Posted by Emily Exton on 06/18/2012 at 1:41 PM Videos

The Popdust Files: concerts, covers, ed sheeran, niall horan, one direction, The A Team, up all night tour

The boys of One Direction are known to pull out a few covers during their live set—to fill the void left by lack of dance breaks, natch. While they’ve already shown a predilection for Will Smith and Black Eyed Peas, the weekend gave them the chance to pay tribute to fellow a British act attempting to breakthrough overseas  In between Twitter portion of Sunday’s show in Anaheim, Calif. and Zayn’s water break, the group broke out some Ed Sheeran, with Niall taking the lead on his single “The A Team.” The boys graciously threw cover duties to the Irish one, who sweetly began to recreate Sheeran’s delicate vocals before getting somewhat rudely interrupted by Harry’s attempts at comedy. Nothing funnier than an overwrought belting session, right? We’ll chalk this up to misdirected revenge after Zayn awkwardly poked his cheek on national television.

Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images

Niall gets his moment.

The One Direction connection runs deeper than just the native countries and football allegiances, as Sheeran is responsible for penning the group’s ballad “Moments” off debut Up All Night. They’ve been pretty open about their love for his music during interviews and promotional appearances, and giving very public shout-outs to friends and those he admires is becoming a trend for Niall, so long as you’re not another male quintet who abstains from dancing on stage.

Add Niall to the list of pop acts incapable of keeping their gushing about Sheeran and his debut album + a secret. And as expected, Ed approves!

@NiallOfficial saw the video of the a team, big upsss!

— Ed Sheeran (@edsheeran) June 18, 2012