Actors - Sting

	Actors - Sting

Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, CBE (born 2 October, 1951), usually known by his stage name Sting, is an English 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 (a Protestant) and her husband, Ernest Sumner (a Catholic via his own mother, Agnes White, whose father was an Irish stevedore). Ernest was a milkman, and raised his children as Roman Catholics.

From an early age, Gordon Sumner knew that he wanted to be a musician. He attended the Roman Catholic St. Cuthbert's Grammar School, in Newcastle upon Tyne, and then the University of Warwick, but did not graduate.

From 1971 until 1974, he attended Northern Counties Teacher Training College. He is the oldest of four children and has a brother, Philip, and two sisters, Angela and Anita.

Before playing music professionally, Sumner worked as a ditch digger and as a music teacher at a Catholic girls' school.

His first music gigs were wherever he could get a job. He played with local jazz bands such as the Phoenix Jazzmen and Last Exit.

Origin of nickname

He has stated that he gained his nickname while with the Jazzmen. He once performed wearing a black and yellow jersey with hooped stripes that fellow band member Gordon Solomon had noted made him look like a bumblebee, thus he became "Sting." He uses Sting almost exclusively, except on official documents.

The Police

In 1977, Sting, Stewart Copeland, and Henry Padovani (who was very soon replaced by Andy Summers) formed the new wave band The Police in London. 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 one of their most successful songs, 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.

To help promote a greatest hits album that year they also made a re-recording of a new arrangement of one of their hits "Don't Stand So Close to Me '86" as a special bonus track to be included on the album.

Solo Career

Early Solo 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 Solo Career

1985's The Dream of the Blue Turtles, featuring a star-studded cast of jazz musicians, was Sting's first solo album. It included the hit single "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free". It 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" 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.

Soon thereafter, in February of 1988, he released Nada Como el Sol — a selection of five songs from Nothing Like the Sun sung (by Sting himself) in Spanish and Portuguese.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Sting ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Sting; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.