Ed Sheeran, Ipswich: The chart clogger returns with a familiar shtick
A 30,000-strong family had gathered to welcome their boy home, from grandparents to small children – most of whom were Suffolk locals, where Sheeran cut his teeth in small venues and on the streets. He strolled on stage in t-shirt and jeans, looking like a roadie. After opening with his latest single, Sapphire, he explained that the show was just him, his guitar, and his notorious loop pedal, which he uses to layer handmade beats, guitar riffs and his own vocals. (Low overheads, then: no wonder he's worth so much money. As well as saving cash, his performance style reiterates those fabled humble busker origins, reinforcing an image of him as a relatable dork.)
'This is kind of the unofficial start of the new tour,' he announced a few songs in, referencing his upcoming album Play. But Sheeran mostly played older songs, from early hit The A Team to Castle On The Hill, a Suffolk-set coming-of-age track named after the nearby Framlingham Castle. Then came the nasal sing-rap of Don't and the repellent cod Galway Girl, amid a wash of anodyne strum, including wedding staple Thinking Out Loud.
To the irritation of many critics, Sheeran uses his undisputed talents to churn out offensively inoffensive singles: he's a career-minded chart clogger with appeal so broad that over his career, he has shifted 200 million albums. (He is also regularly the artist with the most Spotify followers in the world.) Not bad for the musical equivalent of a damp flannel. His trick is to water down genre to appeal to a wider pool of listeners, evident during a medley of songs that were first collaborations – including River (his song with Eminem,) Beautiful People (Khalid), and I Don't Care (Justin Bieber).
The loop pedal shtick became repetitive in a show that lasted nearly two and half hours, drawing attention to the similarity of much of his music – a spell briefly broken when Sheeran brought out Irish folk band Beoga, industrious producer Steve Mac, and Westlife, for a collective rendition of Flying Without Wings.
But ultimately, this was a one-man show, and one that's become unstoppable in its efficiency. Here is a man who can hold thousands of people in the palm of his hand with little more than some basic stage equipment and a faux-ordinary persona. You want Sheeran to shake up his live show the same way you want him to shake up his music – knowing that he probably won't, and will never really need to.
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