Sting not only wrote the book and lyrics for The Last Ship, he will also play the leading role when the show arrives in Brisbane. The renowned singer-songwriter tells Clive Paget why he wanted to write a musical and how it draws on his childhood in the working-class community of Wallsend in the UK as it faced the closure of its shipyard.

Sting. Photo © Manon van der Zwaal

With 18 Grammy Awards, an Emmy, a CBE, the Polar Music Prize and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Sting has little to prove. Perhaps that’s why, in 2011, people were surprised to learn that the English rock star and activist, then aged 60, was working on a musical.