When Stewart Copeland, Adrian Belew and Mark King created prog punk group Gizmodrome
Gizmodrome began as an informal invitation to make music in a Milan studio in 2017, then developed into a band bringing together Stewart Copeland of The Police, guitarist Adrian Belew and Level 42 bassist Mark King. The project matters as an unlikely collaboration among musicians with distinct styles, whose shared chemistry produced an energetic blend that the group jokingly calls “punk prog”.
Italian keyboardist Vittorio Cosma, a longtime Copeland collaborator, completed the line-up. Copeland played drums and supplied much of the group’s unusual, theatrical vocals, while King and Belew also sang; their music mixes progressive rock, jazz, pop, funk, reggae and fusion. The article says the group took shape over ten days in the studio, though the supplied extract ends before detailing how the collaboration unfolded.
- A 2017 studio invitation grew into the band Gizmodrome.
- The line-up joined Copeland, Belew, King and keyboardist Vittorio Cosma.
- Their sound mixes prog, punk energy, jazz, pop, funk and reggae.
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Gizmodrome brought together musicians best known for work in other bands: Stewart Copeland was the drummer in The Police, Mark King is the bassist and singer in Level 42, and Adrian Belew is a guitarist and singer. Italian keyboardist Vittorio Cosma, who had worked with Copeland before, completed the line-up.
The musicians have different musical backgrounds, spanning rock, pop, funk and more experimental styles. Their collaboration is notable for how those approaches came together in one band, in music they jokingly described as “punk prog”.
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