FAST DOWNLOAD
Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, better known as Sting, was born on October 2, 1951 in Newcastle, United Kingdom. The eldest of the family grew up near the shipyards that provided the livelihood for the region, in a modest, working-class home.
He quickly became interested in music, encouraged by his mother, an amateur pianist and musical comedy enthusiast. He learned to play the piano, harmonica and mandolin. “I learned music with my record player. I dissected Beatles records with a manic obsession, putting the needle of the pick-up back on hundreds of times to analyze the magical sequence of chords, the structure of a riff, a guitar solo,” he would confide years later in an interview.
But it was another career that he began at the age of just twenty, as he became a teacher at St. Paul’s Middle School in Cramlington. However, he was quickly caught up in his passion for music, which he indulged by hanging out in local clubs and joining a local jazz group, The Phoenix Jazzmen.
While he was wearing a black sweater with yellow stripes one evening, his friends in the group teased him and nicknamed him “Sting”. In English the word means “sting” and this sweater definitely reminded them of a bee. This is how a slightly schoolboy joke gave his stage name to the future international star.
Some time later, the group, which until then only offered covers, decided to give a new lese of life to its repertoire and to propose original compositions. But, surprise and disillusionment, despite his obvious talent Sting did not know music theory. He was unceremoniously fired from the band. However, he learned music theory in a month but was not able to take his place again with his former accomplices. He had already been replaced.
No matter, Sting then joins The Last Exit. The group decides to go to London to try their luck. Exit the job of teacher, the young artist decides to bet everything on his career in music, much to the dismay of his father who wanted him to choose “a real job”.
In the British capital, Sting, who we don’t know if he kept the famous sweater but who now knows music theory, is spotted at a party by Stewart Copeland, who offers him the position of bassist for the pop-rock group The Police, alongside Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers. Their first album, “Outlandos d’amour”, is released in 1978. It contains the inevitable hit “Roxanne”. It is during a stay in Paris that Sting writes what will become a hit. He tells the story of a man who falls in love with a prostitute and decides to help her. The subject is inspired by a district of Paris frequented by prostitutes, not far from the hotel where he is staying. The first name comes as a matter of course in front of a poster for the play “Cyrano de Bergerac” in which one of the characters is called Roxane. Another anecdote: while recording the song, Sting accidentally sat down on the piano and laughed out loud. His clumsiness will be kept in the first seconds of the song and probably gives it a bit of that aura that will make it a hit. The singles “Message in the Bottle” and “Walking on the Moon” will then confirm the notoriety of The Police.
In 1980 “Zenyatta mondatta” was the band’s second album, followed by “Ghost in the machine” a year later. The releases followed one after the other, with no less than five albums in six years. In 1983 “Synchronicity” contained one of their legendary hits with “Every Breath you Take”. How many slow dances were danced to this song, written during the end of Sting’s first marriage, who would later say he wrote it in the midst of depression? “I woke up in the middle of the night with that line in my head, sat down at the piano and wrote it in half an hour. It sounds like a comforting love song. I didn’t realize at the time how sinister it was”.
At the end of their “Synchronicity Tour” in Melbourne, the band announced that they were taking a break and a sabbatical year. However, the announced year would last much longer than expected since The Police would never be in the studio again. In 1985, the Newcastle native began a solo career and released his first album, “The Dream Of The Blue Turtles”. The album was enthusiastically received by the press and the public and contained some gems such as “Russians” (which talks about the Cold War) or “If You Love Somebody Set Them Free”. First places in the UK charts also for the following albums, “Nothing Like the Sun” (where he collaborates with Eric Clapton) and “The Soul Cages”, inspired by the death of his father and with Manu Katché as drummer.
Two years later, “Ten Summoner’s Tales” was released. The singer, still as productive, then offered “Brand New Day” which included among others the single “Desert Rose” in duet with Cheb Mami and which quickly became an international hit. The year 2003 saw the release of “Sacred Love”, which would meet with less success than its predecessors. Three years later, “Songs From The Labyrinth” was released in stores. In 2007, Sting reunited with his former accomplices from The Police for a tour around the world. “The Police Reunion Tour” would bring together some 2.7 million fans, thirty years after the group’s debut. Released in July 2010, “Symphonicities” revisited his standards in a symphonic version. In 2013, his childhood memories near the port of Newcastle inspired his album “The Last Ship” and the eponymous musical, which would be performed on Broadway. “I grew up in a ghost town devastated by the shipyard crisis. This story haunts me, and I need to tell it,” the star confided.
The following years were devoted to tours, including one with Paul Simon in 2014. In 2015, he teamed up with Mylène Farmer on the title “Stolen Car” which quickly reached number 1 in sales in France and the USA. In 2016, Sting teamed up with Peter Gabriel for a 21-concert tour in the USA. The same year, his new album entitled “57th & 9th” was released, which marked his return to a more abrasive rock style but also Sting’s support for many causes, here global warming with “One Fine Day”.
The singer’s commitment has always driven him and his fame has oftenallowed him to highlight subjects that are close to his heart. He notably co-created the Rainforest Foundation to preserve the Amazon rainforest and has regularly engaged in charity concerts, for example for Amesty International or during the annual event that he organizes with his wife, Trudie Styler.
In 2017, he went on a world tour during which he performed in no less than 104 cities and 41 countries. Change of style the same year with the release of his new opus, in collaboration with Shaggy. In 2019, he returned to his classics with the album ‘My Songs’ in which he revisited his greatest hits solo or with Police. The same year he sang “Reste” in duet with Gims!
In 2021, during the pandemic, he did not stay inactive and recorded “The Bridge”, his fifteenth studio album. Since then, the singer with more than 100 million albums sold continues to tread the stages of the world and festivals, like this summer in Fontainebleau. Tireless, unstoppable, Sting celebrates his 73rd birthday today. This father of six children (one of whom is now part of his group) and now grandfather recently confided: “You always have to dream big” . The little boy who was a fan of the Beatles was certainly already saying the same thing to himself, his gaze lost towards the Newcastle shipyards
