ROCK star Sting has admitted he hated growing up in the North-East and spent his youth "plotting to escape".

The singer, above, born in Wallsend, North Tyneside, said he loathed the town and did not get on well with his family.

He told US TV channel CBS: "I was one of those kids who thought 'I actually don't belong here - either in this family or in this street or in this town'.

"I thought I was an orphan that had been, you know, sort of misplaced.

"I just felt this wasn't for me and I was plotting to escape from a very early age."