Kollekted Works

From the twisted minds of one of rock's most celebrated drummers came a burst of tongue in cheek post punk by Klark Kent, a mysterious presence who made a brief cameo on the UK pop charts. Now, the "Klark Kent" album, out of print for over 25 years, gets a generously expanded 2 CD reissue with 14 previously unreleased bonus tracks.

Dig past the lofty liner notes of the original Klark Kent EP, pressed on green 10" vinyl with a K shaped die cut sleeve, and you'll find the unmistakable rhythms of Stewart Copeland, co-founder and drummer for The Police. At the time, the trio, Copeland, singer and bassist Sting and recently hired guitarist Andy Summers, were struggling to gain attention for their unusual blend of rock and reggae. With Sting handling most of the writing for the group, Copeland took a song of his the frontman rejected, the snotty "Don't Care", and put it together himself, playing drums, guitar and bass and singing.

To everyone's shock, "Don't Care" became a modest hit on the UK singles chart, peaking at # 48 in the late summer of 1978. For comparison the 1st release of "Roxanne" earlier that year missed the charts entirely, and follow-up "Can't Stand Losing You" would only reach just a bit higher at # 42 that October. Things got even wilder when "Klark Kent" was invited to perform on Top Of The Pops. With Copeland up front in shades and silver space age makeup, he recruited Sting, Summers, longtime Police roadie Kim Turner and Curved Air drummer Florian Pilkington Miksa, whom Copeland replaced in prog combo Curved Air before he founded The Police, to back him up on stage in disguises. The sight of Sting pretending to play guitar through the teeth of a gorilla mask must be seen to be believed.

2 years later, with The Police a growing presence in the UK and abroad, the full Klark Kent album, featuring "Don't Care" and singles "Away From Home" and "Rich In A Ditch", was released. While it wasn't hard to note the similarities to both The Police's sound and the cockeyed everyday horror lyrics of Police album cuts like "Does Everyone Stare" and "On Any Other Day", Copeland would only cop to helping "Klark Kent" score a record deal. Around the release of 1993's "Message In A Box : The Complete Recordings", a few years before the Kent oeuvre was released on CD as "Kollected Works", did Copeland and Sting go on record about the album. "Stewart is good at being arrogant in a funny way", Sting opined of "Don't Care".

Copeland briefly resurrected Klark Kent early in the covid 19 pandemic with "It's Gonna Rain", a song recorded at his home studio, known as The Sacred Grove. It's that song that kicks off the new deluxe edition of "Klark Kent", followed by the original album and 7 additional b sides and outtakes, some of which were released on "Kollected Works". Those tracks were recorded after The Police unofficially dissolved in the mid 80's. The 18 track expanded album will be complemented by a bonus CD of Copeland's Kent demos, released here for the very 1st time. A double vinyl edition will include the contents of the 1st disc.

Both sets are available November 17th, 2023.