STACK #251 September 2025

MUSIC FEATURE

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IN THE LOOP Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour hits Australia at the start of next year, kicking off at Perth’s Optus

I’m writing all the time. I’m always picking up the guitar and trying to write a song every single day

Stadium on January 31.

You know what I’d liken it to? Speaking to footballers, it’s scoring a goal. You get that rush of endorphins… it’s an amazing feeling. And it’s only really happened 20 or 30 times in my lifetime. It’s not a hugely common thing, but it’s super-exciting when it happens.” Ed says he’s written

“thousands” of songs. “I’m writing all the time. I’m always picking up the guitar and trying to write a song every single day.” Not every song is a winner. “We write rubbish songs even now,” he smiles. “You just have to get over it and keep chasing the good ones.” Play is Ed’s eighth studio album. And he’s far from finished. He’s even planning a posthumous album. “I kind of want to make an album for the whole of my life where you put different songs on and then it’s in your will that it comes out the day you die,” he recently told American Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon. “It’s called Eject . “There’ll be lots of people who are like, ‘Still, from the grave he’s f-cking with us!’”

Play by Ed Sheeran is out Sep 12 via Inertia

CHART FACT Ed Sheeran’s first seven albums have all hit number one in Australia and the UK. And Ed has spent a combined total of 32 weeks on top of the Australian singles chart. Only one UK act, The Beatles, has spent more time on top. Ed also holds the record for the song that spent the most time in the Australian Top 100 – Perfect stayed for 334 weeks.

ED & MG Ed Sheeran made touring history in

Australia in 2018, becoming the first artist to sell one million tickets on an Australian tour. Ed loved Michael Gudinski so much, he installed a life-sized bronze statue of the promoter at his home in Suffolk, England. When MG died in 2021, Ed wrote a song for him called Visiting Hours . He said the music mogul had “this aura of fun… he was just bonkers”.

Photo credit: Petros Studios

SEPTEMBER 2025

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