Strontium 90 (band)

Strontium 90 was the name of a short-lived 1977 British band with members Mike Howlett (lead bass, vocals), Sting (bass, vocals), Stewart Copeland (drums), and Andy Summers (guitar). The band is most notable for introducing Summers to Sting and Copeland, as this trio would go on to massive success as The Police.

The band was formed in mid-1977 by Howlett after he quit Gong and recruited Sting and Summers to participate in a new project. Chris Cutler was unavailable to play drums, so Sting brought along Copeland, who he had been playing with in an early lineup of The Police.

Strontium 90 recorded several demo tracks at Virtual Earth Studios, and then performed at a Gong reunion concert in Paris on 28 May 1977.^[1] An album with some of these studio and live tracks was released in 1997 under the name Strontium 90: Police Academy on Ark 21 Records. The foursome also performed at a London club as 'The Elevators' in July 1977.^[2]

Footnotes

1. Summers 2006, pp. 168–169.
2. Summers 2006, pp. 170.

References

• Mike Howlett, "Police Academy" album sleeve notes, Pangaea Records, 1997.
• Sting, Broken Music, Simon & Schuster, 2003. ISBN 0-7434-5081-7
• Summers, Andy (2006), One Train Later: A Memoir, New York, N.Y.: Thomas Dunne, ISBN 0-312-35914-4