9 October 2024, 12:36

A look at the life and times of Sting – bassist, singer, actor and all-round superstar.

Countless bands formed in the slipstream of punk, but few had the impact or longevity of The Police.

Even fewer managed to launch the career of a bona fide solo superstar, but that’s absolutely the case with Sting.

As well as his stunning music career, Sting also is a proper actor with some major movie and TV credits to his name.

He’s sold millions of records and picked up more gongs than we can even begin to count, too.

Below, we take a look at all the fast facts about Sting.

How old is Sting and what’s his real name?

Sting was born at Sir G B Hunter Memorial Hospital in Wallsend, Northumberland, on October 2, 1951. That makes him 73 at the time of writing.

He was the eldest of four children born to hairdresser Audrey and milkman Ernest.

Sting’s birth name – still his legal name – is Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner.

He got the nickname “Sting” during his time playing with the Phoenix Jazzmen (more on that later) when he wore a black and yellow jumper that made him look like a bee or a wasp.

And after that, everyone called him Sting. As seen in the 1985 doc Bring On the Night, when a journalist called him “Gordon” he was nonplussed.

“My children call me Sting, my mother calls me Sting, who is this Gordon character?” he said.

Years later he told Time magazine: “I was never called Gordon. You could shout ‘Gordon’ in the street and I would just move out of your way.”

Where did Sting grow up?

Sting grew up near Wallsend’s shipyards. He went to St Cuthbert’s Grammar School in Newcastle upon Tyne, and then on to the University of Warwick in Coventry, but dropped out after a term.

After leaving university, he worked in various jobs – a bus conductor, labourer and tax officer – before he returned to study at the Northern Counties College of Education, and qualified as a teacher.

He went on to teach at St Paul’s First School in Cramlington for a couple of years and later revealed that his time there loosely inspired The Police’s ‘Don’t Stand So Close To Me’, though the song was in no way autobiographical.

How did Sting get into music?

It probably won’t surprise you to hear that Sting wanted to be a star from a very young age.

During his TED talk on songwriting in 2014, he told the story of seeing the Queen Mother being driven past his home in a big black Rolls-Royce.

“I start to wave my flag vigorously, and there is the Queen Mother,” he said. “I see her, and she seems to see me. She acknowledges me. She waves, and she smiles. And I wave my flag even more vigorously. We’re having a moment, me and the Queen Mother. She’s acknowledged me. And then she’s gone.

“Well, I wasn’t cured of anything. It was the opposite, actually. I was infected. I was infected with an idea. I don’t belong in this street. I don’t want to live in that house. I don’t want to end up in that shipyard. I want to be in that car. I want a bigger life. I want a life beyond this town. I want a life that’s out of the ordinary. It’s my right. It’s my right as much as hers.”

Amazing.

As a youngster, Sting saw bands like Cream and Manfred Mann at Club A’Gogo in Newcastle and learned to play and sing by listening to records.

It was when he was working as a teacher that he started playing in public, joining groups like the Phoenix Jazzmen, Newcastle Big Band and Last Exit.

And in January 1977, as punk was exploding, Sting moved to London and formed The Police with drummer Stewart Copeland and guitarist Henry Padovani.

Andy Summers joined as a second guitarist and by that summer, Padovani left, giving us the three-piece lineup that would take the world by storm.

What are Sting’s biggest songs?

Many of Sting’s biggest songs came as a member of The Police, and they include:

• Roxanne
• Can’t Stand Losing You
• Message in a Bottle
• Walking on the Mon
• So Lonely
• Don’t Stand So Close To Me
• De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da
• Invisible Sun
• Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
• Every Breath You Take
• Wrapped Around Your Finger

As a solo singer, Sting’s biggest songs include:

• Spread a Little Happiness
• If You Love Somebody Set Them Free
• Love is the Seventh Wave
• Fortress Around Your Heart
• Russians
• We’ll Be Together
• Englishman in New York
• All This Time
• It’s Probably Me (with Eric Clapton)
• If I Ever Lose My Faith in You
• Fields of Gold
• All For Love (with Bryan Adams and Rod Stewart)
• When We Dance
• This Cowboy Song
• Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot
• Brand New Day
• Desert Rose (with Cheb Mami)

What are Sting’s biggest acting roles?

From his very earliest days in the public eye, Sting had a second career on the go as an actor.

And we’re not just talking about bit-part roles or that usual rock standard of playing yourself, either (though he’s done that, too, in everything from Ally McBeal and Bee Movie to The Simpsons and Only Murders in the Building)

Sting played The Ace Face aka The Bell Boy in Franc Roddam’s 1979 movie adaptation of Quadrophenia, based on the concept album.

His part in Sex Pistols faux documentary The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle as leader of new wave band The Blow Waves was (quite sensibly) cut from the finished film, but the scenes resurfaced in 2000’s The Filth and the Fury (2000).

Sting appeared as drifter Martin Tyler in 1982’s Brimstone and Treacle, and it was ‘Spread a Little Happiness’ from the soundtrack that he used to launch his solo career.

Most strikingly, he played Geyd-Rautha Harkonnen in David Lynch’s flawed but fabulous 1984 adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune.

He picked up other roles after that standout, with particular highlights including Baron Frankenstein in 1985’s The Bridge and JD in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

On the stage, he played Macheath in a 1989 production of the 3 Penny Opera.

More recently, he has played Jackie White in The Last Ship, for which he also wrote the book and lyrics. The play was based on his childhood and his 1991 The Soul Cages album.

How many times has Sting been married and how many children does he have?

Sting has been married twice.

He wed actress Frances Tomelty in 1976 and they had two children together – Joseph and Fuschia Katherine, usually known as Kate.

Sting and Frances separated in 1982 amid the singer’s affair with her friend and their neighbour Trudie Styler.

After the breakup, Sting and Trudie made it official, and they had four children together – Brigitte Michael, aka Mickey, Eliot Paulina aka Coco, and Giacomo Luke.

Sting and Trudie married in August 1992.

What is Sting’s net worth?

With the caveat that no-one really knows that number, except maybe Sting’s accountant, it’s a fact that Sting has hoovered up the songwriting royalties not just from his solo career, but a hefty majority of The Police’s albums as the band’s main composer.

In 2019, the Sunday Times Rich List estimated that he was worth a whopping £320 million, while Celebrity Net Worth suggests that he’s now worth $550 million (£420 million).

What we do know is that Sting won’t be passing over whatever wealth he has amassed to his kids.

“I told them there won’t be much money left because we are spending it,” he told the Mail on Sunday in 2024.

“We have a lot of commitments. What comes in we spend, and there isn’t much left. I certainly don’t want to leave them trust funds that are albatrosses round their necks.

“They have to work. All my kids know that and they rarely ask me for anything, which I really respect and appreciate.”

What awards has Sting won?

As well as his stunning commercial success, Sting has mopped up a fair bit of critical acclaim over the years, too.

He’s been especially recognised in the US, notching up 25 American Music Awards and 17 Grammys, and nearer to home has won three Brit Awards.

Sting was also honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2000.

In the UK, perhaps his biggest award came in 2003 when he was appointed a CBE for his services to the music industry.

Over in France, Sting and his Police bandmates Andy and Stewart were named Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters (Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres) in 2007.

In 2023 Sting was given a fellowship by the Ivors Academy and the Freedom of the Borough by North Tyneside Council.

Sting has won FOUR nominations for Best Original Song at the Academy Awards, but is yet to pick up the big prize… yet.