When Ed Sheeran played our house party

Running a start-up business makes for an exciting life.

I'd encourage everyone to give it a go at some point.

It doesn't have to be full-time - love a side project!

And you don't have to be "an entrepreneur".

I don't believe I am in the truest sense of the word.

But I'm curious.

Have a passion for adventure, fun, and helping others.

And I really don't mind doing things my much younger self would have shied away from.

Picture the scene, London 2009.

A great friend and I head to a small gig after work.

Pete Murray is the lead act.

The audience is full of admiring women.

Pete is horribly good looking, can strum a guitar, and his voice ain't bad either.

At the end of the gig, my more enterprising friend and I head over to the ginger haired teenager who was the warm up act.

His act had blown us away - it was truly brilliant.

My spine is tingling as I recall this in writing for the first time.

The girls weren't nearly as interested in the warm up act.

They would be in a few years.

Us: "What are you doing in two weekend's time?"

Ed: "Not much mate."

Us: "Would you like to come and play at our house party?"

Ed: "That would be great"

Us: "How much would you charge?"

Ed: "What about ￡250 and I'll bring a friend who plays too?"

Us: "Fab - look forward to seeing you both in a couple of weeks".

So the unknown, sofa surfing, Ed Sheeran came to play an accoustic set at an address just around the corner from Parsons Green Tube.

Perhaps there will one day be a circular blue plaque on that house my friends rented.

I'd like that.

Ed would probably question what the fuss was all about.

That wasn't the end of the story.

We became groupies.

In the post work, tie wearing, adding our backing vocals to his hits in London pubs kind of way.

So did all our friends at that house party.

Raw talent is hard to forget.

Pinch yourself when you're lucky enough to stumble across it.

P.S. I wrote this while listening to "Ed Sheeran: Live At the Bedford (2010)" - you're in for a treat if you've not before. My friends were at that gig. I'd already moved to the Middle East.

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All the best from the South West.