Ed Sheeran performing at The Motorpoint Arena Nottingham on Tuesday 25th April 2017.

Review by Kevin Cooper

Ed Sheeran took Nottingham’s breath away as he plied his trade before a sold out Motorpoint Arena last night. With a simple setting, his array of guitars, a loop pedal and a microphone he captivated this Nottingham crowd.

With the lights dimming, he bounded out with guitar in hand, frantically strumming the opening chords to Castle On The Hill and this audience, some of whom had been queuing since 8am to get in, sang along with him, word for word.

Earlier this month, all sixteen tracks from his third and latest album, Divide, occupied a place in the top twenty and so it was not surprising that he delivered a set list which was new song heavy. But this did not deter his army of loyal fans as they had obviously been rehearsing, singing his words right back at him.

He ducked and dived out of all of his three albums, with a bit of beautiful nostalgia from + and some gems from X, and plenty from the breathtaking, record breaking Divide. New tracks Eraser and Happier seemed familiar; but it was Photograph and Bloodstream from X which were very special.

With his percussive guitar techniques, a bit of wizardry on the loop pedals and a hugely impressive light show, this one man band simply mesmerised. The crowd went wild for two tracks from Divide, Galway Girl and Nancy Mulligan, whilst a particular highlight was the mash up of Don’t and New Man which worked very well together.

The impressive ballad Thinking Out Loud was quite simply stunning and with his musical partners being his devoted fans, they sang backing vocals for the entirety of The A Team and took the lead for the chorus in set closer Sing.

Coming back on for The Shape Of You and You Need Me I Don’t Need You, Sheeran was an animated presence as he skipped around whilst switching between rapping and singing.

Looking unpretentious, casually dressed in a black T shirt and black jeans, he has staked his place as a musical phenomenon. But there is a down side to going to an Ed Sheeran concert; 8,000 people singing back to him did mean that he was sometimes hard to hear. But this did not deter this crowd who continued singing his songs long after Ed Sheeran had left the stage.

Ed Sheeran performing his ‘X’ Tour at The Capital FM Arena Nottingham on Wednesday 22^nd October 2014

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Images and Review by Kevin Cooper

Can one man with no band, no back-up singers, no dancers and no stage mates whatsoever, entertain a crowd of nearly 10,000. That question was answered last night when Ed Sheeran hit the stage at The Capital FM Arena for the first of his two sell out nights, with just a guitar and a loop pedal, and the answer was a 10,000 fan strong scream of “yes”.

Ed Sheeran’s rise to fame could be the subject of a rags to riches Hollywood movie script. A former busker, who once slept in a ceremonial arch near Buckingham Palace because it had a heating vent, is now one of Britain’s biggest musical stars. In fact if he weren’t such an all-round good egg and self-effacing chap, he would be perfectly entitled to adapt that famous Brian Clough quote into something like, “I’m not saying I’m the best pop star in Britain, but I’m definitely in the top one!”

Sheeran may have come a very long way in a short time but already he is very much the epitome of the modern consummate pop star, and this visit to Nottingham clearly showed that he is also about as unmanufactured a pop star as one could wish for; something truly refreshing in an X Factor age.

In keeping with the internet generation’s capacity for mixing and matching, his music spans genres that might not ordinarily overlap in the shape of pop, soul, folk and hip-hop, but somehow the resultant fusion works wonderfully and at times verges on the magical.

There are no gimmicks, though he is a gifted guitar player with a deft touch. He cleverly augments his sound with a pedal board that loops his voice and guitar and triggers samples to provide added variety and inject texture. He even used the body of his guitar to great percussive effect. This one man band approach is almost a show in itself.

Opening his set with I’m A Mess, the arena erupted as the audience immediately stood up to receive this tousle-haired, angelic singer and nibble wordsmith. Numbers from this year’s phenomenally successful album X (it’s pronounced multiply) included Take It Back, Bloodstream and Don’t which had an intense guitar climax.

He has a lot of tricks up his sleeve to add depth to the stripped down songs, like layering his own vocal harmonies, banging on his guitar and the easiest part, getting the crowd to sing. But the best trick of all was his powerful voice that resounded around this huge arena. Even on songs where he gave the loop pedal a rest, as with Lego House and The A team; his quieter hits from his debut album, his vocals reached all the way to the rafters.

When he wanted a little bit of extra help, Sheeran enlisted the crowd. On the show ending Sing, he asked the fans to keep the song going even after he had left the stage for good. But he also knew how to quieten the crowd down when he wanted, as he did on Give Me Love and Afire Love, getting the audience members to quieten down those unruly fans who dared make a noise during the emotional track written about his late grandfather’s battle with Alzheimers.

Sheeran kept even his die-hard fans on their toes by tucking multiple pop music references into his songs. There was also a taste of Backstreet Boys, Everybody (Backstreet’s Back) tucked into Runaway and some Layla chords for good measure in the marathon rap song, You Need Me, I Don’t Need You. Sheeran has to be the first artist to reference songs from Eric Clapton, Chris Brown and a boy band all in one night.

He had the crowd wrapped around his little finger as he delivered all of his songs with passion and verve. Still a busker at heart, Sheeran just happens to be one who plays arenas now rather than street corners and subways.