Sheeran has x-factor for Kiwi fans
Michael Gudinski says Ed Sheeran’s New Zealand tour sales are “the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen in my life”.
Gudinski heads international touring company Frontier Touring and, in more than 40 years in the industry, has worked with the likes of Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi, Joan Jett, Foo Fighters, Bob Dylan and many, many more.
Yet he still finds Sheeran’s success “absolutely mind boggling”.
Gudinski has had a “very close relationship” with Sheeran since his career first kicked off. He credits the singer’s success and huge popularity to his realness and dedication to music.
“He comes from the ilk of real superstars like Bruce Springsteen and Dave Grohl in the sense that he’s a real fan — he’s always listening to music, all different kinds of music and you can hear so many influences in his music,” he said.
“I think a lot of people, including myself, really underestimated how great a singer he is and obviously he’s an incredible songwriter . . . he’s just so prolific in the sense that he most probably has 100 songs he would’ve thought about for this album.”
Gudinski has watched Ed Sheeran grow his audience from a core demographic of young girls and older listeners, to a fanbase widespread enough to pack out six stadium shows in New Zealand alone.
The secret? He cares about and takes care of his fans; “he doesn’t talk down to people he just talks with people”.
On Friday it was announced Sheeran was throwing his support behind a new anti-scalping ticketing site coming to New Zealand soon.
Twickets allows fans to buy and sell spare concert tickets at face value to other fans, rather than the inflated prices on sites such as Viagogo.
“An artist that cares like this makes me want to work harder, to ensure we deliver what I want and what they want and that is that he wants his fans looked after,” says Gudinski.
“At his Sydney show it was pouring with rain and I told him, ‘Ed, you can go on half an hour later don’t worry about it’. And he looked at me and said, ‘Look, I’ll wait five minutes but if my fans are out there going through that then I’m on stage going through it,”’ Gudinski recalls of Sheeran.
“He went on, the people loved it and he just got poured on. That’s a typical example of Ed.”
Sheeran will perform at Auckland’s Mt Smart Stadium on March 24, 25 and 26, and at Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr Stadium on March 29 and 31, and April 1 (Easter Sunday).
Tickets to the new Dunedin show go on sale Thursday, June 1 at 1pm. See FrontierTouring.com for details.