Superstar Ed Sheeran returned to Brisbane last night to kick off his three-night Australian leg of his + - = ÷ x (Mathematics) Tour. It was Ed's first show down under since his record-breaking 2018 Divide Tour which saw him smash the record for the highest-selling tour in history, with a phenomenal 1,006,387 tickets sold across Australia and New Zealand alone. Tonight he was also celebrating his 32nd birthday with us.
The stadium was filled to capacity, and all eyes were glued to the towering cylindrical screens and the stage in the round which had impressive guitar pick-fashioned screens dotted throughout the stadium for everyone's clear viewing of the performance. A countdown appeared on the giant cylindrical screen which added to the anticipation and the crowd screams were deafening at their first glimpse of the British star, who came to the stage with a quick wave and opened with 'Tides' and 'Blow'. The stage blew with fireworks that shot from the top of the stadium and fire cannons discharged from all around the stage.
This time Sheeran had opened with a band and a bang rather than his regular one-man show, but soon went back to how we all know and love him, being accompanied only by his guitars and loop pedal machine at his feet. This time on a revolving stage, Ed not only stood at his loop station and lay down the tracks but sang with his hand-held mic, guitar slung over his body that appeared as natural as a limb, and he ran, jumped and scooted his way around the circular travelling platform. He did lap after lap so nobody missed a view of the performance.
As he started to lay down the track Ed explained to the crowd the intricacies of his loop station and how each track is played live. You could feel his childlike eagerness in breaking it down to show us how it all occurred together while he built into 'Shivers'.
Ed said how much he really did love Australia and told us how good it was to be back although he had forgotten about the heat. It certainly was a steamy night in Brissy and we were in the middle of a heatwave. He reflected on his small home town in England and how back when he first produced a single, his management told him how Australians had a similar musical taste to the British and how he should try his first single down under. He used to “play this song to no one,” he said. “people used to talk over it as I was singing” he laughed and now he is selling out stadiums. The song was ‘A Team’ and the audience all sang along with their beloved birthday boy. He wore an all-black ensemble with the words BRISBANE in a small and colourful font on his T-shirt which was a special touch.
For the next two hours an enthusiastic Brisbane crowd were completely won over by our ruffled red-haired performer, mesmerised as he looped, strummed, rapped, and belted out chart-topping hit after hit which included the likes of ‘Castle on the Hill’ ‘Galway Girl’ including a fierce live fiddle performance and a mash-up of ‘Don’t/ No Diggity' and 'Nina ’.
There were no surprises with the clear crowd favourites of ‘Photograph’ ‘Thinking out loud’ ‘Bloodstream’ ‘Perfect’ and ‘Sing’ which produced whole stadium sing-a-longs.
Sheeran confessed to being a bit of a “nerd” and said how he loved Pokémon and was ecstatic when asked by Peter Jackson to write a song for The Hobbit and also for Pokémon. He went on to play 'Celestial' the Pokémon Song and said how much he loved that this was now on his setlist. He spoke of how he has written loads of songs for people in the past and about one in particular where he sent off a file to his management one morning at 5 am, still dusty from the prior evening’s festivities, and had forgotten he had even done so at all. Months later he was told it was set to be this artist's main single for their album. He then went on to play it to an ecstatic crowd which was Justin Beiber’s hit ‘Love Yourself'
When Ed Sheeran spoke the crowd responded, no questions asked, synchronized en masse and what a sight it was. Stand-out crowd moments were when Ed said to the crowd that the stadium was like a huge birthday cake and he asked everyone to turn on their phone torches to create a mass of candles so he could "blow them out". The other was during ‘Sing’ when Sheeran commanded “We all sing as loud as we can" and the stadium erupted with deafening song and when he sang 'Perfect' the led cylindrical screen came alive with a beautiful golden dancing couple and phones lit up the stadium like fireflies.
Brisbane was treated to a beautiful dedication to the late Michael Gudinski before hearing ‘Visiting Hours’ and Ed finished his set for the night simply with ‘Afterglow’. He was quickly cheered back out to the stage for his encore and had changed into a black t-shirt with our Indigenous flag on it. He finished strong with ‘Shape of You’ followed by ‘Bad Habits and ‘You Need Me'.
Sheeran’s vocal ability and fitness were on display as he ran and sang simultaneously for over two hours without missing a note or strum of his guitar, it was astounding. He is the ultimate showman and his love of what he does shines through. He mentioned how his hobby had now become his job and how lucky you are if you are able to do that "because you won’t ever feel like you’re working". He reflected on life and music and how honoured he was that so many people had chosen his music to punctuate important moments in their lives. He reflected on how music was at the pinnacle of special moments in his own life and wanted us to know how much he appreciated our use of his music in our own special moments in life. He shared that over the years the song that people had connected to more than any other song he had written was ‘Perfect’
Ed did not disappoint and the night was exactly that, perfect. The cheeky redhead lad with his boy-next-door vibe gave us one hell of a show to remember and it was easy to see why he has been dubbed one of the biggest names in music today.
