Ed Sheeran – Ambleside Live – August 23, 2014
On a warm Saturday evening, 14,000 people showed up for the 2014 edition of Ambleside Live. Headliner Ed Sheeran impressively commanded the attention of the massive audience as he took to the stage on his own with just the help of a guitar and a microphone.
Having been warmed up by Rudimental, the audience was eagerly anticipating the moment Ed Sheeran came onstage and erupted in applause as he broke into “I’m A Mess”. The engaging Brit, set the tone of the night when he said “…my job is to entertain you and your job is to be entertained” and indeed both jobs were fulfilled over the course of the near 2 hour set.
While the talented singer/songwriter was more than capable to keep the night moving along with his guitar and strong singing voice he added variety to the night by displaying his talent as a rapper as well, stringing together great, often witty rhymes during the set. Not content to just give the audience a repeat of his recorded tunes, he interspersed many of them with snippets and samples of other tunes including; “No Diggity”, “Backstreet’s Back” and more retro goodies.
Except during “Afire Love”, when asked not to, the audience sang along throughout the set. Sheeran himself encouraged the audience participation stating ” …this is a 50/50 show, 50% my singing and 50% yours [the audience’s]”. Even on some of the lesser known songs the whole of Ambleside Park was filled with thousands of voices and then during the encore, “The A Team” and “Sing” the sounds of an entire audience resonated throughout West Vancouver. Even after the artist left the stage, the hook from “Sing” could be heard sung and hummed as the audience made their way from the venue taking the show out into the night with them.
Ed Sheeran continues on tour through North America into September before returning to Europe in October
Follow @EdSheeran on Twitter and check out his Instagram @TeddysPhotos to see how the audience looks from his point of view onstage.