Three hours before his sold-out concert, we arrived at The Star Theatre to speak with Ed Sheeran. The place was already swarming with excited teens and 20-somethings who were desperately hoping to catch an up-close and personal glimpse of him.
Perhaps they love him for his romantic nature, we thought, when he revealed to us how he once flew 16 hours to spend an afternoon with his girl at the time. Or his sensitivity. ‘If you notice, old people have old skin but not old eyes. So if you found someone with wicked eyes and a wicked sense of humour, they’re gonna have that for the rest of their lives,’ he shared. Maybe his sensible side – that could be it. ‘The better you do, the less you care about the negative side of things. I’ll read an article by someone who clearly doesn’t like me, and then go and play a show to thousands of people who clearly do, so it outweighs that. If you work towards something you love, you don’t give it up once you’ve got it. You just keep nurturing it.’
Oh wait, it’s probably the way he and BFF Taylor Swift unabashedly declare their respect for one another. ‘Taylor’s someone who’s really driven and passionate and loves her job. When she plays you a new song, it’s clear that she loves it. She goes, “Listen to this!” And then she dances around excitedly. You have to be confident in your own stuff.’
And confident he was, right from the moment he strutted onto stage ’til the very end of his 100-minute gig. The enthusiastic audience screamed and sprang to their feet the moment he appeared and never sat back down until he exited the building. The cheers of ‘I love you’ were unstoppable, pouring out from every corner of the theatre at every interlude – we even spotted a larger than life, lit-up cutout of him. At one point, he encouraged the crowd to make up words if they didn’t know the lyrics, but really, there was no need – they knew every line of every song.
As for the man of the hour, he looked perfectly comfortable in jeans and a tee, with a guitar slung over his shoulder, a looping machine at his feet, and a backdrop of swirling visuals. Very simple and down-to-earth. And yet, very intriguing and engaging. When he wasn’t unleashing rapid-fire raps, he was crooning sweet tunes so romantic we heard the sounds of ladies swooning across the aisle. ‘You look so wonderful in your dress,’ he murmured softly. Somewhere, a lady blushingly replied, ‘thank you!’ ‘So in love,’ he sang. We’d gather that was how everyone present felt about him.
There he was, a one-man band, as beloved as any pretty boy super group. By the time he got to ‘Give Me Love’, technically his final song of the evening, no one was ready to see him go. Naturally, he bounced back a minute later for a smashing encore in the form of ‘Sing’. And with that, he slinked off stage without much fanfare as the audience continued to sing. Quite the perfect ending.