Ed Sheeran: +-=÷x Tour 16/06/2022

We took it easy (after Paul driving all day) and arrived 30 minutes before doors opened at 4pm. I was nervous about which turnstiles to wait at and then about how quickly we’d get in (if they’d all open at the same time, if people in front of us would get stuck trying to scan their tickets in the machine etc.). If you haven’t already noticed from my previous blogs I overthink things A LOT! When it comes to general admission, I keep telling Paul I don’t mind if we do end up far away from the stage but we both know this is a big fat lie! We somehow managed to get 3rd row from the stage! Everyone was going down the steps at a snail’s pace and preventing us from zooming down the side/overtaking them, which was one of the most frustrating things ever. The other lane seemed to be just as bad. I think people have forgotten how to be excited about things! The view of the stage/everything that was set up for the event was breath-taking from the top of the stairs, though. The good thing about Ed Sheeran’s circular stage in the middle of the grounds is that most people will get a decent view of him, no matter where they stand. He rotated around the stage on a conveyer belt thing! We entered via the East entrance and sections surrounding the stage were “cordoned off” to begin with. We were allowed to get to one section first of all before they removed the bar/fence/blocker (I forget what it was) and motioned us to come further forward. That was exciting, as I wasn’t sure we would get even closer to the stage than we were.

There were two support acts. I still think that’s too many. They were Dylan and Maisie Peters. I thought they were more or less interchangeable to be honest but Paul seemed to like them and enjoy their songs more than I did. We wrongly assumed Dylan was a guy and probably embarrassed ourselves by asking “I’ve never heard of him, have you?” (We weren’t saying this in a nasty way – just were genuinely curious). The group of women behind us were not shy about their crushes on Dylan. When she mentioned her new single (I forget what it was) they shouted “Are you single?” which made her smirk. The songs which stood out most for me were Dylan’s Harry Styles one (though I forget how it goes) and the one Maisie Peters wrote with Ed Sheeran. I haven’t heard of Dylan again since this concert but have seen MP is touring and have heard a few people discussing how much they like her. Like all the other starter acts I’ve come across so far, their songs might grow on me if I stopped being so lazy/ignorant and took time to listen to them again on YouTube/Spotify. ES is obviously fond of them. I enjoyed seeing them post cute tour merch pictures together on Twitter.

Ed Sheeran was brilliant, obviously. His stage is the best one I’ve seen yet – very impressive with raising platforms, fireworks, bursts of flames etc. It was definitely a spectacle you have to see to believe. If you’re reading this and an Ed Sheeran fan (which I imagine you are, for clicking on this blog in the first place) please go see him if there’s still time! We read he is going to take some time out from touring after this, so he can spend time with his family. Is it two small children he has now? I wonder if he’ll release more albums in the “mathematics” theme, or if ‘Equals’ is the conclusion. I joked he could call the next album “Pi” (I’m not a maths expert) and Paul came up with “Standard Deviation”, which made me laugh until I cried. Surely he won’t be done with producing music altogether. These articles that pop up on our phones try so hard to strike fear into us, don’t they? There was a giant screen on top of the stage (which is transparent from certain angles) and smaller guitar pick shaped screens. He records himself as he plays and then loops it back, like what Greg Pearson was doing at The Armadillo. It’s a technique we’d never seen but (before now) neither of were accustomed to going to concerts, so maybe it’s more common than we think. He did most of the songs without a band and barely took any breaks between songs.

I thought ‘Tides’ was the best possible song he could have chosen to start on, as it does a great job reintroducing himself to his fans and getting everyone amped up. I kept forgetting about it when we first listened to ‘Equals’ (favouring ‘Shivers’, ‘Bad Habits’ and ‘Overpass Graffiti’) but it’s one of my top favourites now. We were speculating which songs would make it on the setlist and Paul finds it funny I said ‘Tides’ probably wouldn’t make it, since it was the opening number and therefore very prominent! ‘Love Yourself’ was another favourite from the night – a song he wrote for Justin Bieber. It became a huge hit, which is good because it means he can perform it at big concerts like this. He said a lot of songs he writes for other people maybe play a few times on the radio and then disappear into the void. I don’t think he used the term “the void” but it sounds cool. ‘Perfect’ is one of the songs he’s written that he got a special feeling about when working on it – knowing it is going to be a good one. He said he only gets that feeling once a year or even less than that.

It started raining (lightly) as soon as ES came on stage but he embraced it and said concerts like these are the best ones because people want it to be good to make up for the bad weather and he makes sure he delivers. He must have known there’d be a high chance of rain. It’s barely ever not raining in Scotland (the biggest reason I’m going to do everything in my power to move to England in the future). He encouraged everyone to go easy on him on social media if he slips because of the wet stage. He didn’t!

We learned this is called the “Mathematics Tour” because the divide button is too difficult to find on a keyboard. He’s not wrong. I tried to find it for this blog and I’m not convinced my keyboard even has a divide symbol on it… The more you know. He told the story of how he used to couch surf and find any opportunity to write/perform when he was just starting out. He was inspired by Damien Rice and went home and started writing songs immediately after seeing him. Not all of them were good (so he says)! He complained everyone was singing too well and in tune – as that’s his job. He wanted us to sing loudly and out of tune, leaving the perfect singing to him.

He wore a Scotland football top for the encore (the stage lowered and lifted again) and thanked people for coming out in the rain on a Thursday night. He was aware of the problems with public transport and how bad trains are right now with all the strikes. He realised some people would have travelled quite far to get here, which was nice. He seemed humble throughout and we would definitely see him again! We got stuck in traffic after the show and it took two hours to move at all, which meant I ended up celebrating the first part of my thirtieth birthday in the ASDA car park! It was worth it, though.