Top musician Sting took to the rails in order to get to the Exchange 1856 building in North Shields.

The Wallsend-born singer, whose real name is Gordon Sumner, took a trip on the Tyne and Wear Metro from Monument to North Shields, where he received his Freedom of North Tyneside award.  Swapping ‘Walking on the Moon’ for a Metro round the Toon, the music legend posted pictures of his journey on his official Facebook and Instagram pages.  The post on Facebook also detailed a slight hiccup to the day where both Sting and his guests initially boarded the wrong train, though they did get to the ceremony on time.

He later told a packed auditorium that he was very proud and owed North Tyneside a great deal, adding that he had come ‘full circle’ back to the place where he once dreamt of a life in music.

Sting’s fame began when he was frontman for the band The Police. He has sold over 100 million albums from his combined work with The Police and as a solo artist. Among his many global awards, he has won 17 Grammys and four BRIT Awards.

This year, Sting became a Fellow of the Ivors Academy,  a rare honour reserved for those who have reshaped and redefined the art and craft of music creation. His hit song ‘Every Breath You Take’ was added to Spotify’s ‘Billions Club,’ having amassed over one billion streams on the platform with the correlating music video surpassing one billion streams on YouTube.

Customer Services Director at Nexus, Huw Lewis, said: “It was fantastic to see that Sting chose Metro on his most recent visit back to his native North East England. He was here to collect the Freedom of the Borough of the North Tyneside, so hopped on the Metro in Newcastle city centre for the short journey up to North Shields.

“He may even have noticed he features in the Famous Faces artwork at Monument Metro station alongside other iconic figures from the region.”