Ed Sheeran iTunes Festival London 2012

Andre Paine wrote; 03 September 2012 Brit Award winner Ed Sheeran was an obvious choice for the opening weekend of the iTunes Festival: just a year after its release, his debut is already the UK's second biggest digital album ever, behind Adele. Although still only 21, Sheeran is also a seasoned performer who, over the course of almost two hours, delivered a solo set full of youthful ingenuity while demanding plenty of audience participation. "It's compulsory to sing – if you're too cool to sing, you're in the wrong gig," he warned us. The only exception was when Sheeran busily employed looping effects to build his backing track from just acoustic guitar and voice. It was undeniably inventive on Give Me Love and signalled that Sheeran’s a songwriter with an eccentric streak, even if he did admit another tune, This, was "a bit soppy and wet". However, perhaps because of Sheeran's autonomy, this show suffered from over-indulgence, whether that meant him boring us about how much he drinks on his annual pilgrimage to Latitude Festival back home in Suffolk or feeling the requirement to wrestle songs into submission. In particular, the frantic You Need Me, I Don't Need You was an enervating, 20-minute folly despite being perked up mid-way by guest rappers Wretch 32, Devlin, Sway and Chip. Nevertheless, Sheeran had a clear connection with his fans – and not just during soaring, emotive hits The A Team, Drunk and Lego House. His smouldering cover of Nina Simone's Be My Husband seemed a slightly baffling choice for a male artist, until you realised he was going to be drowned out by teenage girls singing that lyric. A duet of Chasing Cars with Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody was an affecting highlight during this celebratory show for competition winners. It sets Sheeran up nicely for his attempt to conquer the US.