About Andy Summers
Andrew James Summers is an English guitarist best known as a member of the rock band the Police. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a band member in 2003. Summers has recorded solo albums, collaborated with other musicians, composed film scores, written fiction, and exhibited his photography in galleries.
Andrew James Summers was born in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, England, on 31 December 1942.
During his childhood, his family moved to Bournemouth, which was then in Hampshire. After several years of piano lessons, he took up the guitar at the age of 10. Before being enraptured with the guitar, Summers described himself as an outdoorsy kid growing up in rural England.
In his teens, he saw a concert by Thelonious Monk and Dizzy Gillespie in London that left a lasting impression. By 16, he was playing in local clubs, and by 19, he had moved to London with his friend Zoot Money to form Zoot Money's Big Roll Band. In his teens he played jazz guitar and was influenced by Kenny Burrell, Jimmy Raney, Wes Montgomery, Charles Mingus, and Miles Davis.
Summers' professional career began in the mid-1960s in London as guitarist for the British rhythm and blues band Zoot Money's Big Roll Band, which eventually came under the influence of the psychedelic scene and evolved into the acid rock group Dantalian's Chariot. In September 1966, Summers was the first guitarist encountered by Jimi Hendrix after landing in the UK. The young Summers is portrayed in fiction as one of the "two main love interests" in Jenny Fabian and Johnny Byrne's 1969 book Groupie, in which he is given the pseudonym "Davey".
After the demise of Dantalian's Chariot, Summers joined Soft Machine for three months and toured the United States. For a brief time in 1968, he was a member of the Animals, then known as Eric Burdon and the Animals, with whom he recorded one album, Love Is. The album features a recording of Traffic's "Coloured Rain", which includes a 4 minute and 15 second guitar solo by Summers. The LP also included a reworked version of Dantalian's Chariot's sole single "Madman Running Through the Fields".
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