REEL MUSIC!
Musicians have been making the transition to the big screen ever since Elvis—recently, Madonna in Desperately Seeking Susan and Prince in Purple Rain, of course—but few seem to be doing it with the sheer zeal of Gordon Sumner, a.k.a. Sting.
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REEL MUSIC!
Musicians have been making the transition to the big screen ever since Elvis—recently, Madonna in Desperately Seeking Susan and Prince in Purple Rain, of course—but few seem to be doing it with the sheer zeal of Gordon Sumner, a.k.a. Sting.
Quadrophenia, Ever since his the movie 34-year-old debut as rock the star “Ace has Face” in seemed as intent on making it as big in acting as he has in music. And, with the release of his latest, Bring On The Night, it would appear that he’s amply succeeded.
Bring On The Night is, quite simply, the story of the formation of Sting’s new band—which includes top jazz musicians Branford Marsalis (sax), Kenny Kirkland (piano), Omar Hakim (drums) and Darryl Jones (bass). “I think of it as an honest look into 10 days of my life,” Sting says. “If I were to make the film now, the music would be better because my music has gotten better playing with this band.”
There’s a further motive to the documentary nature of Bring On The Night, too: “We wanted to make a film about the beginning—the formation of a group of musicians,” he explains. “Other (music related) movies, like The Last Waltz or Let It Be, have been about the last days of a band. I wanted to make a movie about a band starting off.”
Besides documenting the birth of a band, Bring On The Night documents the actual birth of a person, too! (That of Sting’s son Jake, who came into the world the second night of concert filming.) “At first, I resisted filming it,” dad observed. “Then I realized there’s a tenuous link between the band being born and the baby. So it fit.”
finite for a guy who—at 17—applied for a paman’s card, then worked as a ditch digger, civil irvant and bus conductor. A guy who’s life ork—at one point—looked to be as an English acher and soccer coach at St. Catherine’s onvent School in Newcastle, England. A guy who oked like he pretty much had it all as the singer songwriter in what might have been the orld’s most popular band.
Based on his performance thus far, we can only edict the unpredictable for Sting.
STING’S MOVIE FACTS ing’s been in more movies than you might think: ting On The Night is actually his ninth film role, ere’s the official list of his many screen credits: “Ace Face” in Quadrophenia Radio On
Artemis ’81 (for the BBC)
The Great Rock V Roll Swindle “Martin Taylor” in Brimstone
And Treacle “Feyd Rautha” in Dune “Dr. Frankenstein” in The Bride (with Jennifer Beals)
“Mick” in Plenty (with Meryl Streep)
Bring On The Night
