Sting

Before he was Sting, Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner was a schoolteacher from Wallsend, a town shaped by its shipyards, and a jazz bassist playing in Newcastle. That double life gives his music its restless range, as rock, jazz, reggae, classical, new-age and worldbeat all turn up in his solo work. He was also the lead vocalist, principal songwriter and bassist of the Police. He has sold more than 100 million records across his solo career and that band.

The Police formed in January 1977 with Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers, and between 1978 and 1983 they had five UK chart-topping albums. Synchronicity, which earned five Grammy nominations including Album of the Year, carried "Every Breath You Take", the group's most successful song. He left the band in 1983 after a concert at Shea Stadium in New York and began a solo career in 1985. The Police were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003 and reunited briefly for a 2007 tour. In May 2023 he was made an Ivor Novello Fellow.