Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, CBE (born 2 October 1951), almost universally known by his stage name Sting, is an English musician from Wallsend in North Tyneside. Prior to starting his solo career, he was the principal songwriter, lead singer and bassist of the rock band The Police. As a solo musician and member of The Police, Sting has sold over 100 million records, and received over sixteen Grammy Awards for his work, receiving his first Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance in 1981, and receiving an Oscar nomination for best song.

Biography

Early life

Sumner was born in Wallsend (an area of North Tyneside in the northeast of England) to Ernest Sumner and his wife Audrey Cowell, a hairdresser. Ernest and Audrey had three more children after Gordon: a son (Philip) and two daughters (Angela and Anita). Ernest managed a dairy: young Gordon would often assist his father with the early-morning milk-delivery rounds. The Sumner siblings were raised as Roman Catholics, due to the influence of their Irish paternal grandmother. Early on, young Sumner's "best friend" was an old Spanish guitar with five rusty strings left behind by an uncle who had emigrated to Canada.

Gordon attended St Cuthbert's High School in Newcastle upon Tyne. Later, he left the University of Warwick in Coventry, after only one term. During this time, Gordon would often sneak into nightclubs like the Club-A-Go-Go. Here, he would watch musicians such as Jack Bruce and Jimi Hendrix, artists who would later influence his own music. After jobs as a bus conductor, a construction labourer, and a tax officer, Gordon attended Northern Counties College of Education, (which later became part of Northumbria University) from 1971 to 1974 and qualified as a teacher. He then worked as a schoolteacher at St. Paul's First School in Cramlington for two years. His experiences there would inspire him to write two of the Police's most notable hits: "Don't Stand So Close to Me" and "Roxanne". Each was loosely based on one of his favourite books: Lolita and Cyrano de Bergerac, respectively.