Oct 02, 1988
Having perfected his role as a pop star called Sting, Gordon Sumner has been serving his acting apprenticeship as Frankenstein, satanic seducer, sperm donor, and dune demon. Now 'Stormy Monday' takes him back to Newcastle, back to his jazz roots, and back to being a Geordie.It must have be the siren song of Sinatra, Streisand and Cher that encourages celebrities in one field or another to move horizontally across the board. They are a dangerous example. Most pop stars who try the big screen fail. Madonna looked like a natural in 'Desperately Seeking Susan' but fortunes have been squandered in pursuit of that first fine careless rapture...
Oct 01, 1988
Sting On the Warpath - Singing in the Rainforest. Hemmed in by hostile settlers and logging companies, Brazil's forest Indians stand in the Xingu National Park. But the world took no notice until Sting became involved. There were huge difficulties in getting permits for the trip. Officials were uneasy about possible adverse publicity. Sting's concert the night before had been a huge success - 200,000 fans had packed Rio de Janeiro's vast Maracana stadium to hear him and now the rock star was in his hotel, talking to Belgian film-maker Jean-Pierre Dutilleux...
Jul 02, 1988
Strip-happy Sting says some things are just not in the act with a married woman - A week in bed with Kathleen (ho-hum). Former teacher turned pop musician Sting spent a week writhing naked on a bed with Kathleen Turner for his new film 'Julia and Julia'. His verdict? "Not arousing in the least." And the United States critics' verdict on the film? "Hopelessly silly, third-rate..."
Mar 02, 1988
A loud screech interrupts Sting's sound check in the empty auditorium at New Mexico State University. Sting performed a concert here last Thursday night, much like the one he and his eight-piece band will stage at the Sports Arena tonight. "Who is that on the sound board?" Sting shouts in a mock off-with-his-head voice. A roadie had stepped in for the usual sound man. "You're terrible," Sting says with a laugh, as the band titters behind him...
Mar 01, 1988
Hell, at least he's trying. Plenty have called him pretentious - quoting Shakespeare to drunks, diddling Jung, sporting philosophers and musicians like designer accessories - and I'll happily accept that he may well be. But his music isn't asinine, it's sensuous and clever. He's not a guru, he's an ex-schoolmaster from Newcastle, and if he likes to teach the world to whatever, that seems admirable to me. "I'm 36," says Sting, "I'm still asking questions." Here's some of the answers...
Mar 01, 1988
On his way to this interview, Sting's car spun out on rain-slicked highway. With his legendary composure ever so slightly shaken, he allows a peel into the private man behind the public persona. Sting - glorious, elegant, profound, stunning Sting - blew into the Malibu motel room, threw his grungy rain drenched self across the bed and moaned. "We had an accident getting here." While driving to the motel in a torrential California downpour, his rented BMW skidded into another car on the Pacific Coast highway...
Mar 01, 1988
England's Chief of Police and self-confessed 'control freak' is finally loosening the reins. The song is 'Sister Moon', from Sting's new album, '...Nothing Like the Sun'. Pianist Kenny Kirkland, calm in the midst of the rehearsal fray around him, is superimposing Gershwin's 'It Ain't Necessarily So' onto it, bent on creating a tense, woeful counter line. Branford Marsalis picks up the slow melody and blows it into prominence. Sister Moon has almost vanished. Sting answers this musical mutiny with the Billie Holiday standard 'Strange Fruit'. He clings to it faithfully, gingerly, afraid to break the three-songs-at-once synchronicity...
Feb 24, 1988
Erstwhile teacher turned pop musician Sting spent a week writhing naked on a bed with Kathleen Turner for his new film Julia and Julia. His verdict? "Not arousing in the least." And the critics' verdict on the film? "Hopelessly silly, third-rate." But Sting isn't out for Hollywood stardom. He just wants to be a better actor. Sting likes stripping off. The 36-year-old Geordie who made his name and fortune with The Police may have an image as one of rock's more cerebral stars - he alludes to Shakespeare, Brecht and Jung in his songs - but he's never underestimated his beefcake quota...
Feb 21, 1988
The worst thing about Sting's music is Sting himself. OK, I know. I realize that Sting is responsible for bringing these musicians together, that the marvelous band that will back him at the UIC Pavilion on Feb. 28 simply wouldn't exist without him. I know that he writes the songs and establishes the musical terrain - the combination of melodic sophistication, hot-blowing intensity and rhythmic internationalism that extends the territory he first mapped for himself with the Police. I'll even grant that he has a certain allure onstage and on the screen, what passes for charisma in some quarters...
Feb 03, 1988
St Francis of Wallsend. It was on the night of his sell-out appearance at New York's Madison Square Gardens that Sting, patron saint of consciousness-raising pop, video-taped his BPI acceptance speech. Because his touring commitments would make it impossible for him to be in London for the awards ceremony five days later, he was told in advance that 'Nothing Like The Sun' had won in the Best British Album category. His A&M label bosses Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss flew in from Los Angeles to make the presentation, eventually to be seen by a TV audience of millions, not just in Britain but all over the world...