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and make everyone feel part
of it. And that’s as much in a
huge arena as in the tiniest
room.
Do you think it was simple recognition of
talent that endeared him to the enormous
musical personalities who first decided to
champion him – Elton John, Jamie Foxx
and so on?
No. That really helps – he writes great
songs for them too 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. And I assume that works with
the ‘celebrities’ too. You always feel like you
are with your mate, and he remembers people
like retailers and radio people and details
about them. Like your mate would.
I liked very much Ed’s understanding of the
opening slots he performed for Taylor Swift
– that she was opening the doors but he
had to walk through them himself. Do you
think it’s a reflection of an innate attitude
or something he had to learn very quickly?
I can’t answer for him but it sounds like
he’d say that! To me, he’s a guy [for whom]
everything is a door and his has a full
conviction that if he can open it one inch he
will kick it over. It seems to me that he sees
the world as an index of possibility! 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. And they were right! It
made his reach far bigger.
Tell us how Ed’s first promo tour to
Australia came together – why did you
think Australia was the right place to break
Ed outside of the UK?
It was a risk but we believed. As I said, I’d
seen Ed and I felt he had the ability to sell
a crowd, and that would work in Australia.
And I went to see him in London and saw
that the crowd was the sort of kids who liked
One Direction, and I felt we could work that
angle. And I felt he had enough larrikin sense
of humour about him to appeal here and win
people over. That’s important. There was
a short clip of Ed singing on a canal boat
in London that resonated with us all
here, and won our team over. It was so
real. So we asked for a visit and put a
couple of showcases around it, one
in Melbourne and
one in Sydney. And
of course on that trip
we did a few of the
‘Aussie’ things like the
photo with the koala,
and the seafood platter
at Doyle's, and there
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MUSIC
was the koala tattoo to remind me to fulfill my
promise to break him here first!
What did it mean to you when Ed
dedicated his Sydney Concert Hall (Opera
House) show to you? He revealed that
you’d promised he’d make it here, and
shortly after he had his first #1 on the ARIA
chart.
It meant a lot and it doesn’t mean anything.
I do this job for music. What it meant really
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. And since we’d always talked
about playing the Opera House and he’d
personally made and given me a Lego Opera
House after his first visit, 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 he did stadiums
in Melbourne. 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 – personal and real.
Tell us a little bit about Gingerbread Man
Records; is there a solid affiliation with
Warner?
Ed is a man who recognises the debts he
owes, and this was a platform he wanted to
[use to] introduce talent he believes in, that he
felt wasn’t recognised as the talent it was for
surface reasons. So he gave people like Jamie
Lawson a chance, and had #1 records.
Many artists seems to establish their own
label and then rock it alone, as a platform
only for themselves. Ed clearly wants to
use his label to discover/nurture artists.
Why has he gone this route do you think?
I think it’s early days for the label. So far
he’s used it to support mates he felt were
unsung. In the future and when he has time
I believe he might use it to break artists.
When he does, watch out! I saw him do great
things to help Jamie [Lawson] and Foy [Vance]
– even put the CD into an on-air DJs hands
and demand a play! As a label boss he has
a lot of contacts and influence and he’s very
motivated for his venture to succeed. And he’s
not bad at songwriting either. So somewhere
there is something dangerous coming!
What do you think Ed’s future career
is going to look like?Will he go into
hiding, take a hiatus, become ever more
prolific, build his label into a mentorship
powerhouse?
I have no idea because I don’t have enough
imagination about what could happen – except
that I can’t imagine it being anything other
than a success. I just can’t imagine that the
songs and ideas will ever dry up. They just
seem to keep coming. I think he 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.
Tony Harlow
is President of Warner's global artist and
label services arm.
÷
(divide)
by Ed Sheeran is out March 3
via Warner.