Ed Sheeran invites Wiltshire singer from crowd up on stage

A singer-songwriter who posts Ed Sheeran covers on YouTube received the surprise of his life, when his hero pulled him on stage to perform.

Luke Gittins, 22, from Chippenham in Wiltshire was in the front row for Sheeran's show at The O2 on Friday, when the star saw him in the audience.

The pair played Sheeran's The A Team together on acoustic guitars.

"He was so prepared and so amazing without any heads up whatsoever," Sheeran wrote on Facebook.

"Every time I release a song Luke Gittins is always the first to cover it."

Mr Gittins performed a cover of Sheeran's song Eyes Closed while in the queue for the concert, other fans sang along and posted the video online where it caught Sheeran's attention.

The star saw the video of Mr Gittins before the performance, and then spotted him again in the front row of the audience.

The pair embraced at the end of the performance

Mr Gittins said: "I had no idea he was going to ask, and you can see the exact moment I looked up and realised 20,000 people were watching."

He described himself as "absolutely speechless that this happened".

"It's been crazy," he told BBC West.

"So many people have sent me footage and photos of it, so I've seen it from pretty much every angle."

"He introduced me as a singer-songwriter, too, not just as someone who covers his music, which is so important when it comes to being recognised."

He added: "I'm just going to try and make the most of this opportunity".

Inspired by the experience, Mr Gittins has since written a song about the thousands of unnoticed singer-songwriters out there.