Survey shows Wallsend-born Sting attracted 194,000 people to the North East in 2012 and new album shaped by experiences of growing up in the North. North rock star Sting is boosting the number of music tourists travelling to the region, according to a new report. Figures from UK Music and VisitBritain survey show that the Wallsend-born singer attracted 194,000 people to the North East in 2012. The Government-backed report says that nationally music tourists have brought £2.2bn to the economy, as cities cash in on their musical heritage. The news comes as Sting releases his latest album Last Ship, which is shaped by his experiences of growing up in the North...

Sting's memories of his school days aren't exactly fond. The son of a hairdresser and engineer fitter's mate, he passed his 11-plus and was promptly set on the path to great things. But first he had priests to deal with. "I got a scholarship to a grammar school," recalls the singer songwriter, actor and, now, dramatist. "So I was kind of sectioned from most of the people I was brought up with and put in this school uniform, and was sent on a train to Newcastle and taught Latin and physics and all that stuff." For a young lad from the streets of Wallsend on Tyneside, the rupture was cataclysmic. The elevation of the boy born Gordon Sumner to a better school five miles away would, ultimately, send him all around the world, with the multiple domiciles to prove it...