CityLife

Must see: Mumford And Sons

Mumford And Sons

Set aside the contribution of the Brit School to the recent London music scene, and it’s the reappraisal of folk music that has been a standout feature of many of the capital’s bands.

Unsurprisingly, many of them are linked. Mercury nominee Laura Marling heads the pack, but Noah And The Whale, Johnny Flynn And The Sussex Wit and Mumford And Sons all grew up on the same stages.

Easily one of the most musically charming are Mumford And Sons, though, whose songs swell with an optimism and pastoral feel rarely achieved by anyone since Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young first got together.

Take the rolling banjo of Roll Away Your Stone, the euphoric fire of Little Lion Man, the sweet melancholy of White Blank Page (one of the first songs the band ever wrote) or the rousing heartbreak of After The Storm; it would be just as easy to fall in love as to fall apart to a Mumford And Sons record. That record, their debut album Sign No More, came about less than two years into life as a band.

Its success – charting just outside the Top 10 on its release in October – has been a word of mouth sensation that’s kept it creeping up the charts to a peak of No 7 last month.
 
And it’s not only their homies back in Britain who are taking them to heart. Ireland has been quick to embrace them, Australia quicker still (the album went to No 1), and the band are returning to the UK with a successful American tour behind them.
 
If, since you opened the cover of CityLife, you’ve started to have a look online for tickets for this show, though, we can only say ‘don’t bother’.
 
There have been big, red sold out stamps on most of their dates since they were announced last year, and Manchester was one of the first to go – despite an upgrade from the Academy 2 to the main venue.

Academy - March 4, 2010 - SOLD OUT.