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

This page concerns the backstory behind Stewart Copeland and the development of the drum echo technique with the Roland RE-301 Chorus Echo device (sometimes incorrectly referred to as a 'Space Echo').

It is widely reported that Stewart began to use echo effects on drums in October 1979. He remembers bought the Echo from Manny's Music Store (48th Street, New York) and used it the next day during a concert at My Father's Place, Long Island on October 2nd 1979: "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)

Stewart in this quote doesn't appear to be getting down to the truth: he seems to suggest there was one large shopping spree at Manny's, and links it to the My Father's Place concert on 2 October 1979. But he and Sting bought Stratocaster guitars in 1978, so they would have paid several visits to the shop, as opposed to a single shopping spree.

However, there is evidence that Stewart had developed the technique months before the aforementioned date. The dates to 27 April 1979, when The Police performed at the Agora Ballroom, Atlanta, Georgia. And of course, he had it for recording the Reggatta De Blanc album, on which the echo features prominently on the title track and on "Walking On The Moon".

Here is what Stewart recalled in Modern Drummer magazine October 1982 issue about the development of the echo, which differs significantly: "'I first started using echo with Eberhard Schoener [German composer who The Police once worked with in 1977-79]. The musical concepts were very weird and the show was two and a half hours long. He had lasers, mime artists, all this weird synthesizer stuff, a string quartet and all sorts of strange stuff. I would go “tinkle, tinkle, tinkle” through the quad echos and the ethereal music kind of washed it back and forth. I would hit a woodblock once and it would echo around and stuff, and I got into the echo. Then when we were touring in America and making the customary “English band in New York” stop in Manny’s, I got a Roland [Chorus] Echo and an amplifier. I had it on tour with me, waiting to get home to play with it with my guitar. But it was frustrating having it sitting in the truck and never playing with it. So I pulled it on stage during a sound check and had it sitting right behind me. As I was using the echo, I figured I’d put my snare through it, so I got another microphone, stuck it on the snare, put it through the echo to the amplifier sitting right behind me, and immediately, a new device was born. I’ve developed it since.'"

In this recollection, compared to what was suggested in the earlier quote, he implies more time elapsed between him purchasing the Chorus Echo (initially for guitar) and trying it out in soundcheck on the drums. The amplifier referred to was likely the Fender Twin; he did not get the Roland JC-60 Jazz Chorus until October 1979, which was often seen to Stewart's right.

Therefore the earliest possible date Stewart bought the Chorus Echo would have been in March 1979. His diary entries mention a Chorus Echo being purchased on 1 October 1979, but that was most likely a backup.

Stewart's specific memory of My Father's Place in the more recent recollection possibly tied in with trying out the Roland JC-60 on the Chorus Echo during that specific soundcheck. The Police played at My Father's Place previously on 29 March 1979. But on the other hand, photographic evidence from around that time reveals he wasn't yet using it on stage yet...