Mumford & Sons, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park - music review

It’s still relatively early days but these are giants in the making
9 August 2013

For all the cacophony of sneering based on the inverse snobbery that condemns them for being posh Brits aspiring to be faux hobos (had punk barred the privately educated, Joe Strummer would never have led The Clash), Mumford & Sons have quietly become a global sensation.

Their second album, Babel, is a transatlantic number one and a week after headlining at Glastonbury ("you guys are a shitloads better crowd," noted leader Marcus Mumford in a rare utterance) came this extravaganza for their own people.

The Olympic Park’s problems at last week’s Hard Rock Calling remained. Bladder-rupturing queues to the few working toilets; chronic overcrowding; the transport horror afterwards (we were, though, spared the compulsory frogmarch around the Olympic Stadium perimeter this time) re-appeared like Twitter trolls. Yet this was Mumford & Sons’ vindication, proof that they have the popular vote.

Having only two albums to service meant that aside from an acoustic croon through Bruce Springsteen’s I’m On Fire and a percussive tilt at Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain accompanied by various support acts, every song was known and loved by the sea of cheery humanity.

Annoyingly, momentum sagged when the too-tiny screens were turned off between songs and more intricate material such as Timshel suffered from the scale but there was real brooding menace in Thistle & Weeds; Roll Away Your Stone galloped like wild horses and Awake My Soul shows every sign of being their first bona fide classic. It’s still relatively early days but these are giants in the making.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in