Let's just quickly return to pop's current hotbed, Birmingham, with news that pop's reigning King Of Nice, Ed Sheeran, has agreed to replace Justin Bieber at this month's Fusion Festival.
As you'll recall Bieber rather surÂprisÂingly cropped up on the bill as headliner back in March, before realising earlier this week that actually he couldn't do it due to some sort of schedulÂing nonsense.
So, after some phone calls and contracts etc, Ed Sheeran's agreed to fill Bieber's slot.
https://twitter.com/edsheeran/status/629345545241407488
"I've been in this business a long time and it nearly brought me to tears," mused your friend and ours Mike Owen, who is the festival organiser. "It was just a moment of sheer excitement."
He added, and there's a sense in which this quote also underÂlines how unlikely it was that Justin Bieber was ever on the bill: "The most-streamed artist in the world last year and he's going to come and do Fusion in Birmingham."
"There was a lot of concerns, a lot of phone calls but Ed Sheeran himself kind of came forward out of a little group of conÂverÂsaÂtions with people and said, 'I'll do it.'"
"It was absoÂlutely breathÂtakÂing for us. It was just astonÂishÂing. What a wonderful man."
Indeed.
