Sting's latest project - an album entitled The Last Ship, inspired by his play of the same name - was informed by his memories of growing up in Wallsend in the shadow of the Swan Hunters Shipyard. In February 2012, a small local audience was invited to Newcastle's Live Theatre to witness an early reading of the play. The reading, which included new songs by Sting, was performed with a cast and musicians and gave the audience an opportunity to see how things were progressing. At the time, they would have been forgiven for thinking that the songs were nearly finished - in fact, the play and songs were, at that time, still in the early developmental stages, with exciting new improvements and additions to come...