle East, where during a posting in Beirut, his father was tasked with “keeping an eye on a suspect English journalist called Kim Philby,” later unmasked as Britain’s most notorious Cold War traitor.
“My father figured the best way to keep an eye on Philby was to invite him to all our weekend picnics and parties. I never warmed to the guy.”
“My father said at least we could send all the bills for our family entertainment to the CIA to pick up. Then one day we never saw him again, he had defected to Moscow.”
Copeland Snr, a pioneer of “dirty tricks” used to remove leaders in Syria and Iran, once suggested The Police were actually a CIA psy-ops outfit who played shows to “70,000 young minds open to whatever the Police decide to put into them”.
“In a world of conspiracy theories that’s a good one,” his son states. “One LA punk band called X refused to sign with me because the guitarist said I was a ‘CIA plot’. I said ‘Well, if that’s true they can send me the cheques.’”
What is true, is that The Police might have been just another “new wave” band without an early recording studio intervention from Miles. “They didn’t want to play me Roxanne because it was kind of a sweet ballad, the antithesis of rowdy punk. I insisted and what I heard was a brilliant song, I said ‘guys, that’s a classic.’ They were shocked.”
The track helped Copeland get the band a deal with A&M Records and cash to support a tour of America. Six years later they emulated The Beatles by selling out Shea Stadium. “It was a lifeline for me because before Roxanne I was broke after a disastrous European tour with Lou Reed. He refused to come out of the hotel bathroom and perform.”
Unusually in a music world which likes to parade its caring credentials, Copeland is unafraid to espouse a free market philosophy. “You form your little band, you go out on tour and make your money – that is capitalist free enterprise.”
“I did a documentary for Channel 4 saying this. Sting was horrified at first that I would say this publicly. But the punks got it,” said Copeland, who once arranged a tour for The Sex Pistols. “Joe Strummer told me one day even The Clash would become the establishment.”
Sting is famous for his support for humanitarian causes. Was there ever an ideological clash with Copeland?
“When The Police started they were on the dole. Sting certainly appreciated becoming very rich and wealthy and being able to help other people,” says Copeland who confirms that the band became tax exiles at the peak of their earnings.
Since Sting would get “hit on by charities and good causes all the time” they found a working solution. “He would say ‘Yes’ and then say to me ‘Can you please call them and get me out of this.’ So I would be the bad guy saying ‘sadly Sting isn’t available.’”
As the title of Copeland’s book suggests, there have been reversals during his career. Duran Duran fired him just two days after signing a contract.
“They wanted $5m for their reunion album featuring the five original members. I lied and said I could get them $2m which would be a great deal. I’m not a very good liar. So they fired me. I actually thought they could get £500,000 which is what I believe they got in the end.”
Sting fired Copeland in 2001 – “We shook hands and it was a relief in the end. When I left him he was worth £300m so I don’t think he was in any kind of trouble.”
Then Copeland, 77, who had pioneered bringing Arab musicians to the West after The Police split, got a call from then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
“The Pentagon said they needed to win hearts and minds in the Middle East. Could I tell them what to do? The thing was, my father had actually been involved in putting Saddam Hussein in power in Iraq. What comes around, goes around.”
It’s been a rollercoaster ride but was Miles ever jealous that whilst he was cutting the deals, it was brother Stewart who basked in the rock star adulation?
“Whenever Stewart got angry with me, I would remind him, ‘I’ve had a 50-year career in the music business, from Wishbone Ash to Squeeze, The Buzzcocks to REM and the Bangles. But I’m always known as ‘Stewart Copeland’s brother.’”
