Ed Sheeran’s A Team

He’s a creative whirling dervish. He’s passionate as fuck. He’s an all-around good guy and he’s a force to reckon with. 

Ed is the songwriter of a generation and will go down as one of the world’s all-time greats. He is a showman and his ability to cross genres within songs sets him apart. His humility, warmth, ability to breathe his personality into his performance, his work ethic and ambition make him the “perfect” superstar.

Other than the fact that Ed is a phenomenal singer and performer, Ed, his management, his family and his touring family are all genuinely lovely people to deal with. And Ed and Stuart personify kindness and fairness in all the dealings.

People realize he’s not just a superstar, he’s gifted. You talk about Beethoven, Chopin, The Beatles, The Stones, Bruce, Billy, Elton, this kid is in the history books and he is gifted. He’s always cared about his fans and that’s taken him to even further heights.

First and foremost the ability to write incredible, melodic pop songs is the basis of his huge success, along with him having the continual drive, passion, hunger to achieve every goal he sets himself, whilst maintaining humility and being a very decent guy on top.

There is no other living artist who offers [a connection] to so many people. Despite his massive success, he remains down to earth, authentic and approachable and the kind of guy you want to hang out with and have a beer.

 

When he was on the “Red Tour” with Taylor [Swift], I would stand next to him he would just look around the stadium and go, “Me and you, we’re going to do this, right?” He was always driven. I’ve never seen anybody with a heart like Ed Sheeran’s. 

He has talent in spades, loves his music and is knowledgeable. He’s not scared by so-called boundaries of pop. Add that to his ridiculous work ethic, his complete charm as an entertainer and ability to marry a lyric to a melody and connect with the masses and you have one formidable artist. 

It really is a perfect storm. Ed is undeniably the most prolific songwriter of a generation, if not of all time, but he also has incredible vision for what he wants to do, unquenchable drive and ambition wrapped up with a remarkable talent for speaking to people from all walks of life.

We knew how hungry Ed was and how he is capable of anything.  He’s obviously one of the hardest working people and thus the results show. His work ethic has been evident from the beginning of his career.

We all had the feeling when it started that Ed was capable of pulling off such a feat. Ed has always been a very ambitious guy and given the impression that he likes beating records – which he’s become very adept at across every facet of his career!

I knew it was going to be big, but if you said to me, “Did you think it was going to be the biggest tour ever in Australia or New Zealand’s history?” I would have said no. But I knew it was going to be big. 

We were very confident of the shows we were planning for and planned for additional nights, however. I’m not sure anyone could have predicted the scale and the velocity of the ticket sales across every pocket of the world. 

We never doubted the “Divide Tour” would be successful. After all, Ed was already a major top-act at the time. The final outcome with the additional show dates and more than 8.5 million fans is still a big surprise. I don’t think we would have predicted it. 

We expected to sell a lot of tickets, do multiple stadium nights and hopefully break records. It is, however, not something you think about when you’re in the thick of setting up a tour. There’s so many emails and information flying around – the routing, the costs, the launch, the onsale, the production. It’s only now where we’re all basically, Wow, did that just happen?” and can really appreciate being part of the most successful tour of all time.

You can’t doubt Ed Sheeran. The whole “Red Tour” he rode on my bus and on many nights he’d play guitar and sing like there were 100,000 people. Everything he does he gives it all. Whether it’s passing the guitar around with other musicians or it’s at my birthday party, Ed is one of a kind. He told me before this last tour he was going to break this attendance record and I never doubted him for one second.

When you have worked with Ed for as long as I have, you learn there are no limits to what can be achieved. Ed has been pushing boundaries of what is possible since day one. You go into it with an idea of what you want to achieve. For me it was to establish Ed as a truly global stadium act and to do so in the most ethical and fan-first way possible, but I never put a top end limit on what we could achieve.

By the nature of how the tour went worldwide and the timeframe we got slipped into, the U.S. stadiums had competitive environments – be it baseball,  football and even Major League Soccer. So we had to juggle a few dates to work around that. 

The “Divide Tour” leaves an incredible legacy for U.K. ticketing. Staying on top of unethical secondary sites and touts with the intention of ripping off customers was a big challenge. Enforcing names on tickets at stadiums and going paperless on the greenfield sites involved a lot of work. This allowed many people to enjoy these shows at the price Ed intended. Having Claire Turnham MBE on board with her Victim Of Viagogo campaign helped massively. 

Implementing Stuart and Ed’s policy to deliver as many tickets at face value into the hands of the fans. This was a huge operation during the summers of 2018 and 2019 to help fans buy tickets at face value and obtain refunds from unscrupulous profiteering resellers wherever possible. The result is that for the six shows we finished the tour in Leeds and Ipswich the secondary market was virtually eliminated and 99% of customers paid the price Ed intended. 

Picking the right venues, the right routing, the usual things you have with stadiums. The challenge was to get [the launches going] and setups were long. We announced and promoted the hell out of it and waited a week for the pre-sale. We did our own presale with no extra charge and then the onsales. It was a two-week buildup, which isn’t normal for an on-sale

Trees! If you know, you know. A couple of highly valuable broken arms and bloody baseballs all spring to mind! There wasn’t a week that went by where a new challenge wasn’t thrown our way, but that’s part of what makes promoting shows in so many different territories so much fun. We make sure Ed and his team walk into their show as if it’s as close to doing a show in a traditional western market.

We had to play venues hardly ever used as concert halls: e.g. the Letnany Airport in Prague or in Riga the Lucavsala Park. The Malmi airport in Helsinki became an open-air venue for the first time ever and where we had to build 

up the infrastructure from scratch.

We had to book at the end of baseball season and the beginning of football season. The Milwaukee Brewers had a 1% chance of making the playoffs but not only did they make the playoffs but they went to the seventh game of the ALCS so we had to reschedule that date. 

Preventing unethical secondary ticketing. When we started there were no easily recognizable one-stop solutions so we had to create our own mechanisms. I am genuinely as proud of the work we did on this as I am of selling the tickets and breaking records. 

At the end of the day, Stuart was the quarterback and there was never, ever a squabble or disagreement. It was always the effort of a collective. Myself, Louis, Jon Ollier but also in addition Stewart and Ed are big factors in this. Mark Friend the tour manager and Chris Marsh, the production managers were big factors and Kev, Ed’s security, can never be left out. You couldn’t have asked for a more cohesive team and all were willing to work toward the same end. Stewart is the driver of that, Ed is the inspiration for that.  

Usually DHP and Kilimanjaro are competitors but Steve and myself and our respective teams made the decision as soon as we came together on Ed’s shows at Wembley Stadium in 2015 to work as one solid team to be the best possible dream team and it’s been a fantastic experience. Stuart is inspirational in his approach to looking after Ed’s fans. Jon is incredibly dynamic as an agent and always makes sure everything is done the right way. 

Jon Ollier has been there from the start with Ed. He understands him and Stuart has got the absolute A Team. And in no way did I ever feel any competitiveness. Stuart would be up with the difference in time, before we had an on-sale or a presale. If it was four in the morning, he would be on that phone to my office coordinating and managing.

Jon and Stuart are both always available, responsive, accessible and fair. Stuart answers in real time despite being in demand at all times, and whilst on the road gets things done super fast. We have great partners around the world.

The cooperation with Stuart, Mark Friend, Jon Ollier and the whole team around Ed Sheeran is characterized by genuine trust and respect and a high level of professionalism. FKP Scorpio and the other tour partners have been working with Ed Sheeran for a long time and have developed values and principles not just based on monetary interests. Stuart and his team are fair and loyal partners, to whom “team spirit” is not just an empty term. 

Well, everybody followed my lead that’s what happened. Everybody said, “Gee, we should do things like Louis.” But seriously, Stuart and Ed are really smart and we have a great working relationship. I’m not competitors with anyone that works with Ed. Simon Jones and Michael Gudinski are two of my dearest friends. Adam Wilkes who does Asia is a friend. When you get an artist like Ed and a manager like Stuart and you see how hard they work you want to work just as hard for them

Promoters who work with Ed are all music people at heart and have in most cases a shared history of working with Ed, Stuart and Jon from day one. We all understand what is expected of us and know what we can expect from them. The on the road team feels like a family. Even if I show up on the other side of the world, I am made to feel welcome and valued. It’s a real pleasure be part of that family. 

There has always been an unspoken and simple philosophy that runs through everything Ed touches, it is something very raw within Ed that Stuart has been incredibly clever in refining and implementing across their business: put the fans first always, treat people well and you get best of them back, always be humble and polite. They have surrounded themselves with people that fit with that personally. This is how we choose partners and managed to get would-be competitors to pull in the same direction. Once you are coming from the right place, the rest looks after itself.

Just continue to be that person that you are and don’t forget to share the hot wings. 

Congrats man, you smashed it again! Thanks so much for staying loyal to us. Enjoy your break, you totally deserve it!

There’s been a lot of debate over the last decade about real careers but this kid has only just begun, there’s so much more left in him. He’s very smart and has done so much in the business for Australia and New Zealand particularly. I have learnt things from Ed and have never had such a close rapport with an artist in my life. It’s been totally inspiring, and I hope in a lot of ways in the early days I inspired him.

Keep being you.

Stay as you are!

I don’t need to say anything to Ed because Ed will always be Ed Sheeran, he’ll always be this lovable person who’s so talented.  I don’t need to give Ed Sheeran advice, except give Louis more shows and give him more territories and things like that and possibly buy me a plane. 

I would thank him. The journey he has brought us all on for the last 10 years has literally changed my life and that of my family in countless ways. I would most like them to know the gratitude I have towards both Ed and Stuart has no limits. Working with Ed is a part of history, it is really being a part of something, really standing for something. For me that is an honor to be a part of

Thank you for letting me be part of his story and for your loyalty to Kilimanjaro and DHP Family. Secondly, take a moment to stop and just think about what you have achieved as an artist. It is quite literally unprecedented and phenomenal. Take a rest, spend some quality time at home with Cherry and then go have an amazing holiday. I’d remind him of course to take something to record those song ideas for his return. He is still only just getting started. 

When my then 11-year-old daughter Story wanted to discuss the setlist with Ed, which was a mortifying moment for me, but an incredible moment. She requested “Supermarket Flowers,” which is a sad and beautiful song. Ed listened to her willingly and indulged her and then played it during the set. For me, sitting there watching my daughter grin ear to ear as Ed Sheeran fulfilled her dream was a big deal. You want a definition of who he is? That’s who he is.

Seeing Ed play a set in the afternoon to a child in a wheelchair who was too ill to be in a room with lots of other people at The O2 was so special – you can literally see what a gift his music is to people in that scenario and it was a beautiful thing to see – and the fact that he took an hour out to play a show in a 20,000-cap room to one person is incredible.

My own personal proudest moment was watching Ed walk on stage in Ipswich for the last four shows of the 2.5-year global tour gave me particular pride, as not only is Ed from Ipswich but so are my entire family and I. To be part of something that will be a moment in Ipswich’s history has been fantastic. 

Another great moment was the press conference to announce the start of the tour in Perth. I presented him with a bottle of champagne for selling a record-breaking million-plus tickets and he sprayed me all over this brand new suit because I normally don’t dress that well. When it as all finished he comes up and goes, “Michael, I feel really bad, I’ll pay your dry-cleaning bill.” I told him to “Fuck off.”

There have been so many unforgettable moments, during the shows and off stage.  But I think it has to be Ed walking out onstage to the second sold out Johannesburg FNB stadium.  The noise was like nothing I had ever heard; thunderous, and electric x100.  You could feel it in the air, that this was genuinely a historic moment in the country, the biggest tour of all time in Africa, and everybody in there knew it.  Jon, Stuart and I all looked at each other and nodded and smiled. I was beaming with pride.

When Mark, Ed’s tour manager, and I were on stage looking into 100.000 expectant faces who wanted to see “their” Ed at Hockenheimring. It was a very emotional goose bumps atmosphere – especially when we both remembered our first Ed Sheeran concerts: Mark thinking of the times when he drove with Ed in a borrowed car from pub to pub playing in front of a handful people and me reminding myself  that the first Ed Sheeran show I ever did was in front of a 150 visitors eight years ago.

Every moment with Ed is special and I’m not joking. Eating chicken wings with him and James Blunt is hilarious. Just him picking out his wardrobe of what he’s going to wear onstage is hilarious. Like every moment is special with Ed Sheeran. I consider Ed a dear friend, we see each other we talk to each other and we’re always emailing each other and besides being an incredible artist, him and Stuart and his whole team will be my friends for life. 

For me it was the shows we did in South Africa, it is a place that I have always felt drawn to and I just felt like those shows in particular, at that scale, were so rare in an artist’s or an agent’s career. I was literally thinking I may never get to do this again with another artist as long as I live. 

A twist of fate meant we ended up using Newcastle United’s home ground St. James Park last year. Ed knows I’m a big Newcastle fan and he let me walk him out to stage on the big screens in front of my dad and was shouting at his cameraman to “point it at Steve.” He even made me wave at my dad. I had a tear in my eye of course. And then on nights two and three he insisted I walk with him again, that is the measure of the man in a nutshell.