And Finally Artist News Beef Of The Week

CMU Beef Of The Week #288: Ed Sheeran v Adele

By Andy Malt | Published on Friday 8 January 2016

Yeah, that’s right, it’s the first beef of the year and we’re starting strong with the two biggest British solo artists of the moment. Oh, the beefing. Boy are they angry. You’d best sit down before you read this one, let me tell you.

Though please note: I’m not talking about their record sales. Adele comfortably won that fight, selling approximately seven copies of her latest release to every living creature on the planet. Sheeran, of course, put himself at a disadvantage by releasing the second best-selling album of 2015 back in 2014. Though you could argue that having the whole year to hawk his record was unfair, given that Adele only gave herself twelve minutes right at the end of 2015 in which to do all of her selling.

Anyway, this isn’t about sales. There are no winners and losers when it comes to record sales. Except Sam Smith. Whose album came in third. Aka last. Better luck next time, Sam. No, this is about attitudes to technology.

Adele is a famous luddite, of course. While Ed is usually considered to be one of the most forward-thinking humans ever to have existed. But recently he’s been slipping. Last month he announced that he was removing himself from the internet entirely, switching off from the technology that connects us to modern life and heading out on an extended trip around the world.

He told Adele about this decision after being invited to dinner with his unit sales rival. “I’m getting rid of my phone and all my numbers”, he cheerfully bleated, before illustrating just how much he was distancing himself from the modern world by declaring: “I bought a Motorola flip phone”.

A dark cloud descended over the table, Adele fixing Ed with a stare usually reserved for Apple execs. Everyone else in the room was aware that flip phones were a touchy subject at that precise moment in time. But not poor Ed, who had already begun his retreat away from the online world.

“She wasn’t happy”, he apparently told The Sun. “I hadn’t seen the ‘Hello’ video. I said, ‘I’m getting a flip phone’ and she said, ‘Is that some sort of fucking joke?’ I was sat there being like, ‘Is it?’ Someone piped up and was like, ‘He hasn’t seen the video'”.

It all seems to be alright now though. It was just a simple misunderstanding. And one of Adele’s team explained that fact on a piece of slate, so even she now understands.

Anyway, here’s a video of Ed on his holiday from the internet: