Video will appear as you scroll through the story
Ed Sheeran · S1 E5
The Circuit
Every pub, open mic, and village hall in Suffolk. Ed plays them all before anyone outside the county knows his name
Bury St Edmunds town centre, a Saturday afternoon, 2007. Ed Sheeran, sixteen, busks with his guitar case open on the pavement, testing a new song on strangers who didn't ask to hear it, and two of them actually stop walking.
"Cannonball" (Damien Rice, official music video, 2002). This is the song that started everything. Ed saw Damien Rice perform it on television when he was eleven years old, and the image of one man with one guitar holding an entire audience never left him. Every pub gig, every open mic, every empty room Ed played in Suffolk was him trying to recreate what he felt watching this.
The Suffolk Circuit
By fifteen, Ed was playing every venue that would have him: pubs, social clubs, open mic nights, village halls, curry houses with a corner stage. He didn't have a manager or a booking agent. He had a phone, a list of numbers, and the nerve to call every landlord in East Anglia and ask for a slot.
Sources
Nolan, David. "Ed Sheeran: A+." Omnibus Press, 2014.
Mulligan, Mark. "Ed Sheeran: The Biography." John Blake Publishing, 2018.
“I saw Damien Rice on telly when I was about eleven, just him and a guitar, and I thought: that's what I want to do. That's all I want to do.”
— Ed Sheeran on his earliest musical inspiration, BBC Radio 1, 2011
Cannonball, Damien Rice (2002)
"Cannonball" is built on a single acoustic guitar and a vocal that starts so quietly you have to lean in. The production on the O album was deliberately minimal: Damien Rice wanted it to sound like a person in a room, not a record. That philosophy went straight into Ed's DNA. Listen for the way Rice lets silences do the work between phrases. Every pause Ed takes on stage, every moment he drops the volume to nothing, traces back to this song.
Sources
Rice, Damien. Interview. The Guardian, 2003.
Sheeran, Ed. Interview. Zane Lowe, BBC Radio 1, 2011.
TAP TO REVEAL: How many EPs did Ed release before anyone outside Suffolk heard his name?
Framlingham, Suffolk
The small market town where Ed grew up and played his earliest gigs. Population: roughly 3,000. By the time he left, he'd played every pub and open mic within driving distance.
Access to Music
Ed enrolled at Access to Music, a college course for aspiring musicians, rather than following a traditional academic path. It gave him structure, access to better equipment, and a community of other young musicians who were as obsessed as he was. More importantly, it confirmed what he already knew: the classroom wasn't where the real education happened. The pubs were.
Sources
Mulligan, Mark. "Ed Sheeran: The Biography." John Blake Publishing, 2018.
Nolan, David. "Ed Sheeran: A+." Omnibus Press, 2014.
Teenage Ed
The Parting Glass, Ed Sheeran (2011)
A traditional Irish folk song that Ed included on the + deluxe edition. His father's family is from Wexford, and Ed grew up hearing Irish music at home. "The Parting Glass" is a farewell song, traditionally sung at the end of a gathering. Hearing Ed sing it knowing he was about to leave Suffolk for London turns every line into something more personal than the song was ever meant to be.
The Parting Glass, Ed Sheeran (2011)
The lyrics are centuries old, passed down through generations of Irish singers. Ed doesn't change a word. He doesn't need to. The song is about saying goodbye to a place and the people in it, and Ed's voice carries enough of his own story to make the traditional words feel like they were written about Framlingham. It's the most selfless thing on the album: a song that belongs to everyone, performed by someone about to leave home.
How did Ed Sheeran test new songs before he had a fanbase?
Ed has played every venue in Suffolk that will have him. Next episode: a conversation with his parents, a one-way train ticket, and the moment Ed Sheeran chooses London over everything he knows.
0 XP earned this session