The Police come to Grammys’ call

The rumors are true: The Police will reunite for a performance that will open the broadcast of the 49th Annual Grammy Awards at Staples Center on Feb. 11, the Recording Academy announced Tuesday.

The British trio of Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland have set aside their legendary animus for one another to revive one of the most popular rock bands ever and, in the weeks after the award gala, they are expected to announce a concert tour that will be one of the hottest tickets of the year.

For fans, the announcement is cause for excitement but not shock; the band members have been talking publicly in recent months about a reunion to celebrate the band’s 30th anniversary as a rock ‘n’ roll enterprise.

The band split in 1984 after seven years and five studio albums jammed with memorable, often reggae-influenced hits, among them “Roxanne,” “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,” “Spirits in the Material World,” “Wrapped Around Your Finger” and the 1980s signature song of love-as-obsession, “Every Breath You Take,” which won the 1983 Grammy for song of the year.

The song title that best described their attitude toward one another by the mid-1980s, however, may have been “Don’t Stand So Close to Me,” especially as Summers and Copeland chafed under Sting’s push for more artistic control. Sting got his wish with a solo career, and his estranged band mates kept busy with numerous and respected projects through the years but never came close to matching the singer’s commercial success.

The trio did call a cease-fire to play at their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in New York City in 2003.

Now singer-bassist Sting, guitarist Summers and drummer Copeland will come to Los Angeles and play the Grammys 30 years to the month after the Police released their debut single, “Fall Out.” That anniversary and tie-in releases scheduled this year of music from the band’s archives have been cited as the motivation for the thaw among the band members.

The Grammys will air on CBS. Scheduled performers include Justin Timberlake, Beyonce, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Mary J. Blige, John Legend, John Mayer, Gnarls Barkley and the Dixie Chicks.

geoff.boucher@latimes.com