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Gordon
Matthew Sumner, CBE (born October 2, 1951), best
known by his stage name Sting, is an English
musician and formerly bassist and lead singer of The
Police.
*
* * *
Biography
Sumner
was born in Newcastle, England to Audrey and Ernest
Sumner, a milkman, and raised a Roman Catholic. From
an early age, he knew that he wanted to be a
musician. He attended the University of Warwick in
Coventry, but did not graduate. From 1971 to 1974,
he attended Northern Counties Teacher Training
College. He is the oldest of 4 children and has a
brother, Philip, and two sisters, Angela and Anita.
Philip owns a pub in Newcastle, Angela works for
British Airways, and Anita is an artist.
Before
playing music professionally, Sumner worked as a
ditch digger and a primary school teacher. 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. It is most likely that he
gained his nickname while with the Jazzmen. He once
performed wearing a black and yellow striped jersey
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 Andy Summers,
formed the rock/pop band The Police in London. The
group had several chart topping albums and won six
Grammy Awards in the early 1980s, including their
arguably best well-known song, Every Breath You
Take. Their last album, Synchronicity was released
in 1983. The Police attempted a reunion in 1986 with
re-recording of their song "Don't Stand So Close to
Me", but did not stay together.
Sting
has occasionally ventured into acting. He made his
film debut in 1979's Quadrophenia. Apart from
playing a devil-like character in Brimstone and
Treacle (1982), one of his more famous roles was
that of Feyd-Rautha in the 1984 film adaptation of
Dune. More recently, he appeared in Guy Ritchie's
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. He has also
made appearances on television (including guest
spots on The Simpsons and Ally McBeal) and stage.
Most of his later credits in films and TV are for
his music.
Solo
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". Within a year, it
reached Triple Platinum. He also sang the
introduction and chorus to "Money for Nothing", a
groundbreaking song by Dire Straits. 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.
In the
late 1980s, Sting strongly supported
environmentalism and humanitarian movements,
including Amnesty International. With long-time
girlfriend Trudie Styler and 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
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, he released a
remix of The Police's song "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 was eventually 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). (Sting was also featured on
Toby Keith's country cover-version of "I'm So Happy
I Can't Stop Crying", on Keith's 1997 Dream Walkin'
album.) In 1998, he appeared in the film Lock, Stock
and Two Smoking Barrels.
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.
Sting
kicked off 2001 with a performance during the Super
Bowl's half time show. He added another Grammy to
his collection in February. His song "After the Rain
has Fallen" made it into the Top 40. On September
11, he recorded a new live album in Italy, but the
Internet simulcast was canceled after the September
11, 2001 Terrorist Attack. Later, Sting performed
"Fragile" for the fundraiser America: A Tribute to
Heroes. His live album, All This Time, recorded on a
moonlit night in Tuscany, was released in November
but did not gather healthy sales figures. All This
Time featured jazzy reworkings of Sting favorites
like "Roxanne" and "If You Love Somebody Set Them
Free".
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 made a Commander in the Order of
the British Empire. Yet Sting was placed 81st on the
100 Worst Britons list by polls conducted by
Britain's Channel Four in 2003.
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.
Personal life
Sting
married actress Frances Tomelty on May 1, 1976. The
couple had two children, Joseph (born 1976), and
Catherine (born 1982), before they divorced in 1984.
Soon after, Sting began living with actress (and
later film producer) Trudie Styler but the two did
not marry until 1992. Sting and Trudie have four
children (Bridget Michael ["Mickey"], James, Eliot
Pauline ["Coco"], and Giacomo Luke). Sting's
lookalike son Joe is following in dad's musical
footsteps and is a member of the band Fiction Plane.
Though Sting reportedly owns several properties in
the United Kingdom and the United States, he
currently calls Tuscany his home.
It is
unclear whether he was serious or (rather) not when
he referred to himself as "manic-depressive". He has
written a song entitled "Lithium Sunset", which
appears to refer to lithium carbonate, a treatment
for the disorder. According to some reports he did
this because he wanted to help people who really
have this disease. In an interview given by Sting,
he also referred to the natural occurrence of
lithium in the brain when one views a sunset.
In
early 2005 Sting proclaimed that he admires
Hinduism, wants to spend a lot more time in India
and that he loves Indian culture. His words in an
interview are:
-
"In a sense I am more of a Hindu
... I like the Hindu religion more than anything
else at the moment.
-
"I have become addicted to India
... I would want to spend the rest of my life
discovering your beautiful country."
In his
Live8 performance he changed the lyrics to his song
“I’ve been watching you” to “we’re watching you”
meant for the men of the G8.
*
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URL of Original Article:
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Date Article Copied:
July 11, 2005
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