The Man Who Would Be Sting - Page 4

In 1969 Sting formed a duet with a friend, Elliott Dixon, and this lead to the future singing star's first live performance. But the group proved an unsatisfying creative outlet; and while Sting would not take a hiatus from music, he would spend the next two years playing only casually in a variety of situations while he cycled through the potential and decidedly non-musical employment opportunities which his hometown had to offer. Although he avoided the coal mines, he did spend some time working at his father's dairy--which showed that Gordon truly lacked direction, since he was well aware that his father did not enjoy working there ("No, my father didn't really enjoy getting up in the morning at four o'clock every day, no."). Gordon also worked short stints as an unskilled laborer on a construction site, a bus conductor, and a tax collector. (During this time he did take the odd job in music when the opportunity presented itself, occasionally playing bass in a variety of situations as backup to other entertainers--e.g., as part of the pit "orchestra" in a Newcastle performance of the musical Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.)

In 1971 Gordon decided to attend Northern Counties Teacher Training College, where in 1974 he earned certificates in English and music. This lead to a full-time position at St. Paul's Roman Catholic First School in Cramlington (where he also coached football (i.e., soccer) and dug ditches). This job proved to be more than sufferable. "I think every experience I've had has somehow entered the program," Sting told fans online at Canoe.ca in July of 2000, "and teaching is not unrelated to entertaining. My job [was] to entertain children for our time and they would learn as a side effect I hope. I think it['] s quite significant that I was a school teacher. I enjoyed it." It was also a convenient fit for the pursuance of his music, which at about this time he began in earnest.

Earthrise, the Ronnie Pierson Trio, the Phoenix Jazzmen, and the River City Jazz Band are not household names today--nor were they in the 1970s, truth be told--but it was these bands in which Gordon played, cutting his teeth as a bassist and performer; and perhaps just as importantly, it was from one of these bands that Gordon Matthew Sumner was given the sobriquet which would evolve from nickname to name, for within a few years even his family would refer to him only as Sting. The accounts of just how he came by this name vary and are blurred together by the time that has passed (even in Sting's mind, it seems, as his own recollections over the years have varied), but the basics are clear enough. What is certain is that the Gordon of this time period had a love for sweaters, wearing all that he could get his hands on. One was a black-and-yellow-striped number. "I wish I still had it," Sting reminisced many years later. "The name started as a joke really. I was working with this trad[itional] band, guys in their forties, and I was the kid who played bass. They were being patronizing when they rang up [at his parents' house: Sting did not move out for good until 1973] and asked for Sting, but the name stuck. Soon everyone was calling me that and it gave me cachet. I don't answer if people call me Gordon now."