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MUSIC

How a rare bird drove Ed Sheeran out of a west German town

Ed Sheeran wanted to perform at an airport near Essen, but a certain animal had other ideas: the rare Skylark. The rare bird lives nearby and would have had to be resettled. Then there was a protest. Ultimately, the birds were victorious.

Published: 6 March 2018 13:01 CET
How a rare bird drove Ed Sheeran out of a west German town
Ed Sheeran. Photo: DPA

It is something pop stars already know: When they visit a city for a big performance, there will be a lot of inconveniences for the local residents – traffic congestion, noise, chaos. This was exactly the case for the city of Essen, where Ed Sheeran wanted to hold a concert this summer.

However, in this case the noise-sensitive locals were not Essen’s human population, but rather its birds. Resident at the Essen/Mülheim airport is the rare Skylark, a brown/beige bird that is protected by the German government. According to the Nature Conservation Union of Germany (NABU) estimates, the airport is home to about eight to nine breeding pairs of Skylarks. NABU notes that in the face of unrestrained destruction of the breeding habitats, airports are still one of the safe spaces for the endangered species. It is this bird that has expelled Ed Sheeran from Germany’s Ruhr region.

Sheeran concert organizers announced Monday that due to the “uncertainties and concerns about the local bird population” in Essen, the pop star’s concert will be held instead at Düsseldorf’s Exhibition Centre on July 22nd. In other words, the birds have won.

The Skylark is an endangered bird species, with a few eight or nine breeding pairs currently living in an airport near Essen. Photo: DPA

The concert, which was to be held in a wing of the airport, has caused a great deal of controversy for Sheeran: the Species Protection Agency for Essen initially decided that the grass-breeding Skylark should not be allowed to nest at the airport until the summer, and thus make room for Sheeran’s concert. This decision incited fierce criticism among many in the conservation community. An endangered bird species should never be scared away for “purely economic reasons”, stated the NABU.

Before the decision to move the concert to Düsseldorf, a resettlement of the birds into temporary retreats off-site was expected to begin in March, with Sheeran’s team footing the bill. However, there were additional problems: the analysis of aerial photos revealed 103 suspected cases of wartime bombs left over from WWII. These photos should have been checked before the selection of Essen as the concert venue, and led to further complications for the red-headed pop icon.

To Ed Sheeran fans who care less about the birds than about their idol's performance, there is no need to worry about missing out: The more than 80,000 tickets already sold for the Essen concert will be valid at the new Düsseldorf location.

For those who haven’t reserved a seat yet, be warned: The tickets are not cheap. On the online portal “Viagogo”, the tickets still available cost more than €210. In addition to the Düsseldorf venue, Sheeran has planned concerts in Munich, Berlin, and Hamburg.

READ MORE: How rare lizards are holding up Stuttgart's fancy new rail system, at a cost of millions

CULTURE

New songs mark sixth anniversary of French star Johnny Hallyday’s death

Fans of the late Johnny Hallyday, "the French Elvis Presley", will be able to commemorate the sixth anniversary of his death with two songs never released before.

Published: 17 November 2023 09:05 CET
New songs mark sixth anniversary of French star Johnny Hallyday's death

Hallyday, blessed with a powerful husky voice and seemingly boundless energy, died in December 2017, aged 74, of lung cancer after a long music and acting career.

After an estimated 110 million records sold during his lifetime – making him one of the world’s best-selling singers -Hallyday’s success has continued unabated beyond his death.

Almost half of his current listeners on Spotify are under the age of 35, according to the streaming service, and a posthumous greatest hits collection of “France’s favourite rock’n’roller”, whose real name was Jean-Philippe Leo
Smet, sold more than half a million copies.

The two new songs, Un cri (A cry) and Grave-moi le coeur (Engrave my heart), are featured on two albums published by different labels which also contain already-known hits in remastered or symphonic versions.

Un cri was written in 2017 by guitarist and producer Maxim Nucci – better known as Yodelice – who worked with Hallyday during the singer’s final years.

At the time Hallyday had just learned that his cancer had returned, and he “felt the need to make music outside the framework of an album,” Yodelice told reporters this week.

Hallyday recorded a demo version of the song, accompanied only by an acoustic blues guitar, but never brought it to full production.

Sensing the fans’ unbroken love for Hallyday, Yodelice decided to finish the job.

He separated the voice track from the guitar which he felt was too tame, and arranged a rockier, full-band accompaniment.

“It felt like I was playing with my buddy,” he said.

The second song, Grave-moi le coeur, is to be published in December under the artistic responsibility of another of the singer’s close collaborators, the arranger Yvan Cassar.

Hallyday recorded the song – a French version of Elvis’s Love Me Tender – with a view to performing it at a 1996 show in Las Vegas.

But in the end he did not play it live, opting instead for the original English-language version, and did not include it in any album.

“This may sound crazy, but the song was on a rehearsal tape that had never been digitalised,” Cassar told AFP.

The new songs are unlikely to be the last of new Hallyday tunes to delight fans, a source with knowledge of his work said. “There’s still a huge mass of recordings out there spanning his whole career,” the source said.

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