I haven’t been to a concert in a while for a variety of reasons. Covid. Astronomical ticket prices. And being a musician, I approach the whole concept of stadium venued concerts with apprehension. That the massive metal roof of the Sky Dome would be closed because of a torrential rain storm meant even more acoustical disruption. But my wife wanted to go see Ed Sheeran and I cannot say no. I am vaguely familiar with Ed’s music as something you used to hear as a catchy background refrain on the office radio a decade ago but I was first introduced to this young and very down to earth artist during the 2015 interview with Jeremy Clarkson on Top Gear. Ed had never driven a car in his young life, had just been taught the rudiments by the Stig himself and attempted the show’s Star in a Reasonably Priced Car racing circuit.
The Sky Dome (as it was originally named) is home to the Toronto Blue Jays, the only non US Major League Baseball team. It had been reconfigured with a stage in the outfield and a retractable skybridge to a circular dais about 100 meters from our seats allowing Ed to perform in two different locations. The stadium could seat slightly under 40,000 with floor seating in the infield and no seats sold that were behind the stage. We paid nearly $800 for our pair of seats which were not spectacular in any fashion. The floor seats clearly went for over a thousand apiece and were quickly gone. The stadium was nearly full, save for extreme seats near the domed ceiling where patrons would have trouble seeing Ed even with a telescope.
I wanted to try my hand at shooting the concert but security will only allow small point and shoot cameras and certainly no serious lenses or bodies. My miniscule Lumix GM1easily fooled security who thought it was a fixed lens point and shoot. The only telephoto lens that was small enough to smuggle through was the Olympus 40-150 mm f/4-5.6 and unfortunately neither Olympus tele extenders are compatible with it. I modified a plastic drink bottle to hide the lens and even retain an upper chamber full of visible and drinkable juice that I could shake for the security teams.
The label was removed and a horizontal incision made halfway around the bottle circumference. A watertight upper chamber was made by gluing a plastic disc above the level of the incision and the lens was inserted, the incision taped over and the label reattached to hide the alterations. Blue juice was reintroduced into the upper chamber to complete the illusion.
I shot at ISO1600 with noise reduction in post. At 150mm and f/5.6 I would adjust the EV levels to give me a shutter speed of at least 1/100 s to make the images come out sharp. Of course lighting conditions were very variable with smoke everywhere and bouncing spot lights. Take as many shots as possible. I estimate the main stage was about 200 meters away from us.
Ed is strictly a solo performer. One of his signature moves is to record several short rhythmic guitar or vocal tracks which he can merge together and playback at any time during his song performance which makes each live iteration unique. The spectacle is replete with fireworks and shooting balls of flame. But the poor acoustics meant I often could not clearly hear his faced paced short worded lyrics that make his songs so memorable. His performances really belong to dedicated music halls but the life of a musician today depends on large scale concert venues to make enough money. Record sales no longer exist and the replacement income from streaming services is but a fraction of what record sales used to generate. Ed’s three day stay was his only appearance in Canada which has generated a new phenomenon known as concert tourism. To avoid trips into the US (given the current world dislike of the Trump regime) people from all over Canada will travel to Toronto to see Ed and spend time in the city as a tourist.
Luckily the fireballs were not really close to the priceless Blue Jays baseball pennants in the upper left. Hanging there are two World Series victories and last year they were the American League East champions and should have won the World Series against the LA Dodgers. During the home games of that seven game battle, not a single seat could be found but there were hotel rooms that had a view of the field that could be had for $5000 per night … and I was tempted.
You can see Ed is really working hard and during his 3 hour concert he performed nearly 30 songs. He changes guitars between each song because some songs require different tuning. He is also a good raconteur and is especially fond of Toronto. This was his first international gig in 2010 where he provided musical accompaniment to live poetry reading in a theatre holding an audience of a thousand. Being from a small farm village in Yorkshire, this experience of Toronto and later visiting Niagara Falls left him with indelible early professional memories.
Ed sees every sign and he may just sign your shirt.
The modern day version of holding a flaming cigarette lighter. You can see the level of hotel rooms with large expansive windows to view through.
I enjoyed the concert more than I thought I would. It wasn’t so much Ed’s performance. I missed being in a setting with so many other people. I enjoyed the occasional random scream. The women dancing on the spot in front of their seats. And eating extremely overpriced concert food.
I have degrees in Biochemistry and Dentistry and practice clinically 2 days a week. The rest of the week I devote to photography and bringing you the very best writing in this blog.
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