Photographer Lynn Goldsmith had unparalleled access to Sting, Stewart Copeland, and Andy Summers—the Police—from their beginnings in 1978 until 1983, the last full year they toured together before separating. Goldsmith captured their meteoric and sometimes turbulent rise to fame and was with them as they rode to the top of the charts, along the way redefining popular music for a generation.

Goldsmith’s color and black-and-white photographs in THE POLICE: 1978 - 1983 (with an introduction by Phil Sutcliffe) provide an intimate portrait of the band that is the closest fans will come to being behind the scenes and on the road with the Police during this heady time. All of their number one hits and studio albums were released in this period— with era-defining songs like “Roxanne,” “Message in a Bottle,” “Walking on the Moon,” and “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic.”

THE POLICE: 1978–1983, published to mark the band’s thirtieth anniversary and accompanying world tour, includes dozens of never-before-published photographs of the Police and individual portraits of each of its principal players. Goldsmith’s close working relationship with the band shines through in every image. She takes us into the recording studio at Montserrat, on the road, backstage, in concert, and at home in New York, London, and Los Angeles. An introduction by noted rock journalist Phil Sutcliffe tells the story of how he came to introduce Sting to Stewart Copeland one evening in 1976, thereby setting the Police in motion, and of the significant role that Goldsmith’s photographs played in early promotion of the band.

Quotes by the Police accompany the photographs throughout. And the book includes an unexpected extra: a foldout landscape portrait of Sting lying on a park bench—actually a mosaic of more than two thousand photographs of the Police, artfully assembled by Goldsmith. THE POLICE: 1978 - 1983 is a tremendous archive of one of the most influential and enduringly popular bands of our time.

25% of the author’s royalties from the sale of this book will go to the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation, which supports music education and its many benefits through the donation of new and refurbished musical instruments to underserved school and community music programs and individual students nationwide. Lynn Goldsmith invites you to find out more about the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation by visiting www.mhopus.org or by calling 877- MR HOLLAND.