STING Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner

THE POLICESting is the stage name of the English musician Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner. He was born on October 2nd 1951 and is a musician, singer, songwriter, as well as being an actor. Initially, his career began with the popular band The Police, and later he pursued his solo career. With the rock band The Police, Sumner was the lead singer, bassist, as well as being a songwriter.

Despite the fact that he was mainly involved in a rock band, he managed to incorporate many styles of music in his work. Many of his songs involve the musical elements of the classical, jazz, and reggae genres.

During his career, Sting has received a total of 16 Grammy Awards for his work, the first being the 1981 Grammy for Best Rock Performance. He also received an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe, as well as many Oscar nominations for the Best Original Song. Later, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame as well as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The Police was a punk rock band that formed in London, England in 1977 and disbanded in 1986. The band consisted of three members; Sting, who was the lead vocalist; Andy Summers, who played the guitar and Stewart Copeland on the drums. The Police reached mainstream status in the late 1970s by playing punk rock with the elements of reggae and jazz.

Early Success

• In 1983, their album Synchronicity reached top position on the UK and the US Billboard Charts by selling 8 million copies in the US alone. Despite the fact that they separated in 1986, they regrouped for one last world tour in 2007 and 2008. Throughout the band’s history, they have won six Grammy Awards which lead to their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In total, they have sold over 50 million albums throughout the world.

Sting was born in Wallsend, England to a family of modest means, as his mother was a hairdresser and his father was a milkman and engineer.

He initially began his career as a teacher of English and Math, but began performing in jazz bands during his hours outside of work.

He played with many local bands wearing a black and yellow sweater that looked like a bee, thus as a result he was given the nickname “Sting”.

After his teaching career, he moved to London where he met the members of his new band “The Police”. From 1978 to 1983, they released five albums that peaked on charts world wide and as a result, they won six Grammy Awards.

Their most successful song [and a personal favourite] is “Every Breath You Take”, which was released in 1983.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMOGaugKpzs

Although the band never formally disbanded, the three members began to concentrate on solo projects and began drifting farther and farther away from one another. Starting in 1981, Sting began to perform solo in formal benefit concerts.

In 1985, he performed his single “If You Love Somebody Set Them Free” in New York City at the Radio City Hall for that year’s MTV Video Music Awards. Years later in 1988, he released Nada como el sol, a series of songs that are sung in Portuguese and Spanish. As well, in the same year he released a series of jazz songs.

The album The Soul Cages was inspired by the death of Sting’s father, and the songs became dark but still had influences of traditional British folk music. The song “All This Time” became number five on the billboard charts. Later in 1993, the flamboyant Ten Summoner’s Tales became a triple platinum disc with the hit “If I Ever Lose My Faith in You” and “Fields of Gold”.

Fields of Gold

“It seems to me it is a simple love song. Two young people express their love, get married and have children. They exchanged promises. Whilst some are broken, this one never will be. And should anything every happen to them, remember me in the Fields of Gold.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLVq0IAzh1A

His career advanced well into the 1990’s as he released many more discs that became some of his most accomplished works. Later in 2007, Sting reformed The Police as they began on their reunion tour, which became the fourth highest grossing tour of all time.

After The Police disbanded, it was a complete thrill to see the band all together again, as entire sports stadiums became packed.

Outside of his work with music, he also appeared in many films and Broadway performances. He also has many philanthropic contributions to environmental issues and human rights.

In the late 1980’s, he toured the world with many other stars for benefit concerts for Amnesty International as well as creating the Rainforest Foundation.

Recently, Sting is currently writing music as well as producing wine in his spare time. Inspired by his hometown in England, he is currently writing a musical named “The Last Ship”.

His upbringing in the small town was inspired by the local ship building industry; however, recently the industry collapsed and the musical is set in a struggling shipyard in the 1980s. The solo album was released in September 2013 and it is scheduled to make a Broadway debut in 2014.