Andy Summers is featured in the Summer 2007 issue (#293) of Guitarist magazine in the UK. His Telecaster features on the cover, and while the interview itself is quite old - it took place before the tour opened in Vancouver in May - it is nevertheless extremely interesting especially for those with a technical interest. The accompanying CD contains "five things you can learn from Andy Summers".

The article is accompanied by some very nice photos including some from the Whiskey, Birmingham Odeon in '79, and Bonnaroo.

Police Reform - 20 years after they drifted apart at the height of their fame, The Police are back; playing to thousands. Andy Summers helps us with our enquiries...

At least until they announced their planned comeback a full 30 years after they played their first gig together, The Police's achievements had become overshadowed by their bandleader's views on environmental and sexual sustainability. But at the apex of their fame in 1986 - which, incidentally, is when they disbanded - they were a stadium-filling behemoth with five nnmber one albums, six Grammys and a succession of top 10 singles to their name.

Laying the foundations for this fame were some extremely unorthodox pop songs. As simple and catchy as the De Do Do Dos may have been, The Police's sound mixed odd syncopated rhythms, reggae basslines and vocal stylings, literate lyrics, jazz and punk sensibilities, even classical and world music inflections and compacted them down into three-minute neutron stars of pure pop brilliance. Their guitar player was capable not only of creating infernally catchy riffs, but had a svelte lead-playing style, a sophisticated chord vocabulary and an effects-laden tone and angular style that was obsessively his own.

For Andy Summers, who has been playing guitar since his teens, this singularity of style is a lifelong conviction. Even selling his '59 Sunburst Les Paul to Eric Clapton at the height of his divinity and jamming with Jimi as the blues boom peaked wasn't enough to persuade him to join the hordes of copyists, and since then, he has continued to invigorate his own style with an endlessly collaborative solo career.

Summers and Co may have pushed the boundaries of the three-piece in a previously unheard direction but they never lost sight of the direct route. Listen to the beginning of 'Walking On The Moon' - has any guitarist ever said so much with one chord?

Now those chords are about to chime again, Guitarist caught up with Summers as he rehearsed for the Autumn dates with The Police to reminisce, for an insight into his enduring love for the guitar, and for his opinion on the Fender Custom Shop Andy Summers Tribute Telecaster, already one of the most talked-about signature guitars ever made...

For the rest, check out Guitarist magazine - in stores now, price £5.25.

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