Ed Sheeran by Sean Smith

Author:Sean Smith [Smith, Sean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: 2018-10-03T16:00:00+00:00

Ed revealed that he had signed a record deal when he played the Waterfront just before Christmas 2010. He made the announcement at an informal lunchtime gathering in front of an invited audience ahead of the main gig in the evening. Ed was already playing the PR game to a certain extent. He did not reveal the identity of his new label but whetted his fans’ appetite by saying all would be revealed at a champagne signing in January. That, of course, would mean another round of media and online coverage.

Much of the buzz around Ed Sheeran had been created online, so it was perhaps fitting that the lunchtime guests had entered a Facebook competition to win their place and travelled to Norwich from all over the country. He played a few songs and took questions. It seemed that the following twelve months were already worked out. He told the audience he would be heading into the studio in the New Year to start recording the first album. ‘I’m just really keen to make a good one,’ he added modestly. He said the first single would be released in May 2011 and would be his fans’ favourite: ‘You Need Me, I Don’t Need You’.

Ed said that he was still sleeping on sofas, which was not strictly the case as he now had his own bedroom at Stuart’s. He also said he dreamed of owning his own flat and a house in Suffolk, a dream that would come true very quickly. He took the opportunity to plug the new CD. Collaborations was the final EP in his five-point plan to create a big-enough buzz that no label could ignore. The full title was No. 5 Collaborations Project and featured a who’s who of grime, including his touring pal Devlin, Wiley, Random Impulse, P Money, Ghetts and JME. He chose the title because it was the last in the series. He explained, ‘That was kind of a full stop.’

The idea was simple enough – Ed’s songs interspersed with some venomous rapping. Individually, perhaps, the tracks offered nothing new, just an extension of the trusted formula employed on his childhood favourite ‘Stan’, in which Eminem had spat angrily while Dido sang prettily. What made Collabs, as his fans called it, special was its ambition – an unsigned artist persuading some of the trendiest figures in music to appear alongside him. It was a testament to Ed’s standing in London’s contemporary-music scene.

While he had long harboured the ambition to record with the capital’s leading MCs, he did not have enough credibility as a new boy on the circuit. That had changed, thanks primarily to his connection with SBTV. Jake Gosling provided another important link to the artists. He produced the record alongside Ed, who received a co-producer credit for the first time. The recordings, which had taken place throughout the summer, had been a logistical nightmare – it was hard to arrange for ten busy artists to travel down to Windlesham for recording sessions.

One of the most striking features of the CD was the original artwork on the cover by Phillip Butah.

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