I met Sting today

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I met Sting today, the lead singer of The Police, my favorite band as a young guy. He was in my home town of Northampton promoting a stage play coming to the town in April, The Last Ship, about ship building in the north of England, where he grew up. The Police were a cool band as they wrote their own songs, had a great unique reggae rock sound and not too worried how they looked, even though they were super good looking, Sting (real name Gordon Sumner) was an English teacher before he made it big in music. Drummer Stewart Copeland came from a strong American middle class upbringing with his mom an archaeologists and his dad a CIA officer, the family often posted abroad. The third member, Andy Summers, was from Bournemouth, England and also from a good family, learning many instruments as a kid. They got going as The Police against very tough completion back then by being savvy. Copeland had promoted bands when he was younger and so knew how to plug The Police and get them decent gigs. He often helped other struggling bands they met on the road and word got out he could help. Promoters would ring him to find them band and The Police, of course, would pinch those gigs. It’s interesting to note just how many of the great British bands were smart and educated and had stories to tell. The great Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin loved to iron before gigs to get into the zone for the gig. The roadie’s bell bottoms were always pressed. It didn’t get to talk to Sting just handshake but just there at the launch for the local paper in support. Sadly when he left the Police and went solo his music was pretty pretentious so not a fan since the 1990s. Great band though and I still have the tape cassettes I play in my Sony Walkman for when I go running. Pop music is so generic and tinny these days I reckon some of you younger ones would have love being 16 back in the 1980s.