Modest Sheeran’s one-man band sets crowd alight
LIVE: ED SHEERAN (Etihad Stadium, Manchester) Verdict: Scruffy superstar triumphs
WINNING over a packed football stadium armed with just an acoustic guitar and a special effects gadget that records and replays a few basic sounds should be daunting. Ed Sheeran rose fearlessly to the task on the first of four outdoor shows in Manchester. ‘Everything I play tonight is live,’ he told fans after walking on stage in jeans and a crumpled T-shirt. ‘It is controlled by a loop pedal, and it will be different tomorrow.’ With a bank of video screens the only concession to the modern open-air spectacular, he relied largely on natural charm and a raft of crowd-pleasing singalongs to sustain him.
The numbers surrounding this year’s stadium tour are jaw-dropping, echoing the sales records set in 2017 by Sheeran’s third album ÷ (Divide), which saw all 16 of its songs take up residency in the Top 20.
The singer, 27, will have played to more than a million British fans by the time the UK leg of his Divide tour closes at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff on June 24. Worldwide, he will sing to seven million. On a mild night more Madrid than Manchester, he strove to make an immediate connection.
Accompanied by film footage of country lanes, Castle On The Hill was an ode to ‘getting drunk with my friends’ in his hometown of Framlingham, Suffolk. On Eraser, he rapped about his formative years.
There were heartwarming stories of early struggles, including one about a gig in Manchester nine years ago where he played to an audience of one rather than 60,000.
‘No matter how few people were there, I’ve always given my best,’ he reminisced. Even that night proved to be auspicious: the solitary spectator went on to become his lawyer.
An upbeat opening was followed by a mid-set lull. With no band, Sheeran sometimes asks too much of himself. Dive and Bloodstream are acoustic numbers that would sound unremarkable in a tiny tent at the Cambridge Folk Festival. In the cavernous, concrete home of Manchester City, their impact was negligible.
But Ed, aware of the loneliness of the long-distance strummer, is a dab hand at gauging a mood.
ArEqUEST that fans ‘ get as weird as possible with me’ fell on deaf ears, but his other interjections enlivened matters: ‘Sing along if you know the words. If you don’t, just make them up.’
He played on his Irish heritage. Two of his grandparents were born in Ireland, and he warmed up for his current run of concerts by playing Cork, Belfast, Galway and Dublin.
His song Galway Girl is a string of Celtic clichés, but it provided a show- stopping moment here. Much the same went for his superior Irish jig Nancy Mulligan. With thousands of young, female voices by now in full flow, the mass singalongs ensued.
His take on Nina Simone’s Feeling Good was histrionic, but Thinking Out Loud tapped into the spirit of Van Morrison. Even schmaltzy soul ballad Perfect was genuinely moving.
For an extended encore that began with Shape Of You, he even pulled off the night’s only costume change, returning in a different T-shirt, adorned with ‘I Love MCr’ in tribute to the victims of last year’s terrorist attack in the city.
It was an emotional finale. The Ed Sheeran phenomenon continues to amaze — he took home two Ivor Novello Awards yesterday — but statistics tell only part of the story. His greatest feat is achieving so much through sheer force of personality.
THE Divide tour continues tonight at Hampden Park, Glasgow (seetickets.com).