Ed Sheeran - iTunes Festival, Roundhouse, London - 2nd September 2012 (Live Review)
Monday, 03 September 2012
Written by Lara Rainsforth
With any Ed Sheeran’s performance you know what to expect as they are just plain and simple. Which is a good thing as you don’t have the distractions of dancers or any fireworks on the stage. So for just over two hours - it was Ed Sheeran and a guitar, sounding exceptional.
‘Give Me Love’ was the first track on the set list. The crowd erupted as the chords to ‘Drunk’ rang out around the Roundhouse, with Ed pausing every so often to listen to the crowd sing the lyrics back.
Ed next introduces the next track as ‘Homeless’ which he states he wrote a few years ago. Briefly putting down his guitar mid-song to teach the crowd the lyrics to the chorus.
It’s hard to believe that Ed hasn’t headlined the London Roundhouse before as he informs the crowd of the unusual fact. Next up was a track entitled ‘U.N.I’ which features on his debut album '+' as well as a free downloadable track from his newsletter.
‘Grade 8‘, ‘Small Bump’ and ‘The City’ were the tracks up and the crowd were still as engaged as ever as their voices echoed the Roundhouse along with Ed singing along.
There was defiantly a lot more talking between Ed Sheeran compared to the previous night’s artist. Even just the simple of things to talking about a recent concert that he performed at in Luxembourg and recognising faces in the front row, just makes the concert a lot more personal.
As Ed changed guitars, he encouraged (not that they needed much) the crowd to sing along to his Tuning Song for tuning his guitar, which he also commented was the song from the Lynx advert. He then breaks into a story about the only festival that takes place in his area. The next thing is quite random as he encourages the crowd to turn to the person next to them and hug them.
Ed then launches into what he calls is his festival tune which is actually entitled ‘This’ and you can see the crowd hugging each other and swaying to and fro. Who knew that Ed Sheeran could also be a comedian as he demands every turn and face their partner next to them and sing the rest of the sing to them.
As well as outstanding vocals throughout the show, Ed had me laughing in between the songs with his banter with the crowd. Showcasing his pure talent as his sang acapella to the crowd throughout various parts of the show as he taught them different parts of songs.
‘Be My Husband’ was the next track up as he introduced this cover track to the crowd, as well as encouraging them to make up the words to the song if they didn’t know them.
He then proceeded to explain the real reason as to why he left the Snow Patrol tour in the USA early. The truth was he wasn’t in rehab but fulfilling a promise to his Godparents to perform at their wedding. However, he said that if anyone asks then he was in rehab as it sounds more rock and roll. The next song ‘Kiss’ was the track that Ed had written especially for the happy couple in question and possibly the quietest the crowd had been all night. Which he even commented on at the end of the track, so he demanded the crowd do a ‘woop woop’.
He then proceeded into ‘Lego House’ which he told the crowd that if they didn’t know the words then they were at the wrong gig. As most of the evening panned out, you could hear the crowd over Ed Sheeran’s vocals.
It wouldn’t be a true Ed Sheeran performace without ‘The A Team’ which to me is Ed’s anthem and was met by screams from the crowd, as soon as this track finished he launched into Snow Patrol’s biggest hit ‘Chasing Cars’ and was joined on stage by the leading man Gary Lightbody which was a huge surprise for the crowd.
Ed then proceeded to his last track of the evening as he thanked the London Roundhouse for an amazing evening and launched into ‘You Need Me, I Don’t Need You’ to finish the evening off which seemed to go on forever – not that anyone (including me) was complaining especially when Chip (formerly known as Chipmunk), Delvin, Sway and Wretch 32 entered the stage with many others. After his surprise guests had taken to the stage to show their talent, Ed Sheeran then proceeded to divide the crowd into sections to scream the track as loud as they could. It then turned into a competition as to what section could be the loudest and they really didn’t need any encouragement as together they had been exceptional loud all evening.
Overall, it was an exceptional performance from Ed Sheeran and truly felt privileged to be able to watch the concert, even if it was live stream via iTunes. It may have been exactly the performance I expected to see from Ed Sheeran but it was outstanding and certainly put a lot of other artists and bands to shame tonight. He proved that you don’t need the biggest production in the world to be able to please the crowd, sometimes the simpler the better.
NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
We don't run any advertising! Our editorial content is solely funded by lovely people like yourself using Stereoboard's listings when buying tickets for live events. To keep supporting us, next time you're looking for concert, festival, sport or theatre tickets, please search for "Stereoboard". It costs you nothing, you may find a better price than the usual outlets, and save yourself from waiting in an endless queue on Friday mornings as we list ALL available sellers!
