It’s been quite a week for Ed Sheeran, playing in front of the Queen and a few million of her closest friends for the Diamond Jubilee gig at Buckingham Palace before heading to Mallorca for the opening of Mallorca Rocks before culminating with the Ibiza Rocks opening party. As he proved in front of a TV audience of billions, his one man and a guitar show is more than a little captivating, proving that pure talent, some strong, thought provoking lyrics and an ability to engage an audience trumps a four beat loop and auto-tune every day of the week and twice on a Wednesday! Having caught him live on several occasions before, tonight’s Ibiza Rocks opening party was never going to be a disappointment.
There’s a huge amount of planning goes into the Ibiza Rocks season; the decision on the artists and the specific week that they will appear is only the tip of the iceberg but programming Ed Sheeran to appear days after his stand out performance in front of Buckingham Palace, on a bill that included, an ex Beetle, Madness, Elton John and Stevie Wonder was nothing short of inspired. The hotel is packed by the time we get in – the concept is simple; take one stage, surround it by hotel room balconies, add hundreds of screaming music lovers and press play – and the atmosphere is electric.
Sheeran wanders out to the solo microphone front and centre, not at all intimidated by what lies in front of him, he has that casualness that comes with knowing you are very good at what you do. When he breaks into song, the crowd erupts and Ibiza Rocks is declared open for another string breaking, drumstick throwing, mosh-pitting summer. Ed breezes through his two hour set with songs old and new, engaging the crowd every now and then and delivering a sound much bigger than his lonely presence on stage would suggest. It wouldn’t be Ibiza Rocks if there weren’t some form of sing-along, initiated by Sheeran by getting different parts of the crowd to sing different harmonies. This could just as easily be him and five mates drinking a bottle of jack and kicking back at an after party!
If there is one criticism that could be levelled at Ibiza Rocks it’s that it is over too quickly, like everything when you are enjoying it, time flies! The goods news is that there are many more of these nights to be had before the end of the season. After a winter of hibernation, Ibiza still rocks!
