Uniquely explores how Sting’s working-class Newcastle background inspired his music.

Born in a mainly working-class area of North Tyneside in 1951, Gordon Sumner would become one of the world’s best-selling music artists. Known professionally as Sting, he was the lead singer for the band The Police from 1977 to 1984, before launching a hugely successful solo career. The foundations of Sting’s creativity and drive for success were established in the region of his birth, with vestiges of his ‘Northern Englishness’ continuing to emerge in his music long after he left the area. Published to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the formation of The Police, this is the first book to examine the relationship between Sting’s working-class background in Newcastle and the creativity and inspiration behind his music. Focusing on the sometimes-blurry borderlines between nostalgia, facts, imagination and memories – as told by Sting, the people who knew (and know) him, and those who have written about him – Carr investigates the often complex resonance between local boy Gordon Sumner and the star the world knows as Sting. This book will be of great interest to the many fans of Sting and The Police, as well as those interested in the history of popular music.