Ed Sheeran reveals secret boozy night out with major sports star as he lifts lid on his huge celeb pals
AS one of the nicest blokes in the music business, it's no wonder Ed Sheeran's little black book is crammed full of huge celebrities.
And in a new chat on The Louis Theroux podcast, he talks about famous friends including Van Morrison, who once woke him up at 6am after a boozy night out with Rory McIlroy, demanding to see him.
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'I was doing a gig in Belfast and my grandmother had come down to the gig and she loves golf,' Ed said.
' Rory had come down and she loved being around him. We stayed up super late talking to him, and I'd say we went to bed at like 4am.
'About 6am, I got a call on my hotel phone from the hotel — 'Mr Morrison's in the lobby, he wants to have breakfast with you'.
'I was half asleep and half drunk. So I just hung up and I was like, 'I have no idea who Mr Morrison is.'
'Then I got another call and they said, 'Sorry, Van Morrison is in'.
'I ran downstairs and there he was waiting for me and we had breakfast, which is really surreal.
'I'm a huge fan. We spoke for ages about everything we did. One of the subjects was actually Spotify.
'I had embraced Spotify quite early in my career and I think he was asking me to explain Spotify to him.'
Ed also talked about hanging out with Eminem after he worked on the rapper's 2018 song River.
'He loves comic books, Marvel movies and video games,' Ed explained.
Ed Sheeran left red-faced after cops in India demand he shut down street performance
'I sent him a Nintendo 64 with Goldeneye on it because he'd never played it.'
About his new album Play, which is out on September 12, Ed said it feels like a double-edged sword.
He explained: 'The two joys of my life professionally are writing songs and performing. I f***ing hate releasing music.
'You love the songs so much and then suddenly you're putting them out there and that might change your relationship with them if other people don't like them.
'I'm trying my hardest not to let that happen.
'I find releasing it just kind of sucks the joy out of it.'
ED ON DAVE...
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'HE'S done a lot of production on the new record because aside from being a brilliant lyricist, he's also an incredible producer and writer.'
...ON SIR ELTON
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'HE still calls me Ed She-ran. I just think that's just programmed in.'
...ON STORMZY
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'I BOUGHT my first car, a Mini, and I then drove him to the pub. He didn't fit in the back.'
...ON EMINEM
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'HE seems like he'd be quite shy but I don't think he is when you get to know him. His humour is very similar to mine.'
...ON SAM FENDER
'I MESSAGED him just being like, 'I really like this song'. I still haven't met him, but I at least know that there's a connection somewhere of mutual respect.'
PITBULL LEADS BALD E PARTY
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PITBULL is back at London's O2 Arena for another two sold out nights after a successful show earlier this year.
Delivering possibly the most fun gig i've ever been to, his Party After Dark Tour is a nostalgic trip down memory lane with feel good banger after banger after banger.
Everyone there simply wants to have a good time - with the tube to the venue packed with fans in costumes all singing at the top of their lungs.
Chancing my luck, I opted to dress as Mr Worldwide himself... and safe to say it went down a treat backstage.
After a flurry of possibly the hottest female dancers I've ever seen, Pitbull appeared out of his dressing room - catching my outfit and grinning from ear to ear.
"Man I love it" he laughed before giving me a big hug.
I quickly launched into a short tale of how I'd ran to Soho that afternoon to buy my baldcap - bumping into three other music lovers doing exactly the same thing.
Smiling Pitbull said: "Well next time you see them you make sure you tell them from me thank you. I love all my Bald E's.
"We are going to have a great show tonight. I can feel it.
"For the first time tonight my band are going to dress as Bald E's too."
He added on stage: "I tell you why I call you guys [fans] the bald E's. Because we fly high, and we soar high like bald eagles. So therefore we are the bald E's
"And everywhere we go, and anytime you're there, you put on that bald cap and you already know you are going to have the time of your life.
In fact new date from QR Code Generator have revealed searches for 'bald cap' have it an all time high in the UK amid Pitbull's tour.
It's hard to quite put into words the energy in the O2 - 90% of the sold out 20,000 venue has come dressed as the star.
Sure concerts like Taylor Swift have an amazing atmosphere and everyone dresses up but vibe at Pitbull is... different.
No one cares about looking sexy or Instagram-ready as they are wearing a rubber bald cap and shirt.
They are simply there to have a good time - and boy does he pull it off.
You don't need therapy. You just need two hours at a Pitbull gig.
By Jack Hardwick
MARIAH BACK TO HER GOLD SELF
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GOLDEN girl Mariah Carey turned back the clock and looked remarkably youthful as she performed at the BET Awards in Los Angeles.
Wearing a glittering mini-dress, she sang her new single, Type Dangerous, before collecting the Ultimate Icon Award.
Jennifer Hudson, Snoop Dogg and Kevin Hart were also at the event celebrating black entertainers, as was breakout rapper Doechii, who used her Best Female Hip-Hop Artist speech to take aim at Donald Trump for his crackdown on people protesting against immigration raids.
The star, who will perform at Glastonbury later this month, said: 'Trump is using military forces to stop a protest.
'I want you all to consider what kind of government it appears to be when every time we exercise our democratic right to protest, the military is deployed against us. What type of government is that?'
PULP HEAD TO GLASTO
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GLASTONBURY got fans into a frenzy when organisers announced the full festival line-up, including a mysterious band called Patchwork.
Now I can reveal who the band destined for the Saturday Pyramid Stage actually are – as I have been told punters can expect a set from Pulp.
Jarvis Cocker and co headlined the festival 30 years ago and last did a surprise set there in 2011. But they are about to return following their comeback with new music.
The band are set to top the charts this Friday for the first time in 27 years thanks to their album More, so this will be the perfect way to celebrate.
There are also plenty of whispers about surprise Glasto performances from Lewis Capaldi and Haim, so there's lots to look forward to in three weeks' time.
But organiser Emily Eavis kept schtum about who Patchwork are when asked about them during the Sidetracked by Glastonbury podcast on BBC Sounds.
Speaking to hosts Annie MacManus and Nick Grimshaw, she said: 'I've been working on Patchwork for a long time. I tell you what, pretty much since I saw you this time last year I've been working on Patchwork.'
Asked if that meant they took 'a lot of persuading', she added: 'Well, it's more logistical.'
Foo Fighters did a set under the name The Churnups in 2023, and this sounds just as exciting.
MILEY END TO FAMILY QUARREL
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MILEY CYRUS has revealed she was the one to end the family feud following her parents' divorce.
On the Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky podcast yesterday, she explained: 'My family and I have had a really difficult, dark decade.
'Half of us weren't speaking to each other at one point. And we cleaned all that up. That was a really important part of my year.' She added: 'I watched what happens when you don't clean things up as they're happening.'
Asked if they'd had therapy, Miley said: 'We're so messy. We didn't even do any of that. To get each other in a room to even get to counselling would have been a war. So it was easier to just go, 'white flag'.'
Miley, above, has written a song, Secrets, for her next album, about reconnecting with dad Billy Ray.
RONNIE'S A PAINT ROLLER
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FANS of Ronnie Wood can get their hands on his new art as he celebrates 50 years as a member of the Rolling Stones.
The rock great, who is as handy with a paintbrush as he is with a guitar pick, had his work on display at the band's official store in London's Carnaby Street last week, before putting the items up for sale on his website.
The musician's new exhibits include 50 – The Portraits which are hand-finished canvases of Sir Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and the band's late, great drummer Charlie Watts.
Superfans can also buy an exclusive bundle that includes four portraits and a setlist from Ronnie's first show with the Stones in 1975, along with a limited-edition 7in vinyl single which contains a new recording by Ronnie.
MUSE, the best live band I've ever seen in my life, have stepped in at the last minute to replace Kings of Leon as top of the bill for Madrid's Mad Cool Festival.
The American rockers were forced to pull out after singer Caleb Followill injured his foot.
But British act Muse will headline the opening night on July 10 instead.
MICK HUCKNALL will be awarded ASCAP's Golden Note Award as he celebrates Simply Red's 40th anniversary.
He will be handed the honour – recognising extraordinary career milestones – at an American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers ceremony in London on June 17.
London singer and songwriter Lola Young will pick up the ASCAP Vanguard Award.
Mick, you're my hero.
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The directors of Holloway use a simple but powerful visual device to demonstrate how badly the British prison system is failing the women it incarcerates. Towards the end of their eponynmous documentary, six former inmates are invited to play a version of Grandmother's Footsteps in the chapel of the deserted ex-prison, where they have been filming for five days. They begin lined up against the wall and a voice tells them: 'Step forward if you grew up in a chaotic household.' All six women step forward, before being instructed: 'Step forward if you experienced domestic violence growing up.' Again, they move ahead in unison. 'Step forward if somebody in your household has experienced drug use. Step forward if you grew up in a household where there wasn't very much money. Step forward if a member of your family has been to prison …' By the time the exercise is over, almost all the women have silently made their way from one side of the room to the other, starkly highlighting the film's fundamental theme: the UK's prisons are full of vulnerable women being punished – at great expense – and not helped. Shortly before Holloway prison began to be demolished in 2022, directors Sophie Compton and Daisy-May Hudson secured permission to film inside the abandoned site in London, watching as six women returned to the cells where they were once held, to explore how they all ended up imprisoned as young women. Directors of a more conventional documentary might have plonked the participants on the bare iron frames of their old prison beds and instructed them to pour out their life stories, poking and prodding them for all the shocking details. 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Compton (Emmy nominated for her documentary on deepfake pornography, Another Body) and Hudson (who won a Bafta Breakthrough award for her film Half Way, documenting her own family's experience of homelessness) have the confidence to make their subjects collaborators on the project, inviting them into the editing process, to ensure everyone feels happy with how their experiences have been handled. 'They could say what they did and didn't like,' Hudson says. 'They wanted more laughter included. Our wish was that they felt proud of the film.' Once western Europe's largest women's prison, Holloway has a significant place in British history. More than 300 suffragettes were held in a wing of the original building during the early 20th century. Ruth Ellis was hanged there in 1955, the last woman to be executed in the UK. Greenham Common protesters spent time here. Sarah Reed, who had previously been a victim of police brutality in 2012, died in her cell in 2016. This is not the story the film sets out to tell. 'It's not a film about Holloway; other films can tell a historical story or show the realities of being in prison,' says Compton, who I meet along with Hudson and two of the film's participants, Aliyah Ali and Mandy Ogunmokun. 'This is about a group of women returning to Holloway, and finding they are not the same people they were when they were in prison.' The women each respond differently when they walk through the corridors of the site, which closed in 2016. Some take delight in defying forgotten rules, skipping along walkways that were previously out of bounds. One begins by cheerfully telling the cameras how she viewed her time at Holloway as a holiday camp experience – it takes days for her to admit the extent to which her attitude is just a protective front. Another observes approvingly the way that brambles and ferns have started to reclaim the space, springing from beneath the plug sockets and creeping through the windows. 'It feels kind of healing to see that Holloway prison is falling apart,' she says. Some remember with horror the noise of night-time screaming, but several are surprised by the unexpected feelings of affection the building triggers. 'It was probably the first time that I was in an environment which was controlled and felt safe,' Ali, 31, tells me. 'It's sad that for a lot of us, the first time we felt that connection of belonging and sisterhood, we found it in prison. What does that say about society?' She was sent to Holloway at 18. 'Growing up how I grew up, you're conditioned to just brush things off and get on with things, and wear masks and stay strong. When I went back to my first cell, I felt my 18-year-old self cry out.' Ali is initially the most reluctant of the six participants. The founder of a non-profit organisation, The Daddyless Daughters Project, she has rebuilt her life, radiates strength and seems visibly irritated by the entire setup. 'I was worried they could edit our voices and create a narrative that we weren't hoping for,' she says. 'I was thinking, 'We're trusting them with a level of vulnerability that we're not comfortable with. What are these people going to do with it?'' Gradually she was reassured and slowly began to reveal some of the childhood events that catapulted her into prison – family breakdown, domestic violence, a move to a women's refuge, then later into a residential children's home at the age of 12. Her problems escalated when she got caught up in county lines dealing, as a child exploited by criminal gangs to move and supply drugs. 'I was introduced to selling drugs, which I was very good at, and it was the first time that I started to feel a sense of worth,' she finally reveals on camera. She is dismayed to remember how little support she received as a child. 'The system saw me as a bad girl … as somebody who asked for all of this,' she says in the film. 'It was always, 'What's wrong with you? Why can't you just behave? Why can't you just stop doing this?' Nothing was asked about what actually happened to me,' she says. Her fury is echoed by Ogunmokun. 'It's so frustrating to see how similar the stories of people going in and out of prison are. Change is so slow,' she says. The daughter of a woman who struggled with addiction, she also spent some of her childhood in care, went to Holloway first aged 20, and was in and out repeatedly for two decades until she shook off her own drug addiction aged 40. 'I'm angry that some kids are born into certain circumstances, and what chance do they have?' Ogunmokun, 66, has dedicated the 25 years since leaving Holloway to helping former addicts break the cycle of addiction and offending. 'Every time I reoffended the judge would say: 'You haven't learned anything.'' She didn't get the support she needed to change while she was in prison, through no real fault of the prison staff. 'The officers see horrific things, but they're not trained counsellors – they're not mental health trained, they're not sex-trafficking trained, they're not domestic violence trained. They've got a regime they have to run by.' She hopes the film might persuade viewers that there needs to be a revolution in the way that female offenders are treated. It is almost 20 years since the seminal Corston report on vulnerable women in the criminal justice system called for a radically different strategy, but many of the report's key recommendations have yet to be implemented. Hudson and Compton struggled for several years to raise funding to finish their film. Now they feel happy that it is being released at a time when there is some emerging optimism about the possibility of change. 'The simple truth is that we are sending too many women to prison,' the justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, said earlier this year. 'We need to do things differently.' The film will be screened at an event with the prisons minister, James Timpson, in parliament later this month. Hudson's first fiction film, Lollipop, which comes out this month too, also features a woman who has recently left prison. She says both projects examine the way vulnerable women are shamed and blamed, as well as trying to showcase 'the power of women that society tries to put on the outskirts'. Ali is satisfied with how the film has turned out, and wants it to be shown to young people in prisons, to offer hope that lives can alter course. Despite her early reservations, she is impressed by the directors' creation. 'It's been emotionally turbulent,' she says, 'but they've done an amazing job.' Holloway is in UK cinemas from 20 June.
