Q'ing round the block for Q Awards Gig

The fourth night of the Q Award’s Gigs in the run up to Q Magazine’s 25th anniversary awards was headlined by Ed Sheeran – and he certainly brought his fans out early – it wasn’t quite as cold as it had been on the previous couple of nights – but it was still a brave audience that were queuing round three corners by the time the doors opened – with people joining almost as fast as security could let people in once they where open!

From Ed Sheeran 2011

Unfortunately much of the audience missed some or all of the opening act, We Were Evergreen, because we where still queuing outside - despite being there well before the doors were due to open... I'd suggest venues need to be able to beef up their entrance teams if faced by an early arriving audience - it is only fair to try your best to get them into the venue before the openers come on stage... From the end of their set that I heard, this trio hailing from France where a little out of their depth with such a large audience so excited about the headliner – would be interesting to listen to them in a smaller venue with a less distracted audience…

By the time Ed's main support act, Emeli Sandé, came on stage security had managed to get most, if not all of the audience into the venue. While many of Ed's fans might not have heard of Emeli, her powerful vocal soon had their attention! Ed later confided that one of the reasons he’d accepted the gig was so that he could book Emeli to support him – whether the choice was his to make or not, Emeli captivated the audience. She’ll soon be headlining her own tour, and with her contribution to Professor Green’s current hit is one to watch for the future.

Unusually, the preparation for the headliner consisted of emptying the stage except for a pedal board and two orange mics… Ed Sheeran looked a little lonely on the stage with only his guitar – but he would remedy that with three guests, and by filling the venue with his voice, guitar and clever use of the pedal board. Moving between all the genres in Ed’s range from acoustic rock to R&B Ed demonstrated why he’s nominated for Q’s breakthrough artist award as well as best male artist and best video.  Ed then introduced Pixie Lott who’d played the same series of gigs earlier in the week – their duet of Kiss Me meet a mixed reaction with Ed’s die hard fans who’d queued round the block to see him, rather than Pixie – but it demonstrated both Pixie and Ed range – contrasting with more upbeat style both usually perform. Ed’s next collaboration of the night was with Wiley, changing things up by mixing rap with Ed’s more mellow sound. The reception with Ed’s mostly student fan’s was good – the success of Professor Green and Emeli Sandé current collaboration demonstrate how popular mixing rap with other genres has become… The last collaboration of the night added Example to the length list of top talent that had graced the stage during the evening. The remix of You Changed the way you Kiss Me had the audience in the palm of the artists hands.

As the audience left the venue, most would have felt that the long queue in the Autumn chill had been well worth the wait – any that didn’t where at the wrong gig or very hard to please.