This is Later with Lee Matthews The Lee Matthews Podcast. More of what you
hear weekday afternoons on the Drive. Legendary guitar virtuoso, multiple Grammy winning artist
and photographer Andy Summers, you know a lot of his work from the Police
among others, is about to embark on a thirty city North American tour.
He's calling the Cracked Lens plus a Missing String, Andy Summers. The title
of this show makes me go out. Yeah, it's a weird title.
I came out with that. My manager said, where did you get up
from? Us said, well, you know that's who I am. I
like it because it gets your attension. And I also think that we go
on forward regardless. You know all these things, you know, and that
means that you have to have it in you to play through extenuanting extenuating circumstances.
Yeah. As a person who dabbles in photography myself, I can't think
of anything worse than having a cracked lens. Well, you know, you
get a picture about here, it's got that bit looks great. Oh that's
the crack in the lens. Yeah, Or I go back so far,
Oh that's the scratch on the negative. Yeah, yeah, well that's always
I don't always see them as necessarily false, but it's sort of battle scars
enhancements that make it interesting. This is more This is more of an intimate
show because you're doing this in theaters in fact, Saturday, August twelfth at
the Dallas, Texas Kessler Theater, So this is more intimate. Well,
you know, an absolute decision, you know, because you know, I
talked to the audience a lot, and I don't want to be in the
state. Well I don't think this could fill the stadium, but I think
it's just the right venue. This is the first time I've done this since
my previous run that threw a pre pandemic when we were just getting started with
this. We've got a more sophisticated version of it now. But yeah,
I think not too big, intimate. Set it out. Everybody can see
the screen, and I'm gonna I talk, you know, I think it's
really kind of the way to do it this first run, and we'll see
see how it goes. We're talking to legendary virtuoso Andy Summers of the Police.
Sorry, go ahead, And I said, you know, I was
excited when I you know, I've got all the list of all the thesis
I looked up on the internet. They're also beautiful, these little bisu theaters
that all over the US that people forget about, so it's appropriate. Some
of them still have the warlords or organs in them. I think it's great
all this stuff. Cracked lens plus a Missing string is the name of the
show, and Andy Summers of the Police is putting it on. Closest location
will be Sanity, August twelfth, Dallas, Texas. Kessler. The this
is multimedia, isn't it. Oh? Absolutely, it's I mean I'm playing
that. We have a huge well you know, sin Marsize screen. There
you go, it will be up on the screen. I'm literally playing to
the screen. Well I'm playing to the audience as well. But you'll hear
me playing the guitar. You know, all these things. I've worked out,
some solo guitars I'm with backing tracks. There's some blillion music I do
in the middle of it. And these are all accompanied by arresting villio videos.
Yeah, it's multi media. A lot of the material you took yourself.
The video in the film, Oh, it's all all my photography.
Yeah, and how much of the police. Will we hear how many police
titles will be well be hearing? Yeah, that's done in there. It's
not all all Police because I made so many other albums. Sure it's a
mix, but you know, I've got a few well known police songs in
there. And the show ends of the fantastic photo collage of the band when
we the early eighties, when we were traveling all over the US, all
inside the US, and it's pretty gritty stuff, you know, and course
the country look different, and so it discussed great sort of antique feeling to
uh, you know, mobs and mobs of fans, you know, Arizona
and Texas, you know, the rockies, the deserts, you know,
just a lot of stuff. It's very very US. And that's done with
a couple you know. It's like I've got a special thing I do with
some police songs there. Yeah, Andy Summers is with us of the Police,
the cracked lens and a missing string. Do you have a particular anecdote
of the worst failure that may have happened to you in the midst of a
live performance? Something happened to me in the middle of live performance? While
that you mean, like your pants falling down. The worst thing that's happened
to you. I mean you've certainly probably been you're enough broken strings or missing
strings? Yeah, you know, hardly enough. I don't break strings.
I mean you know I'm called this is a missing strings. Don't make the
whole life of playing and beyond stage. I think I've only broken string maybe
twice. But see this is the challenge. Then you've got to go on
and still like some I pull off the guitar parts with one of the strings
missing, or find your licks elsewhere, typically the G string or the B
string that go for some reason. Yeah, the cracked lens a missing string
is the name of the show Andy Summers of the Police. And you've been
taking pictures long enough to see the evolution of going from film photography to digital
photography. Have you really delved into digital more now? Yeah? Well I
was always a like a camera user, and of course shot film like everybody
else. But it's culminated to me when I toured all over China in Asia
I think twenty twelve, and I shot ninety ye rolls of film and it
was really quite a thing to carry all that lot and you know, get
wiped out through X ray machines. As soon as I got back to the
States from that or they came out with the Laika Am not Digital? And
I swapped over then and that same body, same everything, same lenses,
except now you've got the picture on the back and we've gone digital. I've
never looked back. I've really enjoyed it. So it was a where have
you been all my life? Movement kind of Yeah, it really helped me.
Actually no, I don't see any going back at this point. See
him Saturday, August twelfth, Dallas, Texas, Kessler Theater. It's Andy
Summers and his new multimedia show, The Cracked Lens. I'm Missing String.
We look forward to the show and thanks for joining us. Thank you very
much, good to talk to you. Thank you. Thanks for listening to
Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember to listen to
The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to seven and iHeartMedia Presentation