Tour Posters

Ed Sheeran certainly doesn't take the boring road when it comes to tour posters! His interesting choice in posters shows his creative personality.


I also like how his posters always symbolise himself... Ed always makes doubly sure that he puts something orange on everything, to symbolise his ginger hair, which he is clearly proud of, and he does so on both posters.

On poster 1: Ed takes a famous quote from the war 'keep calm and carry on' and changes it to keep calm and build a lego house. This is clever as Ed potrays a calm attitude on stage and in his videos, and lego house is one of the songs off his album, so that is the obvious hint to the poster. However he has added extra Ed-ness to his poster by making it 'ginger' if you like..


Not only has he put something 'ginger' on poster 2... he is thinking out the box by subtly taking something normal such as a cat and adding an intriguing factor to it  - the cat is huge! Not something you see every day... There is also an element of irony to poster 2 as the cat chosen is.. you guessed it.. a ginger cat. However it is very important for an artist to have something distinct about them that gives the audience something to relate the artist to.

If i was to create a poster for myself, i would make sure that it had an element which would make the audience relate it to me- just like Ed does. This relation would be maybe a song name or a certain symbol or colour etc. It would have to be exciting to look at and eye catching, however not so much so that it is an information overload. The poster would be bright and happy, because that is a big element which i feel makes me relatable.

In comparison

Ed's CD in my opinion is the beginning of a great new genre of music! Rap mixed with folk mixed with soul! Great combo! What more could you ask for than a natural, down to earth new artist who writes about real things and makes a good variety of music?

Some people may not understand his unique style - however, Ed has such a big fan base that that doesn't matter!

Ed had an interview with 'The Wrap Up' and he stated what inspired him:
'TWU: You’ve been performing for four years plus, but who and what inspires you musically?
Ed Sheeran: I’ve been playing the guitar since I was 11 years old, so for about eight years now. It was my love for the guitar that first got me into music and singing. Growing up, I was inspired by The Beatles and Bob Dylan. Damian Rice was a huge influence for me musically. My dad took me to a small intimate gig of his in Dublin and I met him backstage afterwards and told him that I really wanted to get into songwriting. He gave me such great advice, and I can honestly say he’s one of my main inspirations.'

Ed has a similar style to Jason Mraz because it is a mixture of hiphop, folk and soul. Here is a video of Jason perfroming Geek in the Pink (one of his songs) to a crowd at the Ootmarsum LVR (Garden party) on July 15th 2007.

There are almost zero artists that can be compared to Ed because there is no one with the same style, however, watching Ed, he reminds me a little of an artist named David Gray, both artists are a massive inspiration to me as i am a singer/ songwriter myself. Ed reminds me of David because when he performs, everything comes out so naturally, there is no need for a band or backup because they can just produce beautiful music by themselves. They both have soul sounding voices and although their styles are totally different... a collaboration together would be magical!

People Who Helped..

Attatched to Ed Sheerans great CD '+' is a booklet of lyrics and extra information (e.g. who helped in making the songs/ cd etc.) I found a section stating this information:
 'All vocals by Ed Sheeran,
All tracks Co-produced by Ed Sheeran.
Jake would like to thank Lucy, Joshi, Eli & Zuban & Tommy Clum for assisting at Sticky Studios as well as SE Electronics and Pocusrite.
Chris Leonard would like to thank Gibson Guitars.
Mastered by Christian Wright at Abbey Road.
Illustrations by Phillip Butah, www.philipbutah.com
Exclusive Production by Ben Cook and Ed Howard.
Managed by Stuart Camp at Rocket Music Management.'


On each song of the album, Ed has had people who help in some way:

The A Team: Produced, recorded and mixed by Jake Gosling at Sticky Studios. Piano, strings & programming by Jake Gosling.

Drunk: Written by- Ed sheeran/ Jake Gosling. Assisted by Edd Hartwell. Additional recording by Guy Massey for 140dB at Star Studios. Published by Sony/ATV Music Publishing/ The Movement/ BDi Music Ltd. Mixed by Ruadhri Cushan for Z management at Rhubarb Studios, assisted by Grant Rawlinson & Marco Martini. Programming & keyboards by Jake Gosling.

U.N.I: Bass guitar, electric guitar, acoustic guitar by Chris Leonard. Backing vocals by Anna Leddra Chapman.

Grade 8: Written by Ed Sheeran and True Tiger. Programming and piano by Jake Gosling. Acoustic guitar and electric guitar by Chris Leonard.

Wake Me Up: Written by Ed Sheeran/ Jake Gosling. Recorded and mixed by Guy Massey for 140bB at Sarm Studios, assisted by Edd Hartwell. Electric guitar by Chris Leonard.

Small Bump: Programming & keyboards by Jake Gosling.

This: Written by Ed Sheeran/ Gordon Mills. Produced by Jake Gosling. Electric guitar by Chris Leonard.

The City: Written by Ed Sheeran / Jake Gosling (programming and keyboard also)

Lego House: Written by : Ed, Jake (Piano and programming also) and Chris (acoustic guitar and bass also).

You need me, i don't need you: Drums and programming - Jake Gosling, additional drums and percussion - Charlie Hugall. Piano - Tom Greenwood. Drums - Ben Hollingsworth.

Kiss me (my favourite!) - Written by Ed, Justin Franks and  Julie Frost. Programming by No ID. Vocals mixed by Jake Gosling. Recorded and mixed by Rob Kinselski.

Give me love: written by Ed, Jake (produced and recorded, programming, backing vocals and hand claps also) & Chris (acoustic guitar backing vocals and hand claps also). Violin by oli langford & louisa fuller. cello by chris worsey. viola - john metcalfe. Strings arranged by sally herbert and jake gosling.


A record producer's job is overseeing and managing the recording of an artists music. A producer has many roles that may include: gathering ideas for the project, selecting songs and/or musicians, coaching the artist and musicians in the studio, controlling the recording sessions, and supervising the entire process through mixing and mastering. Producers also often take on a wider entrepreneurial role, with responsibility for the budget, schedules, and negotiations.

A programmer generates music through electronic devices and computer programs or sequences. Programming is often used is modern pop and rock music.

A mixing engineer - The role of the mixing engineer is to create the final version or the 'final mix' once all the parts have been recorded, eg. instruments, voices and sounds.

Promotion

Ed is interesting to look at as he has such a unique look. He has signature things that make him Ed (if that is understandable!) For example, a paw print tattooed on his arm- and the same paw print printed on his guitar! On an interview with the BBC he states that he likes to look like someone that people will know (a brother of a friend for example), but funny enough, Ed is the spitting image of Rupert Grint (who plays Ron Weasely in Harry Potter). Rupert plays the part of a crazed, starry eyed fan in Ed's music video Lego house; as Rupert is very popular with the public for being on such a world widely known set of movies (the Harry potters) i believe that Ed got a lot of publicity for this as in the video he looks so similar to Ed that for a second the audience really believes its him!

Rupert Grint (left) Ed Sheeran (right)

Ed also posts a lot of videos onto youtube for promotion; the first time I ever saw Ed was over the internet, when a friend showed me one of his videos called 'wafering stranger', a song where him mic is on loop and Ed beat box's and sings over it - brilliant!

Recording Sessions

As I was searching the web about Ed's album '+' - I came across 'JamieOpenMind' s blog. It states:

'Ed Sheeran Recording Session 1 Reveiw

Set Up of the session went well and got us back into the studio mindset. We set up the vocal booth and guitar mics in one space and found that when recording the guitar the Superlux picked up the acoustic guitar ambience so we left it live for the guitar takes. We moved onto the vocal tracks and found there is a chord slightly out of place in the last chorus which put out the vocal tracks so we need to go back and re take the guitar track another time. However we are happy with the mic placement and set up.'

Another post was made by JamieOpenMind about the recording of Ed Sheeran's song 'The A Team':

'Ed Sheeran - The A Team recording session

Monday morning 9am - 11am me and Ross will be going into the studio to record the acoustic guitar and vocal racks for our version of Ed Sheeran's 'The A Team' For the vocals we will use a large diaphragm condenser microphone and a AKG C1000 condenser pencil mic as an ambience room mic to pic up the vocals interaction with the room. For the guitar we will use an sm57 to close mic the guitar at the 12th fret, the same AKG C1000 as an ambience mic and a DI box from the guitars pickup to give us maximum flexibility and mixing options once we get it into pro tools for mixing. All going well we should get this song recorded comfortably within the two hours we have booked but we may need to use the whole two hours. This is the offical 'The A Team' Music Video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAWcs5H-qgQ '

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcaD8wLp-uE )

An interview with Ed was uploaded on to youtube on the 10th June 2011, with Virgin Red Room.

Although the interview was very informal, Ed shows personality and jokes with fans by answering their questions and even stating that the most embarrassing thing he has ever done is walk in to lamp posts. ‘I do that a lot’ he said with a smirk on his face. Ed also reinforces the truth in his lyrics by saying that he does sofa hop a lot and keeps a casual attitude throughout showing fans his true self.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blast/153651

Another interesting interview with Ed Sheeran, only shows him – the audience only see Ed and do not hear any of the questions being asked.

First of all Ed introduces himself as an acoustic singer/ songwriter, he chats about how he has been ‘living in London for a while doing writing, recording and gigging’. He talks about how he likes to make people think with his lyrics and give them a meaning. He later states that his style of music is ‘acoustic hip hop with a little twinge of soul.’ –Hip hop being the lyrics and making people think and he lets his fans know how much he loves soul and that he tries to add it to his songs. He talks about how he likes to ‘convey an image of just a regular person, rather than being very glossy’ and he’d like to look like ‘someone’s kid or someone’s mate or someone’s brother’ – showing his fans how down to earth he is. Ed wraps up his interview by stating that in five years’ time he would like to be writing songs for other artists and playing with people that he admires and finally finishes with telling the BBC how his dream is to create a song that spurs up people’s emotions and be successful.

Print screen of Ed's interview with asylum

http://www.asylum.co.uk/2011/09/26/ed-sheeran-interview/

‘www.asylum.co.uk’ interviewed Ed Sheeran on ‘being number one, music piracy and getting bad press’

The written interview begins with: Sitting opposite Ed Sheeran in a Dublin hotel room, it's hard to believe he is a 20-year-old still enjoying only his first months as a certified pop star.

The interview goes on to talk about the number of gigs he has done in the past and how he is sick of talking about that, Elton John and Jamie Foxx (who are great fans of his).

He also chats about his song ‘you need me, I don’t need you’

"That song wasn't just about one particular person, but the industry in general," He says.

Ed also shows examples of how he was treated by the press and others and how he decided to go his own way (good for him!)

"I came from a small farming town in Suffolk and just wrote songs and did gigs, and suddenly I was being told: 'other people need to write your songs, you can't be looping, you can't be beat boxing, you need to dress like this and have that image'. I was like: f**k that, I going to do what I want."

Ed also chats about his reviews: "You know what? I got so many mixed reviews for the album but every single person who actually bought it loved it," he insists.

Photos of the interview:

Read more: http://www.asylum.co.uk/2011/09/26/ed-sheeran-interview/#ixzz1ibeHIdLk