John Sheeran
Taylor Swift gave Ed his first big break in America by inviting him to be her support act for the US/Canada leg of The Red Tour in 2013. This gave Ed unprecedented experience of playing large arenas and multiple stadiums, and exposed him to a vast new audience and to the American media networks. Apart from learning a huge amount on tour and having a lot of fun, Ed also developed a strong, lasting friendship with Taylor, whom he admires greatly. This photo shows them in rehearsal at the CenturyLink Center Omaha, the first venue of the tour. Taylor adjusts her microphone stand while the stagehands wait either side. Behind her is a smiling and expectant Ed. You sense the anticipation as they are about to practise a duet of Taylor’s single “Everything Has Changed”.
— OMAHA, NEBRASKA, 11–14 MARCH 2013 —
Back in 2013 I was commissioned by Taylor Swift’s management to shoot the start of The Red Tour in Omaha, Nebraska. They flew me over to shoot most of the rehearsals and cover her shows in Omaha and St Louis, Missouri. Having me there at the beginning of her tour to capture every aspect of her performance gave them plenty of material for merchandise and promotion for the remainder of her two-year tour. So off I went to a very cold Omaha. It happens often when you are on tour that you run into familiar faces – crew members you have met on other tours; musicians you have seen with other bands. The touring world is a very small one indeed.
It took about three seconds to run into Galen Henson, the keyboard tech on The Red Tour. He’s one of my oldest friends in this business; he used to be tour manager for Joe Satriani, one of my earliest clients. But there was one familiar face I was really excited to see. Ed was trying to break into the American market and what better way to do this than to perform as Taylor’s support act on the US leg of the tour.
I remember the first night in St Louis, walking to the venue from our hotel. On our way we passed a group of singing teenage girls wearing Ed Sheeran T-shirts. I did a double-take because here we were on our way to a Taylor Swift concert and they were wearing Ed Sheeran T-shirts. It made me realize that America obviously had already started to embrace Ed Sheeran. I’d got to capture Ed during rehearsals of his duet with Taylor, “Everything Has Changed”, which he would sing with Taylor in her show every night. On that first night in St Louis I had some time and Taylor’s management was OK with it, so I got to shoot Ed’s performance too.
The largest venue I’d captured Ed in had been Wembley Arena, at the Girl Guide Big Gig, but that was more like a mini-festival and he had sung only a couple of songs there. I’d shot his show at Hammersmith, where he had easily succeeded in getting the crowd to eat out of his hand in a matter of seconds. But these gigantic American sporting arenas, they were something else. And it wasn’t as if he could go out and hug the audience or high-five the front row like I was used to seeing him do. I was really curious to see how he would work a crowd of this magnitude.
As soon as Ed appeared onstage the crowd responded with a passion and he never lost a minute of their attention. I only shot from the pit because of time constraints and stage logistics, that is why most of my images of that night are focused just on Ed, working his audience like a maestro. Midway through the shoot, I felt as if I was attending church and he was leading the gospel choir. Ed split the crowd in half, just like he had always done, and gave them each a part to sing. The crowd surrendered and shouted so loud it almost drowned out his voice. I’ve seen very few well-seasoned performers handle a crowd like he did that night.
John Sheeran
These photos show Ed and Taylor performing the song in front of 17,000 people. They don’t seem to have any nerves at all. The photos are from their first two performances in Omaha and already you can see the delight and infectious enthusiasm and affection they have for each other. They have since worked with each other professionally many times and remain protective and supportive, through the ups and downs of their lives. These photos are a wonderful record of when and where it all started.