Sting: Demolition Man

by Christopher Sandford

With plenty of detail for Sting fans of all ages, Demolition Man traces the rise of young Brit Gordon Sumner to the international pop icon known as Sting. Focusing continually on the man's personal and professional growth, this is no sleazy-tabloid type of biography; instead, his variety of talents, beliefs, and musical styles are shown against the backdrop of his personal life. The transformation from irritable and angry young punk living in a basement to multimillionaire father and activist makes for interesting material when coupled with his dramatic changes in musical style. Equal focus is given to all stages of his adult development--the chart-topping band the Police are presented as just another side trip, albeit an important one, in Sting's career. While there's a lot of minute detail, the presentation is uniformly after reading this book, you'll know everything about the man from his favorite hobbies to when he had his nose done, but somehow there's little sense of true motives or guiding inspiration. Old Police fans who've wondered what happened to the bleached-blond, sneering singer since his "growing up" will be relieved to learn there's a bit less self-importance behind his image than we've been led to believe. Author Christopher Sandford includes opinions about individual songs and movie scenes throughout the book (feel free to disagree), and fans wanting complete lists of Sting's accomplishments will find the timeline at the end of the book most helpful. --Jill Lightner

Genres: Biography, Music, Nonfiction

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Christopher Sandford has published acclaimed biographies of Kurt Cobain, Steve McQueen, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Keith Richards, Paul McCartney, and Roman Polanski. He has worked as a film and music writer and reviewer for over 20 years and frequently contributes to newspapers and magazines on both sides of the Atlantic. Rolling Stone has called him "the preeminent author in his field today."

His latest project, MASTERS OF MYSTERY (forthcoming November 2011, Palgrave Macmillan) explores Arthur Conan Doyle's and Harry Houdini's incredible friendship and fascination with Spiritualism.

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 2 out of 5]

After reading this book, I feel that I have gained additional insight into Sting's life and, in that respect, don't consider the effort spent with this book a waste of my time. However, I feel that any additional time invested in reading it a second time WOULD be a waste.

Mr Sandford spends too much time editorializing on his thoughts and beliefs about the man and not enough telling the story. He has his own perceptions of Sting and, instead of those perceptions merely coloring his prose, they completely overshadow the story being told.

One factual error - Mr Sandford states that Sting was the culprit behind Henri Padovani's departure from The Police once Andy Summers had been tapped for guitarist duties. Message In A Box (even Sandford states that Sting had no part of this box set release) contains an essay written by Mr. Summers himself where he specifically states that HE, Andy, was the one that laid down the ultimatum that he was the guitarist-of-record for the Police and that Henri had to go. The Police played ONE gig as a quartet and Andy told Sting and Stewart that there would not be a second with Henri. Sting and his 'overwhelming self-important ego' were NOT the reason Henri left The Police.

That error alone makes me discount many other statements made by Mr. Sandford. Demolition Man is worth one (and ONLY one) read, but remember to bring a grain of salt with you when you do because, in this case, you definitely can't believe everything you read.

[Arok · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with many reviews here, the issue with this book is the effort needed slogging through the writing. By the end, the author has convinced me of two things: Sting is not a "pretentious git", but the author most certainly is. My rating might be a bit higher than many, but that is merely for the topic being Sting and the interesting details of his poetry buried in the overprose.

[David Rullo · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book. Unfortunately, it's simply not good. Well researched but poorly written, I would recommend this title at all costs.

[Polly Krize · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Although based on the life of one of music's luminaries, the writing left me cold. Too much focus on money and companies and not enough about this poet. Too bad, could have been a good one! Only my opinion.

[Neil · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received a free copy via Netgalley in exchange for a honest review.

First off I did not finish this.
I was attempting to read this on my kindle but due to the editing being so poor I had to give up.

What I did read though left me disappointed, with very little mention about his music.

[Jason]

interesting subject but i don't care much for the writer.

[B.A. Dearsley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting insight into Sting's incredible (and deserved) success... but the writing left me kinda cold. A little too much purple prose for my liking...

[Pamela Montano · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not like this book. It was a slugfest to get through. It was so bogged down in details about how much Sting makes and how much each one of his companies makes and it bored me.

[Maria McMahon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok. Bit repetitive.

[Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a little bit of a dry read. Interesting nonetheless.

[Duncan Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

Broken Music is a better read