Radio 1’s Big Weekend highlight Ed Sheeran has his head screwed on

You lucky, lucky people. Los Angeles is a wonderful place to live but yesterday I was wishing I was back in Glasgow.

Radio 1’s Big Weekend was in my home town and, as well as Calvin Harris and Coldplay, there were two of the hottest acts in the world.

Ed Sheeran and Pharrell were on stage and by all accounts were brilliant. Solo star Ed is one of my favourites.

I went to see him play here in LA last year and it was a fantastic show one of the best I’ve seen in years.

I’d always been a fan of Ed, but that show put him on another level in my eyes.

I first met Ed at ITV when I was visiting Lorraine. A wee ginger guy came over and asked if anyone was sitting in the free seat across from me.

It was Ed, and he turned out to be a friendly guy, and deceptively funny too.

He’d just played the closing ceremony of the Olympics along with Nick Mason of Pink Floyd it was a glorious version of Floyd’s Wish You Were Here.

A lot of Ed’s young fans thought he’d just played some new material, but not everyone can have an encyclopaedic knowledge of ’70’s music, like me.

During the performance, an acrobat walked a tightrope over the stage.

Ed can’t remember much about the performance as he was too busy waiting to see if the tightrope walker would fall off!

I caught up with Ed in LA last week to talk about his latest single, Sing.

It’s been a fair old rise to the top for Ed but, brilliantly, he appears to have his head screwed on, despite being quite good at what he does.

“Everyone has an ego, I wouldn’t be a musician if I didn’t have one,” he said. “I’ve just got a little, repressed one.”

Sing features the other hottest star in music Pharrell, and he appears in the video, which is still to be released.

I can’t say too much about it, other than it was inspired by a certain South Korean star.

“I had lots of different ideas for this video,” added Ed.

“I went on a night out with Psy and a bunch of his mates. It was the most surreal experience of my life.

“So we’ve hired a bunch of Korean businessmen to have a bit of fun. Me and Pharrell are shooting a serious video before someone drags us off.”

Ed wasn’t enjoying last week’s heatwave, either.

“I think the sun is God’s way of telling ginger people to stay indoors,” he quipped.

Last August, I went out for a pint with Ed in Hollywood. We met in an Irish bar for a few pints of the black stuff and he sorted me out for a ticket.

After talking to the incredibly serious actors and musicians out here, it’s refreshing to chat to a guy who’s very unassuming and friendly. Good luck to him he’s a great lad.

While I was at the video shoot I got to sit down with Ed’s pal, Pharrell.

Now, you might know this guy for three things. Firstly he provided vocals for Daft Punk’s Get Lucky single, which was the sound of the summer last year.

Secondly, he released his own single, Happy, which is the sound of the summer this year. And thirdly, he also wears those “distinctive” hats.

Pharrell struck me as a very serious and professional young man.

“The arts, ultimately, are what we rely on to record history, whether it’s paintings, literature or even music like this,” he said earnestly.

“Ed is a part of history. His music is big and ubiquitous and it moves people.

“He speaks with a trueness in him and he’s in parallel with the consciousness in the world.”

See, I told you he was serious! Then again, maybe he’s right to be. A strange story emerged last week about his song Happy, in Iran of all places. A bunch of students were arrested for doing a video singing along to his track.

That’s a bit harsh!

A more lighthearted take on the song was shown on Lorraine last week with some Dundee celebrities miming along to Pharrell’s Happy before the Scottish Cup Final.

It featured Oor Wullie and, as I was live on air, I thought I’d give him and The Sunday Post a wee mention.

And since some southerners were watching I had to make clear that Oor Wullie isn’t a comic about conjoined twins…