Around 30 minutes into his set, Ed Sheeran told the crowd at the Stadium of Light "I'm hoping no one goes home disappointed". It was fair to say that by the time thousands headed for the Metro, you were hard pushed to find anyone upset with the night they'd had.
Sheeran with his many guitars entertained the crowd for over two hours reeling off countless hits - hitting the spot with nearly every single tune he picked. His reference to leaving people disappointed came in as he politely warned people that he wouldn’t be able to play all of his hits. And with 47 songs to have charted in the Top 40 at some stage, it’s understandable that time constraints would stop him from performing all of them!
With that note, the crowd cheered - just as they had done when the 10 minute counter flash up on screen and as he opened with Tides from his latest album. It was followed up by Blow - the song Sheeran recorded with Chris Stapleton and Bruno Mars - and as he brought it to close, flames fired up from the stage and coloured smoke from above.
