So for the fourth time, on the 3rd May, we saw Ed Sheeran. This time we had to travel to the O2 in London because we couldn’t get tickets for the two Nottingham gigs the week before, which by all accounts were extraordinary. But unfortunately the gig in London didn’t seem that way at all. I’ve been in the O2 a couple of times before, once to watch basketball in the Olympics and once to see Robbie Williams with Alison. But I’m not entirely convinced about it as a venue. The interesting thing about this though is every time I’ve seen Ed Sheeran before, as soon as he comes out onto the stage and starts to play the guitar everybody stands up and in London, on Wednesday, they didn’t.
The bigger you get the harder it becomes to bring raging fans with you, and Wednesday night was night 31 of the European tour of Ed Sheeran to what must be about half a million people. Now people who are coming to watch, a light majority are coming to see what its all about. Three years ago he managed to do three nights in a row at Wembley to 240,000 people combined but at the end of this UK tour and this leg of his European tour it just seemed to be a little bit less than exceptional. Honestly at one point at the start of the show the only person standing in the upper tier (of about 6,000-8,000 people) was my wife. As everybody tapped there knees politely, in a surreal demonstration of what I can only describe as cultural inflation.
Five years ago when Ed Sheeran was releasing his EP with “You need me man I don’t need you” it was just entirely different. The ginger haired boy with a loop pedal creating his own backing group and backing vocals on stage as he spoke to you was something the likes of I’ve never seen before. We saw him in Nottingham a couple of years later when he was dressed up as Chuckie and his style and how enthusiastic he was was just totally infectious. And that night was mental. The next night at Nottingham was even more mental and he was even more famous, and the Wembley concert was just the pinicle. I had no idea how he would hold a crowd that big, and he did. But not on Wedesnday.
Maybe it was just a bad night. Maybe it was just a bad day at the office or coming together of events were the guys in the crowd just didn’t kick off at the start of the show. And maybe from his point of view it seemed like a good show. But I am reminded of the time that Alison and I went to Dublin to see Robbie Williams and Croke Park (the first time I’ve ever seen Robbie Williams in concert) and he actually apologised at the end of the gig for how rubbish he had been. It was the start of the end for him, and a downward spiral.
I think this slightly applies to all of us, at some point, our reach outgrows our ability to provide the quality that made us good in the first place. Maybe it’s the fact that we get complacent and comfortable in our new surroundings with our rewards or maybe the zietgiest moves on and we don’t move with it. From my point of view I hope Ed Sheeran continues upwards and this is just a small blip, I’ve loved following what he has done throughout his career and I just felt that it was a turning point on Wednesday which really did make me reflect on things around me.
Blog Post Number - 1280