August 19, 2024 – Ahead of Sting’s headline performance at Radio 2 in the Park on Saturday 7 September, ERAs: Sting is a five part series – available on BBC Sounds now – in celebration of the storyteller, activist and superstar.
This latest series of Eras is presented by Radio 2 weekday mid-morning’s Vernon Kay, who guides listeners through each episode. Through rare BBC Archive, including interviews with Annie Nightingale, Lulu, Jo Whiley and Sara Cox, and new interviews with friends, fans and collaborators, including Jools Holland, Shaggy, Bob Harris, Jeremy Vine, Mark King, Shaun Keaveny and Guy Garvey, listeners discover the talent that took Sting to sold-out stadiums across the globe and beyond.
Episode 1:
This programme features the stories and the music that shaped Sting’s early life, from Wallsend to Punk-era London, where a phone call changed his destiny forever. Told in Sting’s own words through the BBC archive, and featuring new interviews with friends, fans and collaborators, listeners get to know the man behind the name.
Episode 2:
When Gordon Sumner, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers formed The Police, none of them could have predicted the phenomenon that they would become. The programme follows the band from the start to their world-dominating peak. In five years, they produced some defining hits of a generation. As Sting asserts himself as a songwriter and tensions brew, something had to give.
Episode 3:
The Police are no more, but Sting never rests on his laurels. Vernon Kay follows the first stages in Sting’s solo career which has now spanned four decades. Embracing his jazz origins and magpie instinct for melody, Sting joined the ranks of the great British soloists. At the same time, he helped forge the bond between pop and philanthropy that exists today. Listeners hear how Sting embraced the new, honed his craft, and fought for a better world.
Episode 4:
Vernon finds Sting in a place in which inspiration is everything. Whether it’s a lute album, a turn on Broadway, traditional folk or reggae, Sting refuses to be pinned down. That’s the attitude that’s won him millions of fans, and a musical legacy that only a handful of stars can match. In his eighth decade, he’s showing no signs of slowing down. A Cup & Nuzzle production.
Source
BBC TWO
