Photo: Press
Ed Sheeran’s campaign for total and utter global domination is set to continue Down Under after it was revealed the singer-songwriter’s Australian stadium tour had doubled in size.
The tour – set for March 2018 - has increased from seven to 14 dates due to “overwhelming demand” according to Michael Gudinski of Frontier Touring Company, the tour’s producer. With around 750,000 tickets sold, this means that Sheeran’s upcoming Australian tour has matched AC/DC’s 2010 Black Ice outing for the most stadium shows on a single Australian and New Zealand tour.
The tour increased in size earlier today when extra dates where added in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Auckland and Dundedin. In doing so, the ‘Galway Girl’ hitmaker has left Adele’s recent Australian tour of eight stadium shows in the dust.
Speaking in a statement, Sheeran said: “I’m overwhelmed with the response. To match that record is very humbling. I really can’t wait to get down there.”
It seems that Sheeran is a permanent presence in Australia even when he’s not in the county. ‘Shape Of You’ has taken up a residency at the top of the ARIA singles chart after he notched up his 15th week there. And there doesn’t seem to be any eviction notice on the way, either. He was also the first artist to fill both the number one and two slots (no sniggering at the back there) with ‘Shape Of You’ and ‘Castle On The Hill’.
Not only that, his third album, ÷, has also set up home at the top of the Australian charts.
Some Australian fans vented their anger at ticket vendors after the servers crashed in the stampede for pre-sales which went on sale today. General ticket sales kick off next week. Doubtless there will be plenty of disappointed fans, so maybe they should just tune into the Glastonbury coverage when Ed Sheeran headlines this year’s event.
