Sting (musician)
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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.
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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.
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 (http://fictionplane.com). 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." [1] (http://entertainment.iafrica.com/music/news/408631.htm)
Discography
(Albums released after going solo.)
- 1985 The Dream of Blue Turtles #3 UK, #2 US, US Sales: 3,000,000
- 1986 Bring On the Night #16 UK
- 1987 Nothing Like the Sun #1 UK, #9 US, US Sales: 2,000,000
- 1988 Nada Como el Sol
- 1991 Soul Cages #1 UK, #2 US, US Sales: 1,000,000
- 1993 Ten Summoner's Tales #2 UK, #2 US, US Sales: 3,000,000
- 1994 Fields of Gold: The Best of Sting 1984-1994 #2 UK, #7 US, US Sales: 2,000,000
- 1996 Mercury Falling #4 UK, #5 US, US Sales: 1,000,000
- 1997 The Very Best of Sting & The Police #1 UK, #46 US (both positions for the 2002 re-issue)
- 1999 Brand New Day #5 UK, #9 US, US Sales: 3,000,000
- 1999 At the Movies (Japanese release)
- 2001 All This Time (live) #3 UK, #32 US, US Sales: 500,000
- 2003 Sacred Love #3 UK, #3 US, US Sales: 1,000,000
Hit singles
From Brimstone and Treacle soundtrack
- 1982 "Spread a Little Happiness" #16 UK
From The Dream of Blue Turtles
- 1985 "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free" #26 UK, #3 US
- 1985 "Russians" #12 UK, #16 US
- 1985 "Fortress Around Your Heart" #8 US
- 1985 "Love Is the Seventh Wave" #17 US
From Nothing Like the Sun
- 1987 "We'll Be Together" #7 US
- 1988 "Be Still My Beating Heart" #15 US
- 1990 "Englishman In New York" (remix) #15 UK
From The Soul Cages
- 1991 "All This Time" #22 UK, #5 US
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 US
- 1993 "Seven Days" #25 UK
- 1993 "Fields of Gold" #16 UK, #23 US
Non-album single
- 1993 "Demolition Man" #21 UK
From The Three Musketeers soundtrack
- 1994 "All for Love" (with Bryan Adams and Rod Stewart) #2 UK, #1 US
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 US
- 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
- 1996 "You Still Touch Me" #27 UK
- 1996 "I Was Brought to My Senses" #31 UK
From The Very Best of Sting & The Police
- 1997 "Roxanne '97" (remix) (with The Police) #17 UK
From Brand New Day
- 1999 "Brand New Day" #13 UK
- 2000 "Desert Rose" (feat. Cheb Mami) #15 UK, #17 US
- 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
Acting Career
- Played Feyd-Rautha in the 1984 movie Dune
- Voiced the character Zarm on Captain Planet and the Planeteers, a 90s television show.
- Played JD, Eddie's father and owner of a bar, in 1998's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.
External links
- Sting's official site: http://www.sting.com/
- The Rainforest Foundation: http://www.rainforestfoundation.org/
- Template:Imdb name
- www.stingforum.tk - New international Sting & The Police community
- Sting Lyrics (http://pcking.ca/wikilyrics/index.php/Category:Sting) @ Wikilyrics (http://pcking.ca/wikilyrics)da:Sting
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