Ed Sheeran’s friends tell us, he was “Chilled, hardworking” a hit with the girls. PLUS – never seen pics from Ed’s youth.

Tomorrow Ed Sheeran will head to the Brits where he will perform and possibly pick up three Brit Awards.

Still more than 12 million Twitter followers (many of whom ask him to marry them daily) and girls screaming for him at his many sold-out stadium tours still apparently aren’t enough to persuade Ed that the ladies love him. “I'm rubbish at chatting women up, I really am!” he recently claimed. “That's something you learn at school and I was never that guy. Girls weren't interested, I still don't know how to do it."

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But Ed, we’ve been talking to some of your old mates – and you’re telling porkies about how much the ladies love you… or are, at least, very oblivious.

Oh, and they also gave us some rather cute pictures of Ed from his younger pre-fame days.

Both Richard Lowe and Matt Brinkler attended Youth Music Theatre UK with Ed in 2007, when he attended the two week summer scheme and took on an ensemble role in Frankenstein (and did a waltz).

Then, a year or two later Ed (who’s spoken about living on people’s sofas as he toured the country making his name) asked to stay on Matt’s (bright orange) sofa for two weeks in Islington, London. “Three months later we had to chuck him out,” laughs Matt (pictured below).

“He must’ve realised by now…. Whenever he picked up a guitar, pretty much all the girls were like, ‘Oh my God’,” adds Matt. “My best friend at the time once told me, ‘I don’t fancy Ed but if he’s got his guitar in his hand I would’. That’s what all the girls say.”

Still friends with Ed, Matt describes him as “chilled, hardworking and knows how to play the game of the music industry – he doesn’t do it the nasty way” and remembers him singing lines of his now hugely famous songs, sat in his living room.

And Richard adds that even at 17: “I’m not sure Ed realised [how popular he was], but [when he got his guitar out] I think a lot of the girls blushed and the guys had a bit of a man crush on him.”

Asked who the lucky “Lizzie” is that Ed has scrawled on his arm in the picture above, Richard (to the right of Ed) says it was just a joke: “There was no romance, as it was only two weeks, but I think a lot of the girls would’ve liked to.”

Asked about his unconventional looks (he’s fifth in this year’s heat Weird Crush) Matt adds: “He’s never worried – he has his scruffy ginger hair and he knows it and likes it.” Richard adds: “He was strangely mature. I got the impression he was extremely comfortable in who he was.”

He also isn’t phased by his famous mates. “He introduced me to Harry Styles and just went, ‘Oh yeah, Harry’s staying on my sofa while his house is being done up,” says Matt.

Nice to see he returns the favour to those, erm, in need.