6 minute read
GORDON SUMNER
GORDON SUMNER, FROM TEACHER TO SUPERSTAR
FORGING an enduring career in a business as fickle as the pop music world takes a particular kind of talent and savvy – but Sting appears to have both in large amounts.
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The singer, songwriter, actor and activist has managed not only to have a spectacularly successful career spanning almost five decades but has stayed relevant to the music scene throughout that time.
That unique approach probably started with his name. This happened in his native Northeast when his love of wearing a favourite bee-like black and yellow striped sweater was spotted by a fellow musician who christened him Sting.
Young Gordon Sumner, to give him his own name, wanted to become a musician from early on in life – not necessarily an obvious choice for a lad from an area steeped in the ship-building industry. For his “day job” instead, he opted to train as a teacher and taught in local primary and secondary schools.
At the same time, though, he was actively pursuing his music career – which veered towards jazz - playing bass with The Newcastle Big Band, The Phoenix Jazzmen, Earthrise and Last Exit. In the latter, his first efforts at songwriting were featured.
That group was big in the North-east but their jazz fusion was doomed to failure when punk rock exploded onto the music scene in 1976. Stewart Copeland, drummer with another group, saw Last Exit on a visit to Newcastle and recognised the potential and charisma of the bass player.
The two hooked up shortly afterwards and, within months, Sting had left his teaching job and moved to London. Stewart named them The Police and they steeped themselves in punk and toured the clubs along with Corsican guitarist Henri Padovani, later replaced by Andy Summers. The band also enrolled Stewart’s elder brother Miles as manager, wowing him with a Sting song called Roxanne.
In a short time, Miles had them a record deal but the hip London press saw through their punk camouflage and were contemptuous of their talents so the band’s early releases failed to have chart success. As a result, The Police did something quite unthinkable for the time: they went to America.
Here, they had a tough experience touring under their own steam and playing tiny audiences. Their tenacity, however – combined with Sting’s pin-up looks and compelling high, raspy voice - paid off as they built a loyal following, getting some all-important air-play and creating their own unique sound.
The band returned to the UK to find Roxanne in the charts. They played a sell-out tour of mid-size venues and their debut album Outlandos d’Amour in 1978 gave
them three sizeable hits with Roxanne, Can’t Stand Losing You and So Lonely.
They followed this with Message in a Bottle which went to No.1, then Walking on the Moon hit the top slot. In 1980 they undertook a gruelling world tour then followed up with more hits: Don’t Stand So Close To Me and De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da.
More albums and more hits like Every Little Thing She Does is Magic and the group was riding high.
However, their style was changing, and so was Sting. He was offered the lead role in the film version of Dennis Potter’s controversial play Brimstone and Treacle as well as a BBC production, Artemis ’81. He had already appeared in a couple of films in minor roles. His acting career was starting to rival his singing.
Sting had a surprise solo hit with Spread A Little Happiness and made an appearance at The Secret Policeman’s Ball in aid of Amnesty International, demonstrating his burgeoning interest in humanitarian causes.
At the turn of 1983, Sting and The Police recorded what became their final studio album Synchronicity with Every Breath You Take the standout track. This immediately went to No.1 on both sides of the Atlantic and was to become officially the most requested radio song of all time.
But the band’s tense relationship was already breaking down and, after an American tour, in 1984, the three decided to go their separate ways.
In 1985, Sting released his first solo album The Dream of the Blue Turtles, featuring the cream of America’s young black jazz musicians. This showed that Sting had lost none of his songwriting ability and the new material had a more political stance.
The success of this album, a solo appearance at Live Aid and a well-received world tour offered proof that Sting did not need the safety net of The Police, and his solo career was born.
Since then, Sting has proved himself to be one of the pop world’s most articulate exponents and a highly literate songwriter.
From "My Songs Tour 2019"
He has extended his musical repertoire to play mandolin, piano, harmonica, saxophone and pan-flute. He also received an honorary Doctorate of Music from Northumbria University in 1992 and from Berklee Colege of Music in 1994.
As well as continuing to create best-selling albums, including collaborations with everyone from Rod Stewart to Mary J Blige, he has racked up a remarkable number of awards including 17 Grammys.
He has also appeared in more than 15 films, executive produced the critically acclaimed A Guide to Recognising Your Saints and starred in The Threepenny Opera on Broadway.
Sting’s most recent theatre project is the Tony-nominated musical The Last Ship, inspired by his memories of the shipbuilding community of Wallsend where he grew up. He is married to film producer Trudie Style and has six children with her and ex-wife, actress Frances Tomelty. He owns a Jacobian castle in Wiltshire, a place in London, an apartment in New York, a place on the beach in Malibu, California and a Renaissance Florentine Villa in Tuscany.
His concern for the planet is welldocumented. In 1989, along with his wife Trudie and a Brazilian Indian, he started the Rainforest Foundation to help save rainforests.
Not outwardly flashy or controversial, Sting has praised “the geniuses of music like Bach and Miles Davis” as they “used silence beautifully.”
Of his own songwriting talents, he stated: “I’m so glad I have this way of expressing, in a veiled and artistic way, my most intimate feelings. A lot of people have the same feelings, but in others it must get bottled up. “I’m proud of my being able to make it into artifacts that some people find beautiful or engaging.”
The much-awaited shows of his planned 2020 tour, entitled My Songs, may have been curtailed for now by the worldwide pandemic. But the good news for UK fans is that the London Palladium dates in September have already been re-scheduled for June, 2021.
Nor will American fans lose out, either. His residency at The Colosseum at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, for instance, has also been re-scheduled for early next year.
And for the performer who so graphically uses his music to share with others his own experiences and feelings, perhaps Sting may manage to reflect on even this difficult time for the world in songs to come.
