Ed Sheeran in Cardiff review — singer breaks free of the loop with new staging

A 15-mile traffic jam has joined Ed Sheeran’s collection of hefty statistics, to go with his billions of streams and 13 UK number one singles (equal to Madonna). That was the length of the tailback trying to cross into Wales over the Severn Bridge before his gig at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium. Drivers cursed the cheery troubadour’s name and kicked their tyres in frustration. The Sheeran juggernaut, a monster vehicle hogging the middle of the road, had brought the main motorway into an entire country to a standstill.

That juggernaut shows scant signs of slowing. Sheeran’s latest album, last year’s Equals, charted at all points of the globe between Austria and Australia. His three shows at the Principality Stadium were billed by the venue as the biggest ever gigs in Wales, with a capacity of more than 70,000. More attendees than usual were present due to the stage set-up, with Sheeran playing on a circular platform in the middle: an innovation for him.

It was not the only change. Ever since his faraway days sofa-surfing and playing open mic nights, Sheeran has relied on the same shtick, a one-man-band using loop pedals to build up live songs from the basic components of voice and acoustic guitar. Even after cramped stages swelled into huge runways, that has remained his core approach. But its limitations had started to show during his last stadium circuit.

The Divide tour ended in 2019 as the highest-grossing in history, with a $776mn haul. But Sheeran’s trick had begun to resemble the assembly instructions for flat-pack furniture. Hit guitar with palm to create loop A. Strum it for loop B. Attach loop B to loop A, and so on. Inside the Sheeran juggernaut, as it made its remorseless way between enormodomes, was the musical equivalent of Billy bookcases and MDF tables.

At the Principality Stadium, in the second of his three shows, he shook things up by adding a backing band to his act. Their five members did not join Sheeran on the central stage but instead stood separately on little island stages ringing it. Their apartness from him, and also each other, was designed to enable discreet entries and exits during the set. But it also exposed their lack of chemistry.

For opening number “Tides”, the band created a trebly wash of sound as Sheeran sang about fatherhood and entering his thirties. “Everything has changed, but I’m still the same somehow,” he cried. The next track, “Blow”, amplified the changes with an overcooked hard-rock pastiche in which the singer yelped about pulling his trigger amid pyrotechnics and hammering riffs. Then the band disappeared, and Sheeran swapped his electric guitar for an acoustic old-faithful in order to play old favourites such as “The A Team”.

The rotating stage turned him into a more mobile and engaging performer than the solitary figure who used to play on stages at the far end of stadiums

His accompanists returned later for a suite of songs starting with “Visiting Hours”, another number about transformation (“So much has changed since you have been away”). But this particular change did not pay off. The band’s contributions were meagre to the point of anonymity.

The evening’s other experiment, the rotating circular stage, was better. Several sets of looping pedals were placed on it, enabling Sheeran to move around serenading different sections of the audience. It turned him into a more mobile and engaging performer than the solitary figure who used to play on stages at the far end of stadiums. The effect helped the stated purpose of his show, which was to get everyone singing along and jumping about as though in a vast open-air pub.

“I want to bring out the Cardiff-on-a-Friday-night in you,” he cried near the beginning. The fight that broke out during “Overpass Graffiti” perhaps took that prospectus too far. But it was faithfully observed by the lusty chorusing that accompanied Sheeran’s yearning tones, which cut through the mass choir like a spotlight. Meanwhile, the sleek sound of “Shape of You” and “Bad Habits” acquired a scruffier energy. The attempt to bring a band on board was a flop, but Sheeran has found a way to refresh his solo stagecraft.

★★★☆☆

edsheeran.com