<P> Sting performed jazz in the evening , weekends and during breaks from college and teaching . He played with the Phoenix Jazzmen , Newcastle Big Band , and Last Exit . He gained his nickname after his habit of wearing a black and yellow sweater with hooped stripes with the Phoenix Jazzmen . Bandleader Gordon Solomon thought he looked like a bee ( or according to Sting himself , `` they thought I looked like a wasp '' ) , which prompted the name `` Sting '' . In the 1985 documentary Bring on the Night a journalist called him Gordon , to which he replied , `` My children call me Sting , my mother calls me Sting , who is this Gordon character ? '' In Time in 2011 he said : `` I was never called Gordon . You could shout ' Gordon ' in the street and I would just move out of your way . '' </P>
what was the name of the first band sting played in
Phoenix Jazzmen Newcastle Big Band Last Exit