Concert Review - Stewart Copeland - Auckland - 21st January 2026
Presented by Bird’s Robe
Stewart Copeland
Review By: Faith Hamblyn
Artist/Band: Stewart Copeland
Venue/City: Bruce Mason Centre, Auckland, New Zealand
Date of Event: Wednesday 21st January 2026My boss said he was undecided if Stewart Copeland was hilarious or annoying, when I asked for time off to go to his spoken-word show at the Bruce Mason Centre tonight. I mused about that, waiting to go in with countless cool muso types, one strikingly in an Andy Summers tour T-shirt. That guy might know, but he was wearing his bias, so you know it’s gonna be a canny crowd.
After a playlist of five-four-time tinkly jazz-piano-type music and selections of Copeland’s soundtrack work, the lights dimmed on the stage dressed with blue-velvet spotlit curtains and a bold yellow-font screen. The Oingo-Boingo-y sound of Klark Kent served as entrance music for Mr Talk N Roll Music Hall Of Fame, Stewart Copeland, on the last night of his spoken-word tour.
He held court with photo footage about his journey from Arabic-influenced beginnings through reggae to punk and beyond, with endless colourful stories of his influences as a diplomat’s kid (‘diplo-brat’) soaking in vibrant culture wherever he found it. He sounds like he was precocious and surrounded with adventure, and he tells a tale musician-style, where you scat what you mean rather than use words, like a second language. He even says ‘bang’ super-loudly, so it was probably wise there were no drums on stage, just a floor tom to collect audience questions.
So far, so hilarious, I could report back to my boss, as Copeland repeatedly picked up a lamp to aim at the audience to highlight a point, like a spy conducting an interrogation. Once he’d gotten to the UK, he infiltrated the music scene like a dedicated pro, joining the ranks of Wishbone Ash and Curved Air, and he bombarded the music press with self-written missives about himself. I have an idea Neil Tennant did that with Pet Shop Boys later with success too – funny!
So to The Police and masterminding a punk duo with Sting. It sounds like a love triangle with Andy Summers, where Stewart loved to hate Sting, Sting loved Andy because of jazz, and Copeland refers to Summers as ‘that little shit fuck.’ Swearing loudly including British swears with an American accent: another point on the hilarious side.
For tonight’s quickfire questions, he named Jimi Hendrix for his desert-island disc, and professed a love for Split Enz’s True Colours and Fat Freddy’s Drop. He’s got stories about evolving from using 8mm film and four-track tape to working with Chrissie Hynde on Italian opera – growing from a chancer punk kid to a flinty-eyed film composer. It felt like you’d never scratch the surface of all his amazing stories with private nicknames and secrets behind every door.
But there is a book that accompanies the tour, Have I Said Too Much? It won’t be the same without his voice and his energy, but it’s bound to be a hell of a read. So what’s in the annoying column that my boss mooted – his claim to be the world’s greatest drummer, as announced over the PA. Well, as he’ll tell you, Buddy Rich once approached him for his autograph.
Stewart Copeland - Have I said Too Much? Tour 2026 Tour PR