When people look back on the many times that Ed Sheeran has played in Massachusetts, the definitive local performance will not be headlining Boston Calling in 2024, nor the recent St. Patrick’s Day surprise at The Dubliner, nor any of the times he’s packed Gillette Stadium. It will be the time he turned a music video shoot into a two-hour trad session inside a fake Irish pub.
Although I’m not sure it’s fair to call Ed Sheeran’s pop-up pub in Ipswich, The Old Phone, “fake.” It acquired a legitimate one-day liquor license, which I confirmed by ordering a Guinness Stout (despite strongly disliking beer — when in Rome, I guess). Like any time-weathered Irish bar, it teemed with knickknacks that looked like they should be gathering dust: Jello molds, bowling trophies, analog clocks. A cozy ambiance settled across the room, thanks to the glow of electric candles flickering in votives and Tiffany-style lamps tucked between booths.
Around the pub, Ed Sheeran’s fingerprints broke the fourth wall. Framed copies of his vinyl records mingled with scarves branded in support of Ipswich Town Football Club and paintings of quaint landscapes. A framed photo of Sheeran with a guitar sat adjacent with a dartboard that was notably without darts. And I’m not sure whether to award bonus points or deduct them for the fact that the restroom was located in a trailer outside: Is a lack of grime-covered toilets a plus for hygiene or a minus for authenticity?
But the true test of a pub’s merit — aside from being able to get you stinking drunk — is its ability to host live music. And by that measure, The Old Phone was easily able to contain the rumble of both “raucous” singalongs and a few of Sheeran’s secrets.
The English singer may have opened the pop-up as a means of creating a music video backdrop for his forthcoming single “The Old Phone,” but Friday night (March 28) was 20 percent video shoot and 80 percent stripped-down show. Playing an acoustic guitar on a barstool at the center of the room, the singer tapped Irish folk band Beoga to join him for a trad-session-style performance. Hosting an actual show, Sheeran theorized, would create an atmosphere where guests “would actually be in the mood” to clap and cheer along during any filming.
His instinct were right. After a standard stroll through his catalog, strumming wedding fodder (“Perfect,” “Thinking Out Loud”) and more danceable numbers (“Galway Girl,” “Nancy Mulligan”), no one minded the repetition required to get the necessary shots for the music video. (That, and the few dozen guests present were all Sheeran fans who entered a “The Old Phone”-themed competition, which also made them far more amenable than the average Boston pubgoer).
“I know, it’s mad fucking awkward,” Sheeran said before starting a third rendition of “The Old Phone.” But by that point in the set, fans putting their phones down was an easy habit. They had stashed away their devices on multiple occasions already, after Sheeran asked them to turn the cameras off for performances of never-before-heard songs from his next album, Play. One ballad, “The Vow,” was an instant first dance contender for future weddings. Another song — the single that will follow “The Old Phone” — is a jauntier track that’s thematically reminiscent of Billie Eilish’s “L’AMOUR DE MA VIE.”
In an epic instance of redheads saluting redheads, Sheeran even covered Chappell Roan’s song “Pink Pony Club,” which he had also performed with Jimmy Fallon earlier in the week. Over the course of two hours, Sheeran never broke away from the center of the room and his temporary bandmates in Beoga.
“My favorite thing in the world to do — not even playing, [is] just sitting in on a trad session and watching amazing musicians play,” Sheeran told the small crowd, referencing a London pub and old haunt of his called the Devonshire.
“Musicians sit in a circle, and we just share music all night, and no one films,” he added, as many people in the audience filmed him. “I was going every single Tuesday, and in my head, I was like ‘I wish I could just pick this up and put it somewhere,’ and the original idea [for the music video] came from that.”
With ties to the English town of Ipswich, Ipswich, Massachusetts was a natural home for The Old Phone, although Sheeran admitted it wasn’t his first idea.
“Instantly, I was like ‘Well, it’s got to be Boston, because of the Irish connection,'” he recalled. “But then in my head, I was like ‘But Boston gets so much, it’s a big city. They always get people coming through, doing gigs.’ And then someone went, ‘you know, there’s an Ipswich in Massachusetts…'”
From the first conversation with design and fabrication company Pink Sparrow, to the pub’s delivery in Massachusetts, The Old Phone came together in roughly 50 days, says Pink Sparrow creative director Cat Garcia-Menocal.
“Especially from a propping and styling perspective, everything was sourced locally,” she said, noting that items like an archival map of Ipswich, Massachusetts came from area barns and antique shops. Earlier in the day, hundreds of Ipswich residents and Sheeran fans had the chance to examine the details in person, as small crowds rotated through the pub all afternoon. Each group was treated to complimentary beer, small plates of grilled cheese and fish and chips, and pub-branded merch like tote bags, tee shirts, and hats.
But the true treat was the evening’s exclusive trad session. Sheeran’s performance ended with a few songs that brought fans to their feet, no longer tethered to their seats and decorum. “Castle on the Hill,” a mashup of “Shiver” and “Bad Habits,” and “Shape of You” could have been the evening’s thrilling closer, but instead Sheeran chose to stick the landing with the Scottish traditional song “The Parting Glass.” He tipped his glass of non-alcoholic Guinness to the air as he walked around the circle of fans in his orbit, making eye contact with as many onlookers as possible.
It’s unlikely that no one was filming the intimate moment — but looking back, I oddly can’t recall anyone taking their phone out.
Take a peek inside The Old Phone below. All photos by Victoria Wasylak for Vanyaland.
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