Stewart Copeland and the Roland RE-301 Chorus Echo: Investigation

This page concerns the backstory behind Stewart Copeland and him developing his drum echo technique with the Roland RE-301 Chorus Echo device.

It is widely reported by many sources that Stewart bought the Echo from Manny's and used it the next day during a concert at My Father's Place, Long Island on October 2nd 1979. Stewart's recollection of his discovery of possibilities of using echo on the drums was as follows: "One afternoon when we got a pay day, we were touring in America and one day we were in New York with money in our pockets and we went down to Manny's Music store on 48th Street... We just picked instruments off the wall. Sting and I both bought Stratocasters, loaded up on Roland amplifiers as Roland was the brand of the day. We got every Roland device they made - Sting and Andy each got a set of bass pedals, amps, and delay lines. The Roland [Chorus] Echo, Andy got one, so I wanted one too and I got [myself] one.

The next day at soundcheck out [at My Father's Place] in Long Island, we brought all our new toys, arrayed on the stage. With my new Roland amp and my new Roland echo device, I'm sitting there playing my drums and I haven't got a guitar but I want to play with my echo, so I put my snare drum through the echo. Within seconds, 'whoa! This is cool!' And so we spent the afternoon in an orgy of repeat echo and totally f**ked up the gig that night with repeat echo and that was the beginning of it. It became more refined. (Musicradar interview, 2014

However, there is evidence that Stewart had, in fact, developed the technique months earlier than that. The earliest photo showing Stewart with the Chorus Echo dates to 25 May 1979. And of course, he would have had it in time for recording the Reggatta De Blanc album.

Furthermore, Stewart's recollection itself isn't entirely accurate: he seems to remember one large shopping spree (including buying Stratocaster guitars) at Manny's and links it to the My Father's Place concert on 2 October 1979. But Sting and Stewart bought Stratocasters at Manny's in 1978, so he could be misremembering various visits to Manny's as one shopping spree. And he did not get the Roland JC-60 until October 1979 as some photos show.

In an earlier 1982 interview with Modern Drummer, Stewart's recollections imply