It is startling to see a stadium show performed entirely solo – and for good reason. Until last night, it had never before happened on our shores.
Enter Ed Sheeran, the twenty-four-years-young English singer-songwriter, who kicked off his Australian tour at Suncorp Stadium with only a collection of guitars and a series of loop pedals for company. With the dimming of the house lights, and resultant roar from the sell-out crowd, a video montage spanning Ed’s life from 1993 to 2015 flashed up on the screens, framed in an old school Polaroid picture format.
With just two studio albums under his belt, + (2011) and x (2014), this glimpse into Ed’s childhood drove home Ed’s extraordinary rise to fame. His is a success story pleasingly founded on talent and not marketable boy band good looks.
This in no way however dimmed the screams and declarations of love from the throng of female fans as Ed took to the stage. Without fuss or preamble, he launched into ‘I’m a Mess’ and ‘Lego House’. The girl beside me who had earlier declared that she was going to melt into a puddle due to the heat, was now, along with thousands of other female fans, seemingly melting in fevered adoration.
Photos: Ed Sheeran and Socials
Addressing the crowd, Ed spoke of his successes in the laddish, self-effacing way that makes him so very endearing. In case you didn’t know, his album, x, is the highest-selling album in Australia for 2014 and 2015, and he vowed to sing until he lost his voice. We were dared to do likewise and to dance like idiots (and yes, like no one was watching).
‘Drunk’ was next on the set list followed by the rap track ‘Take It Back’. Interspersed with snippets of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Superstition’ and Bill Withers’ ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’, the fluidity in which Ed bounced between tracks proved that rap is a genre in which he revels.
The ballads continued with ‘One’ and ‘Photograph’ before the tempo was elevated once again with ‘Bloodstream’. The crowd was more than happy to comply with Ed’s request that we raise our arms and drop them in unison when it [the beat] kicked in.
As the delicate opening bars to ‘Tenerife Sea’ sounded, a light rain descended as if on cue, delivering a welcome, refreshing caress to the hushed crowd. Lifting my face to the longed-for relief, I saw that the sky had formed into an unbroken canopy of white rain clouds, enclosing us further in the intimacy Ed had summoned only moments earlier with the simple gesture of a finger to his lips, calling for quiet.
The silent reverie and clouds quickly dispersed however with Ed’s introduction of ‘Don’t’ - a song that he described as a most unhappy love song in comparison. The stadium reverberated as the full house clapped along to the balladic rap.
Blackstreet’s ‘No Diggity’ and Michael Buble’s ‘Feeling Good’ made an appearance before Ed unleashed on ‘I See Fire’ from the The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug soundtrack. The set continued with another nod to Stevie Wonder ‘I Was Made to Love Her’ followed by ‘Kiss Me’. A brief glimpse of 50 Cent’s ‘In Da Club’ appeared before crowd favourite ‘Thinking Out Loud’ stole the show. As the music video played, wolf whistles pierced the night air. Yes, Ed can dance too.
Ed introduced ‘The A Team’ as technically his last song for the evening leaving us in no doubt that we would be treated to an encore. And treated we were with ‘You Need Me, I Don’t Need You’ and the anthem, ‘Sing’ rounding out the night.
It is hard to criticise the one man band that is Ed Sheeran, but if I had but one wish, his set list would have included ‘Give Me Love’. But he gave more than enough.
Set List
I'm a Mess
Lego House
Drunk
Take It Back
One
Photograph
Bloodstream
Tenerife Sea
Don't
I See Fire
I Was Made to Love Her (Stevie Wonder cover)
Kiss Me
Thinking Out Loud
The A Team
Encore:
You Need Me, I Don't Need You
Sing
