Worried about your children’s exam results? Don’t fret – Ed Sheeran got all Fs in music!
IT’S a sight to strike fear into the heart of any student – a string of F grades.
But this certificate will bring hope to anyone disappointed with their exam results, as the recipient was Ed Sheeran and it came from his music college.
The singer-songwriter was failed in every subject – including musicianship and songcraft – in a diploma from the Academy of Contemporary Music (ACM).
Today, he is worth an estimated £160million and is about to finish the highest-grossing concert
‘My dad kept everything’
tour of all time with gigs in his home county of Suffolk.
The certificate is among the pieces on show at an exhibition about the 28-year-old’s childhood and route to stardom, curated by his proud dad, John.
In 2009 the Surrey college that would fail Sheeran refused to grant him permission to support British hip hop artist Just Jack on a UK tour. Sheeran joined the tour anyway and left college.
Speaking at a preview of the exhibition, Ian Johnson of the Access Creative College – who helped Sheeran break into the music industry – said yesterday: ‘He saw a massive opportunity and didn’t look back.’ Other items on display at the Ed Sheeran: Made in Suffolk exhibition, at Christchurch Mansion museum in Ipswich, include: a notebook of the first songs Sheeran wrote aged 13; the original artwork for the cover of his 2017 album ÷ ; and the puppet of Sheeran featured in the 2014 Sing and 2018 Happier videos.
Portraits of the star by Colin Davidson – whose sitters have included the Queen and Bill Clinton – also feature, along with private family photographs and home movies going back to when Sheeran was crawling.
In a foreword of a book accompanying the exhibition, Sheeran writes: ‘My dad has uncovered all sorts of stuff, going way back to my childhood and teenage years. He seems to have kept everything.’