Ed Sheeran tried and failed to turn a Toys R Us into a live music venue in Ipswich, according to Cradle Of Filth singer Dani Filth.
The frontman makes the claim during a new interview with Kerrang!, saying that the pop singer/songwriter’s hopes of converting a disused toy superstore into a new club were shot down by Ipswich City Council. Filth and Sheeran are both natives of the city and have collaborated on a yet-to-be-released song together.
“I don’t understand Ipswich Borough Council at all, because my acquaintance / friend, Edward Sheeran, he told me he wanted to buy this Toys R Us,” Filth says (via NME).
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“It’s been vacant for years and years and years, and he put in an offer for it – he wanted to turn it into a music venue. Ideal. Massive car park, like, perfect. Couldn’t be more perfect. On the biggest roundabout in Suffolk, right? The noisiest. It’s as you come into Ipswich, which is just perfect.”
However, the council said the proposed venue would result in too much noise, a ruling that confuses and irritates Filth.
“And I mean, Ed Sheeran to Ipswich Borough Council is like chalk to cheese, you know?” he continues. “They have such a relationship. You know, he’s on murals all around the town. He sponsors Ipswich Town’s football kit and stuff. And yet they still didn’t even give him a break on this. And he was buying the place! ‘I know we’re going to redevelop this place. It’s going to bring so many more people to the town.’ But no.”
Sheeran is a longtime Cradle Of Filth fan and the two artists recorded a collaborative track together in 2022. Despite the band recently announcing their new album The Screaming Of The Valkyries for release this Friday (March 28), the long-anticipated team-up remains on the shelf.
Filth explained the delay in getting the track out during an interview with Metal Hammer in January. “We don’t want it to overshadow the record,” he said. “But we are going to bring it out. Originally, everybody wanted us to bring it out to glorious fanfare but Ed’s management weren’t keen on that.
“We’re not absolutely sure how it will emerge, but it’s been done, mixed and it’s sitting on the shelf somewhere… you know, virtually. And it’s fucking fantastic. But only a handful of people have actually heard it. My mum hasn’t even heard it.”
When asked what the song sounds like, Filth answered, “Like a cross between Ed Sheeran and Cradle Of Filth! You hear it and go, ‘Oh, my God, fuck me, acoustic guitar, that’s Ed Sheeran.’ Then at the same time, you can flip the coin and go, ‘Fuck me, this is a Cradle Of Filth song: blastbeat, Dani screaming.’”
Cradle Of Filth tour North America in April and May and will play across Europe in June and July. see details and get tickets via the band’s website.
