It can often feel like a fruitless task reviewing an artist with the status of Ed Sheeran. An act booked in for not just one night at the Millennium Stadium – or the Principality Stadium, as it’s set to be named until 2026 for sponsorship reasons – but three. Clearly, a mammoth asking in itself, and when the whole run practically sells out, who am I to critique it versus about 200,000 paying fans?
Moreover, that’s just it: I can’t offer any negative words. The evening was all positive. One could talk about the weather (Thursday night ticketholders drew the short straw in this respect), but that’s hardly Ed’s fault. We could perhaps note the seemingly ever-present and now extremely tiresome habit of visiting artists to pull on a Welsh rugby shirt at some point while on stage. Judging by the wide variety of regional English accents overheard, you’d think Sheeran-scale artists would have a team of people telling them it’s just not domestic ticket buyers filing into Wales’ national stadium.
Still, and most importantly, the music and performance were stellar. Ed’s set was punctuated with some of his less well-known songs, and yet his audience went with the groove more or less continuously: tiny lulls in the atmosphere could occasionally be sensed, perhaps. Yet, the songs everyone assembled knew and loved hit the mark, repeatedly. A giant revolving stage, fireworks, the sound system, the lighting: pure quality, with nothing scrimped on the show’s production values.
The encore saw Ed don the aforementioned red jersey for a salvo of Shape Of You, Bad Habits and, to close, You Need Me, I Don’t Need You. A demonstration of his versatility both lyrically and as a singer, it was this reviewer’s highlight. I left feeling like a new fan of Ed Sheeran, even while having appreciated him before. But seeing him put on such a show live, hearing songs in the course of his two-hour set which had previously escaped my attention, and for my daughter to be so thrilled with how dad had sorted the tickets… it was class.
Principality Stadium, Cardiff, Thurs 26 May
words CARL MARSH photos ZAK WALTERS