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For Harlow, this was the
culmination of months of
planning; the Managing
Director of WMG had met
Sheeran in the UK and seen
him perform at Norwich’s UEA, and decided
that his own Australian team would be the
ones to organise and invest in Sheeran’s first
performances Down Under. Ed’s debut studio
album
+
had already debuted at #1 on the UK
Albums Chart, and Harlow had promised the
then 20-year-old musician that Australia would
adore him, and give him a #1.
“It was impossible not to believe, because
he was so compelling,” Harlow, now President
of WEA Corp (Warner’s global artist and label
services arm), tells us of his first impressions.
“He owned rooms he had no right to even
play in, and never projected a need to be cool
over a need to speak to an audience. There
is drive and confidence, and he demands
to be accepted on his own terms and not
compromise. That’s why it’s still just him and a
guitar on stage in stadiums.”
It was a combination of the musician’s self-
confidence, genuine personal interest in those
around him, and his ability to communicate
with a crowd of any size which convinced
Harlow that Australia was going to be the first
country to embrace Sheeran outside of the
singer-songwriter’s homeland.
“It was a risk, but we believed,” Harlow
says. “I felt he had enough larrikin sense of
humour about him to appeal here, and win
people over. That’s important – something
Robbie Williams had too, which was another
great act I’d had luck with here.”
The rest of that 2011 Aussie trip included
koala cuddles, a seafood platter at Doyle’s,
and an extra special reminder to Harlow to
remember his pact: a koala tattoo. After the
team returned to the UK, Sheeran delivered
a particularly meaningful and prophetic gift to
Harlow: a mini Sydney Opera House, which
the musician had constructed himself out of
Lego.
As Sheeran’s notoriety rose and accolades
accumulated, he performed
The A Team
with
Elton John at the 2013 Grammy Awards (John
reportedly organised the collaboration after the
Grammys' organisers told him Sheeran
was not high-profile enough to perform
alone), and found admirers in Justin
Bieber, One Direction, and Jamie Foxx,
who famously offered Sheeran the use of
his studio after seeing him perform in
2010. Harlow says it’s
not just recognition of
talent which attracts
these people to the
26-year-old.
“That really helps
– he writes great
songs for them too,
13
FEATURE
MUSIC
which helps with people like Bieber and One
Direction – but he has an amazing ability to
make everyone feel like they are with a very
normal person, and to feel comfortable,”
he explains. “You always feel like you are
with your mate. He remembers people like
retailers and radio people, and details about
them. Like your mate would.”
One of Sheeran’s most visible pals is Taylor
Swift, whose The Red Tour Sheeran joined as
opening act in 2013; the pair’s mutual respect
and goofiness is well documented across
social media.
“I do know that not everyone around Ed
felt that the Taylor stint was a good idea, but
that he and his manager felt it was,” says
Harlow. “And they were right! It made his
reach far bigger. It seems to me that [Ed]
sees the world as an index of possibility.”
Reflecting on Sheeran’s view that
Swift opened doors for him but he
had to walk through them himself,
Harlow adds: “To me, he is a guy [for
whom] everything is
a door, and he has full
conviction that if he
can open it one inch,
he will kick it over.”
And doors have gone
flying:
+
cracked two
million sales in the
UK and hit #1 in four
countries; its follow-up, 2014’s
x
, is at nearly
three million UK sales and reached peak
chart position in nine countries. Sheeran
has won multiple prizes from the People’s
Choice Awards, the Teen Choice Awards, the
BBC Music Awards, the BRIT Awards, and
received two 2016 Grammys (for Song Of
The Year and Best Pop Solo Performance for
Thinking Out Loud
); last month the first two
singles from this month’s
÷ (divide)
,
Shape
of You
and
Castle On The Hill
, flew to the top
two positions on global streaming charts,
and pre-orders for the album quickly broke
records.
“I just can’t imagine that the songs and
ideas will ever dry up – they just seem
to keep coming,” Harlow says. “I think
Ed admires artists with longevity like Van
Morrison, Elton, and Eric Clapton, and I feel
you are looking at the early days of a career
like that – probably with all the variety and
ambition those guys have achieved.”
Just a few weeks ago, the Opera House
milestone was reached – from a little Lego
dream into reality. During his performance
Sheeran gave an enormous shout-out to
Harlow, revealing the Australian Promise and
that a #1 ARIA record had soon followed
it. Harlow admits he was proud and “a bit
teary” at the recognition, but asserts that it’s
not about him.
“What it meant was that Ed had reached
a point where he could fill an Opera House
with contest winners at will, and keep them
all hanging on every word. It felt like we’d all
achieved something huge, and completed
some kind of cycle.
“But it wasn’t more special than when we
first walked out at the Sydney Entertainment
Centre and realised it was sold-out to
the back. Or when Ed did stadiums in
Melbourne. Or when we first went to #1
on a single or an album. Or the fact that
he loves Australia now, and came here on
his break, or the day he popped in at our
Christmas party just to say ‘Hi’ to the whole
team. It’s a success story at so many levels...
We are so lucky to work with talented people
like Ed.”
÷
(divide)
by Ed Sheeran is out March 3
via Warner.