Ed Sheeran Announces Croke Park Support Acts

The biggest gigs of the summer just got even better as the support acts for Ed Sheeran’s two night run at Croke Park were announced this morning. Just as we revealed back in February, our very own ginger singer/songwriter Gavin James is among those announced along with another fine Irish act in Bell X1 and former Dublin resident Jamie Lawson. It would appear that Bell X1 will play support on both evenings and will be joined by Gavin on the Friday and Jamie on the Saturday.

Bell X1 have been among the elite of Irish bands for well over a decade now with hits such as Flame, Eve The Apple Of My Eye and the anthemic Rocky Took A Lover propelling them to some of the biggest stages Ireland and the rest of the world have to offer. Their song The Great Defector contains one of the greatest lines ever written as Paul Noonan croons “You’re the chocolate at the end of my Cornetto.”?It won’t be the first time they play the country’s biggest arena though. Bell X1 supported U2 at Croker on their 360??tour back in July of 2009.

We featured Gavin James in our five Irish acts to look out for feature a few weeks ago and we’re delighted to see that he’s finally going to be getting the recognition he thoroughly deserves this summer. For a man who is yet to release a studio album yet, it’s been some rise to fame for James. His song Say Hello was awarded the song of the year title back in 2012 at the Meteor Choice Awards and Gavin hasn’t looked back since then. We highly recommend you listen to his Live At Whelan’s album and, in particular, his stunning cover of Book Of Love.

Jamie Lawson brought his music and his life to Dublin back in 2005 when his first album gained some traction on this side of the Irish sea. Despite becoming relatively well known in the local scene, Lawson couldn’t make the breakthrough he deserved. Defeated, he returned to England, until one day an Irish friend of his sent a link to Jamie’s now song Wasn’t Expecting That to Today FM. Fast forward a few months and Jamie signed for Universal Music Ireland and toured the country. It’s great to see grit and determination pay off in an industry full of manufactured pop and now, ten years after moving to Ireland, Jamie will play the biggest gig of his life. Bravo.

@NiallMacSuain