Star's life in words has Sting taken out (From Stroud News and Journal)

Star's life in words has Sting taken out

REVIEW

Sting in Conversation The Centaur, Cheltenham Wednesday, November 24

IN A one-off event to publicise next year's Cheltenham International Jazz Festival, pop legend and Friend of the Earth, Sting, came to Cheltenham and sold a lot of books.

You see, he's not just a musician, singer, sex god and planet saver, he is also the author of Broken Music, the story of his 53 years of life. For some reason he refuses to call it an autobiography, preferring the modest moniker "a literary piece of work".

On stage in front of a thousand intrigued punters, music biographer Robin Eggar ran Sting through the usual interview questions and no, The Police will not be reforming, he wasn't upset at not being asked to sing on the new Band Aid single; yes, he is a sex god; he doesn't mind The X Factor and he writes on a computer - not with pen and paper - because "it looks real".

Sting also revealed that his hero is Nelson Mandela due to his "compassion and wisdom for humanity. I've never met him," he said, but just in case we begin to suspect he's not that big a celebrity - after all, The Spice Girls have - he adds humbly, "but we correspond."

Going to see Sting in conversation is a bit like watching David Beckham play cricket - it's just not what they're supposed to do.

Despite rumors of a guitar somewhere in the building the songs never showed up and we were left humming tunes in our heads to drown out the chit-chat. Well, there's always next year's Jazz Festival to look forward to.