Sting

From teacher to the Police

Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner was born on October 2, 1951 in Wallsend, Northumberland. He trained as a teacher at the Northern Counties College of Education, qualifying in 1973, and earlier worked as a bus conductor, building laborer and tax officer, and taught at St Paul's First School in Cramlington. The nickname came from the bandleader Gordon Solomon, who said his striped jumper made him look like a wasp. He played in Last Exit and Strontium 90 before the Police formed in January 1977 with Stewart Copeland and Henry Padovani; Andy Summers replaced Padovani, and the trio first performed in August 1977. Their five studio albums are Outlandos d'Amour (1978), Reggatta de Blanc (1979), Zenyatta Mondatta (1980), Ghost in the Machine (1981) and Synchronicity (1983). Sting decided to leave during the Shea Stadium concert on August 18, 1983. The band played three Amnesty International concerts in June 1986 and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003, then reunited on stage at the Grammys on February 11, 2007 and toured from Vancouver on May 28, 2007 to Madison Square Garden on August 7, 2008.

His solo albums include The Dream of the Blue Turtles (1985), ...Nothing Like the Sun (1987), The Soul Cages (1991), Ten Summoner's Tales (1993, 2 in the UK and US, Mercury Prize nominee), Mercury Falling (1996), Brand New Day (1999), the live ...All This Time (2001), Sacred Love (2003), Songs from the Labyrinth (2006, Dowland, with Edin Karamazov), Symphonicities (2010), The Last Ship (2013), 57th and 9th (2016), 44/876 with Shaggy (2018), My Songs (2019), Duets and The Bridge (2021). He regained ownership of his solo and Police recordings on re-signing with Capitol in 1997, and Universal Music Group bought the catalog in February 2022. Side work includes Band Aid and Live Aid, spoken vocals on Miles Davis's You're Under Arrest (1985), a Gil Evans big-band album of his songs (1987), Frank Zappa's Broadway the Hard Way (1988), The Soldier's Tale with the London Sinfonietta, and the musical The Last Ship. He co-founded the Rainforest Foundation Fund.

Wikipedia counts over 100 million records sold with and without the Police and 17 Grammys. He received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution and an Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement award in 2002, a CBE in 2003, the Kennedy Center Honors in 2014 and shared the Polar Music Prize in 2017. BMI named "Every Breath You Take" in 2019 the most-played song in US radio history. The current touring is billed Sting 3.0, with a Las Vegas residency at Caesars Palace from March 4, 2027 and a live release, The Night Watch: Live at the Rijksmuseum.