Ed Sheeran, live review: Energetic Ed has no fear at Wembley

The singer-songwriter from Suffolk also brought on Elton John for a guest appearance
A-lister: Ed Sheeran plays to 80,000 at Wembley Stadium (Picture: Christie Goodwin/Redferns via Getty Images)
Christie Goodwin/Redferns via Getty Images
Andre Paine20 July 2015

Playing Wembley Stadium is not just a show, it’s a statement. Ed Sheeran’s three nights at the venue neatly coincided with his album, x, going back to No 1.

While it was a career-defining weekend, there was still something unlikely about this singer-songwriter from Suffolk playing solo to 80,000 fans. When he wandered on in a lumberjack shirt, it was as if a busker with his acoustic guitar had entered the stadium usually reserved for rock’s touring titans.

To Sheeran’s credit, he approached Wembley as if it was just another gig (although it meant his on-stage banter was worryingly familiar).

He was an energetic one-man band who sang over a backing track made by looping his voice alongside the slapping and strumming of his guitar.

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Sheeran created a surprising intimacy on the balmy ballad Lego House, while the acoustic rap of Take It Back was as fearless as his cover of Nina Simone’s Feeling Good.

It might have been a lonely performance but for the teenage girls singing his slightly soppy songs back to him and holding illuminated phones aloft. And it was smart not to rely on giant screens all the time: it made you lean in and watch the solitary figure on stage.

His ascendancy to pop’s A-list was confirmed by a guest appearance from Elton John on an appealing duet of Don’t Go Breaking My Heart.

Sheeran had a few of his own No 1 singles, including an encore of Sing with 80,000 fans chanting along.

For two hours, he held this audience with just his voice and guitar: an impressive and presumably highly lucrative solo performance.

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