Sam Fender swore live on stage at BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend Show on Saturday, before his long-awaited headline set was hit by technical difficulties.

The Geordie singer, 31, headlined at the music event in Liverpool, closing out the Saturday with confetti and fireworks.

And despite wowing with his vocals, at one point Sam became flustered, with an onlooker telling MailOnline that he apologised to the crowd after being hit by ‘technical difficulties.’

Sam’s set contained crowd favourite hits including Seventeen Going Under and Hypersonic Missiles which had fans chanting into the night.

A source told MailOnline: ‘The crowd was buzzing as Sam came on to headline following the likes of Ed Sheeran and the Sugababes earlier in the day.

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Sam Fender swore live on stage at BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend Show on Saturday, before his long-awaited headline set was hit by technical difficulties 

The Geordie singer headlined at the music event in Liverpool, closing out the Saturday with confetti and fireworks 

‘But during the first few songs he had a number of technical difficulties. Sam continued to mess around with his mic stand through a number of songs and was spotted looking to the side of stage awkwardly.

‘Sam was apologetic to fans for the problems and admitted he was s***ing himself performing the huge gig.

‘However he powered through and put on an incredible performance.’

Other stars at the event included Ed Sheeran, who made a surprise appearance where he performed a new song inspired by his $100 million copyright trial.

The singer wrote the track after revisiting an old phone during the lawsuit over his hit Thinking Out Loud.

He had been accused of copying Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On but was cleared in court in 2023.

Now, taking to the stage at the Liverpool-based festival, Ed opened up about the inspiration behind his new song Old Phone before performing it for the first time in front of a crowd. 

A source said: ‘Sam was apologetic to fans for the problems and admitted he was s***ing himself performing the huge gig’

Other stars at the event included Ed Sheeran, who made a surprise appearance where he performed a new song inspired by his $100 million copyright trial

Read MoreEXCLUSIVE Ed Sheeran reflects on copyright lawsuit as he performs ’emotional’ single inspired by the case

Referring to his copyright trail, told the crowd: ‘The judge ordered me to give up my old devices to the other lawyers for them to go through all my text messages and emails and pH๏τos and stuff like that.

‘And in that process I switched on a phone that I had not looked at in 10 years and it was like looking into the past and it was conversations with people who had pᴀssed away.

He continued: ‘There was arguments with an ex-girlfriend, there was, you know, text messages and pictures from people that I haven’t seen or spoken to in, in 10 years, and I wrote this song about it called Old phone.’

Ed’s performance was announced just moments before he surprised the crowd with his unexpected appearance.

He told fans he chose to perform on the New Music Stage because it was the only one he hadn’t sung on yet.

A source at Big Weekend told MailOnline: ‘Ed came on as a surprise guest kicking off the opening act on Saturday lunchtime, I’ve never seen festival goers swarm a stage so quickly.

‘He played a number of his hits and also included some of his new songs which the crowd the loved.

‘Ed explained the meaning behind his one new song where he opened up about his court case and how finding old phone was the inspiration.

‘As he started Azizam he did mess up his famous loop but he started again and told the crowd ‘that’s how you know I’m playing live’.