Book excerpt: Ambition brought the Police together. It also tore them apart – but not before they became the biggest band in the world and the first supergroup of the Eighties. In Walking on the Moon Chris Campion tells the full, uncensored story of their spectacular rise. Written with a fan’s eye for detail this no-holds-barred account follows the band from their early struggle to make a mark in the volatile late 70’s punk scene, through their emergence – masterminded with the help of legendary manager Miles Copeland III – as an international rock phenomenon. Walking on the Moon features for the first time the arduous touring and recording schedule that saw the band crack America, the unorthodox business strategies that catapulted them to the top, and the bouts of infighting that caused their early demise. Campion details the shock 2007 reunion that saw them re-emerge as a global touring spectacle after a 20-year hiatus from the music industry and explores how the band members’ conflicting personalities and the chaotic personal life of frontman Sting informed some of their biggest hits. Much more than simply an entertaining romp, the book offers insightful critical analysis of the broader factors that enabled the Police’s success, and reveals a band struggling to balance commercial ambition with a desire for artistic credibility. Walking on the Moon is an epic tale of Eighties rock and the role played within it by one of the biggest names in music: The Police.A former contributing editor to Dazed & Confused and Vice magazines, and a writer for the Observer, the Daily Telegraph and Bizarre, Chris Campion has reported on the world of popular culture for almost two decades.