The following article appeared in a February 2023 issue of New Zealand's STUFF...

It might have worked for Elton and Queen, but Sting has no plans to follow their lead and lend his name – and songs – to a lavish jukebox musical biopic of his life.

“It’s something I’ve avoided like the plague because I think it’s lazy,” the now 71-year-old legendary British singer-songwriter and bass guitarist tells Stuff via Zoom from a sunny Perth park last weekend, as he began the Australasian leg of his global My Songs tour.

“I wrote a musical from scratch called The Last Ship [which premiered in Chicago and on Broadway in 2014], about my hometown in the north of England, I thought it was a much better way of using my time than just trying to shoehorn my songs into some sort of bulls… fairytale.

“I haven’t succumbed to that yet – I may do, but I’m resisting it.”

That resistance is probably greatly assisted by the focus of this current tour, which actually began in Paris’ La Seine Musicale way back in May 2019 and is scheduled to head to Christchurch Arena (March 1) and Hawke’s Bay’s Mission Estate (March 4) next month.

Billed as a compendium of the 17-time Grammy winner’s most beloved songs, the set list features those that he believes “tell the story of my life probably better than any others”.

Was it a challenge working those out from his vast back catalogue that have graced 20 albums across 45 years as firstly the frontman for The Police and then as a solo artist?

“There are a couple of hundred songs – and I’m proud of all of them – but I think the ones that have had a commercial life, the most recognisable ones, the most successful ones best fitted what is basically a night of self-biography. I recognise bits of me in all of these songs.”

For at least one generation of Kiwis, including myself, it’s an appealing prospect, especially as his tunes formed a huge part of the soundtrack of my youth. There was the exuberance and passion of early Police hits like Walking on the Moon and Roxanne, thought-provoking early solo tracks If You Love Somebody Set Them Free and We Work the Black Seam and addictive, timeless earworms that range from 1987’s Englishman in New York and Fragile to 1993’s Fields of Gold and Shape of My Heart, 1999’s Desert Rose and Brand New Day.

Along with Neil Finn, Sting’s was the first artist whose lyrics I really listened to – wondering what was “that famous book by Nabokov” mentioned in Don’t Stand So Close to Me, researching the Cold War politics described in Russians and laughing at the Every Breath You Take riffs at the end of the jaunty Love is the Seventh Wave. Did he hope listeners would listen that deeply when he was penning those songs?

“I always assume that people are listening to the lyrics, not just passing over them like warm water. I do spend a lot of time with the words – that’s my job – I’m a wordsmith, if you like.

“They should contain surprises and puns and witticisms, but also be a touchstone to my emotional life – or what’s going on in the world. It’s not just ‘moon in June’, although I have rhymed moon and June at some point in the past – I’m sure – but there is something there. If you uncover layers, there are more underneath it. I don’t know how many, but the intention is there to make a layered piece of work.”

He says what he’s found heartening about the audiences on the My Songs tour so far are the wide demographics – and even split of genders – of those attending. “I think that’s testament to the popularity of the music. It feels like a community, rather than a kind of cult. I find it very lovely, sweet.”

Sting though is acutely aware of their expectations. “There are some songs I know I’m not going to get off the stage without singing, because I’ll be at risk of being lynched. I have to do the big hits. But I’m also doing some new songs [from his most recent album – 2021’s The Bridge]. I think it’s important, as difficult as it is to sing a new song.

“I think the audience is patient enough to sit there and give it a chance at least…they might be hits one day – you never know,” he grins.

Sting and The Police bandmate Andy Summers perform at Auckland’s Western Springs during their 1984 Synchronicity tour, a concert described as one of the most spectacular - and loudest - performances ever at the venue.

When it comes to songwriting, Sting admits that he still can’t really predict where – or when – the inspiration will strike, but while previous trips to our shores can’t be directly connected to any tunes, he has a few abiding memories.

“The first time we [The Police] came, I believe it was 1980, I was very fond of seeing old cars from the ‘40s and ‘50s. I was like ‘wow, an old Ford Anglia’.”

Legend – and the band’s fan sites – recall that trip as a four-concert tour where they only managed one performance, before Sting lost his voice and the trio retreated to mountains for a few days instead.

Then there was his last visit in 2015 when he was “paparazzied” while revelling in a visit to “a little town called Sumner” (actually a seaside suburb of Christchurch) that just happens to share his surname. With eldest son Joe his special guest and opening act on this tour, he’s looking forward to creating some more memories and sharing time with him – both on and off-stage – and seeing more of our landscape that draws him to watch Sir Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy every couple of years.
 

That admission leads me to ask the former Dune, Quadrophenia and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels star if he auditioned for that adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved books? “Ah no, I’m not sure who I would play? Certainly not Gandalf, I think that part was well taken care of.”

Mostly recently seen playing himself on the first season of Disney+’s Only Murders in the Building, Sting downplays his thespian abilities and ambitions.

“I never trained as an actor, I never had ambition to be an actor. There are so many fantastic actors in the world, I don’t want to get in the way, but if something is ideal for me, that I can do without embarrassing myself, then I will do it.

“I’ve made a lot of films with real actors and I’ve enjoyed it, but it’s not my earning vocation – I’m a singer, I’m a songwriter, I’ll do acting for fun. Any directors out there – just send me parts and I’ll have a look.”

Just maybe not a jukebox musical based on his own life – for the time being at least.

(c) Stuff by James Croot