Sting

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For the professional wrestler (real name Steve Borden), see Sting (wrestler).

Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, CBE (born 2 October, 1951), usually known by his stage name Sting, is a British musician from Newcastle upon Tyne. Prior to a distinguished solo career, he was the lead singer, principal composer, and bassist of the 1970s/1980s rock band The Police.

Biography

Sumner was born in Wallsend, near Newcastle upon Tyne in northeast England, to Audrey Cowell and her husband, Ernest Sumner. He is the eldest of four children and has a brother, Philip, and two sisters, Angela and Anita. His father managed a dairy, and as a boy Sumner would often assist him with the early morning milk delivery rounds. Sumner was raised in the Roman Catholic tradition, due to the influence of his paternal grandmother, who was from an Irish family.

Sumner attended St. Cuthbert's Grammar School in Newcastle upon Tyne, and then the University of Warwick, but did not graduate. After jobs as a bus conductor, a construction labourer, and a tax officer, he attended Northern Counties Teachers' Training College from 1971 to 1974. He then worked as a teacher at St. Paul's First School in Cramlington for two years.

From an early age, Gordon Sumner knew that he wanted to be a musician. His first music gigs were wherever he could get a job, performing evenings, weekends, and during vacations from college and teaching. He played with local jazz bands such as the Phoenix Jazzmen, the Newcastle Big Band, and Last Exit.

Origin of nickname

He has stated that he gained his nickname while with the Phoenix Jazzmen. He once performed wearing a black and yellow jersey with hooped stripes that bandleader Gordon Solomon had noted made him look like a bumblebee, thus he became "Sting." He uses Sting almost exclusively, except on official documents. In a press conference, he once jokingly stated that even his children call him "Sting". However, his current wife Trudy Styler, affectionately refers to him by his real name, Gordon.

The Police

In January, 1977, Sting moved from Newcastle to London, and soon thereafter he joined Stewart Copeland and Henry Padovani (who was very soon replaced by Andy Summers) to form the new wave band The Police. The group had several chart-topping albums and won six Grammy Awards in the early 1980s.

Although they jumped on the punk bandwagon early in their career, they soon abandoned that sound in favor of reggae-tinged rock and minimalist pop. Their last album, Synchronicity, which included their most successful song, Every Breath You Take, was released in 1983.

The Police performed together at some of the shows on the 1986 Amnesty International A Conspiracy of Hope Tour alongside U2 and other artists. Their performances were just for the benefit shows and were not part of an intended permanent reunion.

Solo career

Early work

In September 1981, Sting made his first-ever solo live performance performing on all four nights of the fourth Amnesty International benefit The Secret Policeman's Other Ball at the invitation of producer Martin Lewis.

He performed solo versions of "Roxanne" and "Message in a Bottle".

He also led an all-star band (dubbed "The Secret Police") on his own arrangement of Bob Dylan's, I Shall Be Released. The band included Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Phil Collins and Bob Geldof all of whom (except Beck) later worked together on "Live Aid".

His performances were featured prominently in the album and movie of the show and drew major critical attention for Sting. Sting's participation in The Secret Policeman's Other Ball was the beginning of his growing involvement in raising money and consciousness for political and social causes.

In 1982 he released a solo single, Spread a Little Happiness from the Dennis Potter television play Brimstone and Treacle.

The song was a re-interpretation of a song from the 1920s musical Mr. Cinders by Vivian Ellis, and was a surprise top-twenty hit.

1980s

Sting's first solo album, 1985's The Dream of the Blue Turtles, featured a cast of accomplished jazz musicians, including Kenny Kirkland, Darryl Jones (from Miles Davis's band), Omar Hakim, and Branford Marsalis. It included the hit single "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free", which included a fan favorite non-LP track titled "Another Day". The album also yielded the hits, "Fortress Around Your Heart", "Russians", and "Love is the Seventh Wave". Within a year, it reached Triple Platinum. This album would help Sting garner a Grammy Nomination for Album of the Year.

Also in 1985, he sang the introduction and chorus to "Money for Nothing", a groundbreaking song by Dire Straits. He would perform this song with Dire Straits at the Live Aid Concert at Wembley Stadium.

Sting released ...Nothing Like the Sun (1987), including the hit songs "We'll Be Together", "Fragile", "Englishman in New York", and "Be Still My Beating Heart", dedicated to his recently-deceased mother. It eventually went Double Platinum and was recognized as one of the most important rock & roll albums of the 1980s. The song "The Secret Marriage" from this album was adapted from a melody by German composer Hans Eisler, and "Englishman In New York" was about the eccentric writer Quentin Crisp. The album's title is taken from William Shakespeare's Sonnet #130.

Soon thereafter, in February of 1988, he released Nada Como el Sol — a selection of five songs from Sun sung (by Sting himself) in Spanish and Portuguese.

1990s

Sting's 1991 album The Soul Cages was dedicated to his recently-deceased father and included the top-10 song "All this Time" and the Grammy-winning "Soul Cages". The album eventually went Platinum. The following year, he married Trudie Styler and was awarded an honorary doctorate degree in music from Northumbria University. In 1993, he released the album Ten Summoner's Tales, which went Triple Platinum in just over a year.

In May 1993, he released a re-mix of the classic Police song from the Ghost In The Machine album, "Demolition Man" for the Demolition Man film.

Sting reached a pinnacle of success in 1994. Together with Bryan Adams and Rod Stewart, they performed the chart-topping song "All For Love" from the film The Three Musketeers. The song stayed at the top of the U.S. charts for five weeks and went Platinum; it is to date Sting's only song from his post-Police career to top the U.S. charts. In February, he won two more Grammy Awards and was nominated for three more. The Berklee College of Music gave him his second honorary doctorate of music degree in May. Finally in November, he released a greatest-hits compilation called Fields of Gold: The Best of Sting, which eventually was certified Double Platinum.

Sting's 1996 album, Mercury Falling debuted strongly, but dropped quickly on the charts. Yet, he reached the Top 40 with two singles the same year with "You Still Touch Me" (June) and "I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying" (December).

During this period, he was also recording music for the upcoming Disney film Kingdom of the Sun, which went on to be reworked into The Emperor's New Groove. The film went through drastic overhauls and plot changes, many of which were documented by Sting's Wife, Trudie Styler. She captured the moment Sting was called by Disney who then informed him that his songs would not be used in the final film. The story was put into a final product: The Sweatbox, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. Disney currently holds the rights to the film, and will not grant its release.

The Emperor's New Groove soundtrack was released, however, with complete songs from the previous version of the film, which included Rascall Flatts and Shawn Colvin. This is seen by many as a move on Disney's part to soothe the relationship with Sting, and keep open the door for future projects. The final single used to promote the film was "My Funny Friend and Me".

Sting also performed a duet country cover version of "I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying" on Toby Keith's 1997 Dream Walkin' album.

2000s

Sting made a (partial) comeback with the September 1999 album Brand New Day, including the Top-40 hits "Brand New Day" and "Desert Rose" (Top 10). The album went Triple Platinum by January 2001. In 2000, he won Grammy Awards for Brand New Day and the song of the same name. At the awards ceremony, he performed "Desert Rose" with Cheb Mami. For his performance, the Arab-American Institute Foundation gave him the Kahlil Gibran Spirit of Humanity Award. However, Sting received some strong criticism for appearing in a Jaguar advertisement using "Desert Rose" as its backing track, particularly as he was a notable environmentalist. Sting has countered this accusation by pointing to how important it is to maintain one's high profile in the notoriously difficult and generally domestic-biased American music market, the advertisement a means of doing so.

In February 2001, he added another Grammy to his collection. His song "After The Rain Has Fallen" made it into the Top 40. His next project was to record a live album at his Tuscan villa, which was to be released as a CD and DVD, as well as being simulcast in its entirety on the internet. The date for this event was to be September 11th, 2001. Due to the events of that day, the whole project was nearly cancelled, yet the band members ultimately decided to press-ahead with the show. Only the first song "Fragile" was broadcast on the internet before the simulcast was pulled as a mark of respect to those affected by that day's terrorist attacks. The rest of the show went ahead mainly as planned, although a few changes were made to the intended setlist. The resultant album and DVD "...All This Time", was released in November, but didn't generate healthy sales. It featured jazzy, more organic re-workings of Sting favourites such as "Roxanne" and "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free". Later, Sting performed "Fragile" for the fund-raiser A Tribute to Heroes.

2002 was a year of awards for Sting. He won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for his second Academy Award for his song "Until ..." from the film Kate & Leopold. In June, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Late in the year, it was announced that The Police would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2003. In the summer, Sumner was awarded the honour of Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).

Sting kicked off 2003 with a performance during the Super Bowl's half-time show. During that performance Sting performed a duet with Gwen Stefani of "Message in a Bottle". 2003 also saw the release of Sacred Love, an original studio album with racier beats and experiments collaborating with hip-hop artist Mary J. Blige and sitar maestro Anoushka Shankar.

His autobiography Broken Music was published in October. Sting embarked on a Sacred Love tour in 2004 with performances by Annie Lennox. Also in 2004, his song "You Will Be My Ain True Love" for the Cold Mountain soundtrack was an Oscar nominee, and was performed at the awards by Alison Krauss, with Sting accompanying on a hurdy-gurdy.

Sting went on the Broken Music tour, touring smaller venues, with a 4 piece band kicking off in Los Angeles on the 28th March 2005 and ending this "College Tour" on the 14th May 2005. One tour stop was presented by MtvU with a report on their college TV branch. According to Sting, this tour was inspired by his book and a general "going back to his roots" attitude. The Broken Music tour is continued in Europe, starting in Lisbon on the 4th June 2006 and ending in Vilnius on the 30th July 2006. Next to Sting (b,v), Abe Laboriel jr. (Paul McCartney) is featured on drums, as well as Dominic Miller and Lyle Workman on guitar.

Continuing with his involvement in Live Aid, on July 2, 2005 he performed "Message In A Bottle", "Driven To Tears" and "Every Breath You Take" at Live 8. A duet with Madonna was abandoned because the Live8 performers got just a 15 mins. performance time slot each.

In October 2006 a small side project, a lute album is planned, titled Songs from the Labyrinth, which will come out on Deutsche Grammophon, the same label which also published "Peter and the Wolf" by Prokofiev in 1994 with Sting as the narrator.

Acting career

Sting occasionally has ventured into acting. Notable film roles include:

Ace The Face, the King of The Mods, a.k.a. The Bell Boy in the movie adaptation of The Who album Quadrophenia (1979)
Martin Taylor, a drifter in Brimstone and Treacle (1982)
Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen in the movie Dune (1984)
Mick, a black-marketeer in Plenty (1985)
Baron Frankenstein in The Bride (1985)
An "heroic officer" in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988)
Finney, a nightclub owner in Stormy Monday (1988)
J.D., Eddie's father and owner of a bar, in Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)

Sting also has made appearances on the stage and television, including guest spots on The Simpsons (episode "Radio Bart"), Saturday Night Live and Ally McBeal. He also provided the voice of Zarm on the 1990s television show Captain Planet and the Planeteers.

Activism

Throughout the 1980s, Sting strongly supported environmentalism and humanitarian movements, such as Amnesty International. With long-time girlfriend Trudie Styler and Raoni Metuktire, a Kayapó Indian leader in Brazil, he founded the Rainforest Foundation to help save the rainforests. His support for these causes continues to this day.

His most high-profile contribution to the human-rights cause came in 1988, when he joined a team of major musicians and rising stars—-including Peter Gabriel and Bruce Springsteen—-assembled under the banner of Amnesty International for the six-week world Human Rights Now! Tour celebrating the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Personal life

Sting married actress Frances Tomelty, a Roman Catholic from Northern Ireland, on 1 May, 1976. The couple had two children, Joseph (born 1976), and Fuchsia Catherine (born 1982), before they divorced in 1984. Joe is following in his father's musical footsteps and is a member of the band Fiction Plane.

In 1982, shortly after the birth of his second child, Sting separated from Tomelty and began living with actress (and later film producer) Trudie Styler. The couple eventually married in 1992. Sting and Styler have four children: Bridget Michael (a.k.a. "Mickey," born 1984), Jake (born 1985), Eliot Pauline (nicknamed "Coco," born 1990), and Giacomo Luke (born 1995).

Both of Sting's parents died from cancer in the 1980s; however, he did not attend either funeral.

Sting owns several homes worldwide, including a 60-acre country estate called "Lake House" located in Wiltshire, England, a country cottage in the Lake District, a New York City apartment, a beach house in Malibu, California, a 600-acre estate in Tuscany, Italy, and two properties in London: an apartment on the Mall and an 18th-century terrace house in Highgate. ^*

Trivia

Sting was the inspiration for the character John Constantine in the Hellblazer comic book series.

Sting provided a short guest vocal performance on Miles Davis's "concept" album "You're Under Arrest", on a song of the same name. At the time, Sting's bassist, Darryl Jones, invited Sting to come and meet Miles (Darryl was Miles' bassist, as well). Sting was quite nervous, as he had always been a major fan of Miles since his early teens, and also because Miles had a reputation for being extremely tough with people when meeting them for the first time. When Sting entered the studio, Darryl introduced him, saying, "Miles, this is Sting". The first words out of Miles' mouth were, "Hey, man, can you speak French?" Sting, bewildered, and feeling as if Miles were perhaps insulting him, said that yes, he spoke a little French. Miles then commanded Sting to get in the studio and write the Miranda Rights in French, and yell it into the microphone against a backing track. Sting's command of French was not all that great, and the end result on the album is quite interesting. When all was said and done, Miles just waved and said, "Great, Sting, thanks. See ya around." Caveat: Sting's account of this tale in his book "Broken Music" does not match his original telling of the tale (06 June 1985).

Sting was a fan and frequent passenger of British Airways' supersonic Concorde. He appeared in several documentaries and publications as an unofficial spokesperson for the high-speed service, during both its November 2001 relaunch (following a crash and the subsequent grounding of the aircraft) as well as the service's October 2003 retirement.

The song "Russians" from The Dream of the Blue Turtles utilized a theme (Suite from Lieutenant Kije, Op. 60) by Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev. Sting's fondness for Prokofiev manifested itself subsequently when he served as narrator for Peter and the Wolf: A Prokofiev Fantasy--one of the many versions of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf that have been recorded by celebrities.

A species of Colombian tree frog, Dendropsophus stingi (renamed from Hyla stingi in 2005), was named after him in recognition of his "commitment and efforts to save the rain forest" (Kaplan 1994). [http://home.earthlink.net/~misaak/taxonomy/taxEtym.html#people

To keep physically fit, for years Sting ran five miles a day, and did aerobics. However, around 1990 he met Danny Paradise who introduced him to yoga. Soon after, Sting began a regular yoga practice. His practice consists primarily of a Ashtanga Vinyasa series, though he has experimented with other forms.

In 1989, was close to becoming Gil Farrington in a motion picture of the same name. Lol Creme (of Godley & Creme, who directed many of Sting's best-known videos while Sting was associated with the band The Police and thereafter when Sting went solo) once commissioned the writing of a film treatment specifically for Sting, based upon a western/fantasy character created by a young man who worked for one of Lol's producers at Propaganda Films. The project was well-liked by Sting and all involved, and moved closer to becoming a reality until Ridley Scott (who had been approached by Miles Copeland via Creme) suddenly passed on the project, and it was quickly abandoned by all parties.

Although Sting famously claimed to have had long bouts of tantric sex with his wife, he has more recently said that it was a dinner-party joke that took on a life of its own.

Sting has his own signature Fender Precision Bass, but over the years, has played a variety of basses, including a fretless Fender Precision Bass, a 1960s Fender Jazz Bass, a fretless Ibanez Musician Bass, a Spector NS-1, and several others.

Sting is known to support cannabis reclassification in the United Kingdom. Following Tony Blair's intention to revoke the rescheduling of cannabis executed in January 2005, he has joined a list of prominent figures who have written to the Prime Minister urging him to keep cannabis as a class C drug. ^*

Discography

(Albums released as a solo artist)

1985 The Dream of the Blue Turtles #3 UK, #2 U.S., U.S. Sales: 3,000,000
1986 Bring On the Night #16 UK
1987 ...Nothing Like the Sun #1 UK, #9 U.S., U.S. Sales: 2,000,000
1988 Nada Como el Sol
1991 The Soul Cages #1 UK, #2 U.S., U.S. Sales: 1,000,000
1991 Acoustic Live in Newcastle (UK only)
1993 Ten Summoner's Tales #2 UK, #2 U.S., U.S. Sales: 3,000,000
1993 Demolition Man
1994 The Best of Sting 1984-1994 #2 UK, #7 U.S., U.S. Sales: 2,000,000
1995 Soundtrack from the IMAX Film
1996 Mercury Falling #4 UK, #5 U.S., U.S. Sales: 1,000,000
1997 The Very Best of Sting & The Police #1 UK, #46 U.S. (both positions for the 2002 re-issue), U.S. Sales: 500,000
1999 Brand New Day #5 UK, #9 U.S., U.S. Sales: 3,000,000
1999 At the Movies (Japanese release)
2001 All This Time (live) #3 UK, #32 U.S., U.S. Sales: 500,000
2003 Sacred Love #3 UK, #3 U.S., U.S. Sales: 1,000,000
2003 ''Songs of Love

Singles

From Ten Summoner's Tales

1992 "It's Probably Me" (with Eric Clapton) #30 UK
1993 "If I Ever Lose My Faith in You" #14 UK, #17 U.S.
1993 "Seven Days" #25 UK
1993 "Fields of Gold" #16 UK, #23 U.S.

Non-album single; soundtrack from the film of the same name

1993 "Demolition Man" #21 UK

From The Three Musketeers soundtrack

1994 "All for Love" (with Bryan Adams and Rod Stewart) #2 UK, #1 U.S.

From Ten Summoner's Tales

1994 "Nothing 'Bout Me" #32 UK

From Fields of Gold: The Best of Sting 1984-1994

1994 "When We Dance" #9 UK, #38 U.S.
1995 "This Cowboy Song" (feat. Pato Banton) #15 UK

From Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls soundtrack

1996 "Spirits in the Material World" (Pato Banton feat. Sting) #36 UK

From Mercury Falling

1996 "Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot" #15 UK, #86 U.S.
1996 "You Still Touch Me" #27 UK, #60 U.S.
1996 "I Was Brought to My Senses" #31 UK
1996 "I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying" #94 U.S.

From The Very Best of Sting & The Police

1997 "Roxanne '97" (remix) (with The Police) #17 UK, #59 U.S.

From Brand New Day

1999 "Brand New Day" #13 UK, #100 U.S.
2000 "Desert Rose" (feat. Cheb Mami) #15 UK, #17 U.S.
2000 "After the Rain Has Fallen" #31 UK

From Slicker Than Your Average (Craig David album)

2003 "Rise & Fall" (Craig David feat. Sting) #2 UK

From Sacred Love

2003 "Send Your Love" #30 UK
2003 "Whenever I Say Your Name (Duet with Mary J. Blige)" #60 UK
2004 "Stolen Car (Take Me Dancing)" #60 UK

From the Racing Stripes soundtrack

2005 "Taking the Inside Rail" #? U.S., #? UK

Year	Title	Chart positions			Album
Year	Title	U.S. Hot 100	U.S. Modern Rock	UK Singles Chart	Album
1982	"Spread a Little Happiness"	-	-	#16	Brimstone and Treacle ^*
1985	"If You Love Somebody Set Them Free"	#3	-	#26	The Dream of the Blue Turtles
1985	"Russians"	#16	-	#12	The Dream of the Blue Turtles
1985	"Fortress Around Your Heart"	#8	-	-	The Dream of the Blue Turtles
1985	"Love Is the Seventh Wave"	#17	-	-	The Dream of the Blue Turtles
1987	"We'll Be Together"	#7	-	-	...Nothing Like the Sun
1988	"Be Still My Beating Heart"	#15	-	-	...Nothing Like the Sun
1988	"Englishman in New York"	#84	-	#15 (chart position is 1990 Ben Liebrand remix)	...Nothing Like the Sun
1991	"All This Time"	#5	#1 (2 weeks)	#22	The Soul Cages
1991	"The Soul Cages"	-	#9	-	The Soul Cages

Bibliography

2003 Autobiography Broken Music, Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0743450817
2005 Biography Sting and I, James Berryman, John Blake, ISBN 184454107X
1998 Biography Sting - Demolition Man, Christopher Sandford, Little, Brown and Company, ISBN 0316643726

External links

Sting's Official Site
Largest Non-Official Sting Site
French Non-Official Sting Site
Sting at NNDB
1985 audio interview with Sting (12 minutes)
Sting in the charts
You Know, I Used To Be Kind Of Cool Once (satire from The Onion, April 21 1999).
Sting Pictures
List of Sting's touring band line-ups

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