Sting (musician)

Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, born 2 October 1951 in Wallsend, Northumberland, is better known as Sting—an English musician, songwriter, and actor. He served as the lead singer, main songwriter, and bassist for the rock group the Police, active from 1977 to 1984, with brief reunions in 1986 and from 2007 to 2008. Starting his solo career in 1985, his music has drawn from rock, jazz, reggae, classical, new-age, and worldbeat. Across his work with the Police and as a solo artist, he has sold over 100 million records. His accolades include three Brit Awards (Best British Male Artist in 1994 and Outstanding Contribution to Music in 2002), a Golden Globe, an Emmy, four Academy Award nominations, and 17 Grammy Awards. The Police were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003. Sting also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, an Ivor Novello Award for Lifetime Achievement, a CBE from Queen Elizabeth II, Kennedy Center Honors, and the Polar Music Prize. In May 2023, he became an Ivor Novello Fellow. Sting was the eldest of four children, born to hairdresser Audrey Cowell and milkman Ernest Matthew Sumner. Growing up near Wallsend’s shipyards left a strong impression; as a child, seeing the Queen Mother wave from a Rolls-Royce inspired him to escape the shipyards for a more glamorous life. He helped his father deliver milk and, by age ten, became obsessed with an old Spanish guitar left by a friend of his father who had emigrated. He attended St Cuthbert’s Grammar School in Newcastle upon Tyne, where he visited nightclubs like Club A'Gogo to see bands such as Cream and Manfred Mann, which shaped his musical tastes. He learned bass by speeding up records to 78 rpm to hear the bass lines more clearly. After leaving school in 1969, he briefly studied at the University of Warwick before dropping out. He worked as a bus conductor, building labourer, and tax officer, then attended Northern Counties College of Education (now Northumbria University), qualifying as a teacher in 1973. He taught at St Paul’s First School in Cramlington for two years. During evenings, weekends, and breaks from college and teaching, he performed jazz with groups like the Phoenix Jazzmen, Newcastle Big Band, and Last Exit. His nickname came from the Phoenix Jazzmen’s bandleader, Gordon Solomon, who said Sumner’s black-and-yellow striped jumper made him look like a wasp. In a 1985 documentary, a journalist called him Gordon, and he replied, “My children call me Sting, my mother calls me Sting, who is this Gordon character?” In 2011, he told *Time*, “I was never called Gordon. You could shout 'Gordon' in the street and I would just move out of your way.” Still, he never legally changed his name to Sting. In January 1977, Sting joined Stewart Copeland and Henry Padovani (soon replaced by Andy Summers) to form the Police, becoming lead singer, bassist, and primary songwriter. Between 1978 and 1983, the band released five UK number-one albums, won six Grammys, and two Brit Awards (Best British Group and Outstanding Contribution to Music). Their early sound was punk-inspired but shifted to reggae rock and minimalist pop. Their final album, *Synchronicity*, was nominated for five Grammys including Album of the Year in 1983, and featured their biggest hit, “Every Breath You Take,” written by Sting. Sting later said he decided to leave the Police during a concert at Shea Stadium in New York City on 18 August 1983, feeling that playing that venue was like reaching “Everest.” The group never formally broke up but agreed to focus on solo projects after *Synchronicity*. For years, band members—especially Sting—ruled out a reunion, but they temporarily reformed in 2007 for a reunion tour. Four of their five studio albums appear on *Rolling Stone*’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and two of Sting’s songs, “Every Breath You Take” and “Roxanne,” are on the magazine’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Both songs also appear on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. The Police were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003 and are included in *Rolling Stone* and VH1’s lists of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. In 1978, Sting collaborated with members of Hawkwind and Gong as the Radio Actors on the single “Nuclear Waste.” In September 1981, he made his first live solo appearances at the fourth Amnesty International benefit, The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball, performing solo versions of “Roxanne” and “Message in a Bottle” and leading an all-star band on Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released.” In 1982, he released the solo single “Spread a Little Happiness,” a reinterpretation of a 1920s song from the musical *Mr. Cinders*, which became a UK Top 20 hit.