Mumford and Sons who tour Australia in November want a game of soccer in Melbourne
MARCUS Mumford of Mumford and Sons may be a new father, but all he wants to do is talk sport and arrange a game of soccer in Melbourne.
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MARCUS Mumford is feelin’ kinda sporty.
He’s not interested in banging on about the pros and cons of the banjo, the burly Wimbledon-bred 28-year-old lead singer of Mumford and Sons wants to yak about agile men throwing, diving, kicking, hitting and catching various shaped balls.
“We’re all slightly gutted about the rugby t’be honest. We were all going to be home in London for the World Cup, it was gonna be amazing,” Marcus says, just days after England were bundled out by the Wallabies (double burn) 33-13 at Twickenham.
“Now everyone’s cancelling their tickets and swearing off rugby for a while … so thanks for that,” he adds with a wry smile.
Um, if you wanna talk cricket then Ashes to Ashes, funk to funky …
“That’s true, that was a good summer,” he says, brightly.
The Ashes victory to the Poms felt emphatic — especially looking at how it was covered in the media and how much of a foregone conclusion the games were — but England didn’t actually thrash Australia.
“Each match itself was emphatic, whoever won it, you spanked us a couple of times and we killed you a few times. We killed you more than you spanked us,” he says with a typical English reserve.
Mumford and Sons prefer to look forward to their next victory. The world-conquering quartet were brave enough to bring back the banjo post-Deliverance on Sigh No More (2009) and Babel (2012) then did away with the bluegrass blunderbuss in favour of wide-screen stadium rock on Wilder Mind (2015), produced by James Ford, who has got the best work out of Arctic Monkeys, Klaxons, Haim and Foals.
Ford once told this reporter that Brian Eno came to the studio of his original band Simian Mobile Disco ostensibly to co-produce their album ... and instead chose to wash all their dishes and declutter their workspace. Freed, Simian Mobile Disco wrote an entire record in the next fortnight.
“James came in and did our dishes in a symbolic way for our songs. He came in quite early and tidied up the mess of demos that we had in advance of recording the album,” Mumford explains.
“He came in and said ‘I don’t like this one,’ and ‘I really believe in this one’ … even if we thought it was a demo that wasn’t going to make it. You partly hire a producer for their taste anyway. I actually just spoke to him yesterday because I just listened to the new Bill Ryder Jones song He Took You Into His Arms he worked on, which is wicked. We spent a lot of time with Fordy listening to Eon and Phil Spector stuff. Then contemporary stuff too. Part of it was doing team bonding and getting aligned with each other’s tastes. One of the best things about being in a proper studio — and one of the things I’m sad about with the rise of the home studio — is that when you’re in a studio you’re paying money to sit there and play music f---kng loud.
“Basically that’s what we did. When people were out of the room I’d put on something I was listening to and put it up as loud as I could take it and think to myself ‘I’m so lucky I’m not in my front room right now’,” he says as a baby cries in the background right on cue and he seems to “coo” it for a few seconds.
That’d be his new bairn with Carey Mulligan, a little daughter Evelyn. The topic is strictly off limits and Mumford doesn’t take the bait when I slip in I have a tiny girl too, one who is quite keen on German techno “when The Wiggles CDs appear to have disappeared.” No, not biting.
Mumford and Sons have hand-picked some international talent for this tour which includes them reprising the Gentlemen Of the Road show. Talk us through the line-up, Marcus oil’ son.
“We, along with lots of other people, became aware of Future Islands from that Dave Letterman performance,” he says. “It was kinda mind-blowing, I’d never seen anything like it. We saw them live, they’re brilliant. We met them briefly, super humble, down to earth. The kind of band we’d love to tour with. I don’t know what their cricket skills are like but … we’ll see.”
Jake Bugg: “Little Buggy, he’s doing so well,” he says in a pat-on-head tone, “I like being quite patronising to Jake Bugg because he’s really cocky. He’s actually a really nice guy. I’m excited about his next record, I really hope he smashes it. We haven’t toured with him before so, fresh blood!”
The Vaccines: “They are one of my favourite bands, ever. Collectively, all four of us love them, which is rare and we’ll watch every show they play because we just love it. We think they’re f---king great.”
Mumford and Sons played a show for the ages in when they brought their Gentlemen Of the Road extravaganza to Dungog, regional NSW in 2012. They picked Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeroes, Sarah Blasko, Matt Corby, Husky and few certified party-starters who have now moved on to new projects.
“We did a lot of dancing backstage at Dungog on the original Gentlemen Of the Road tour when Yacht Club DJs were playing. It was one of the first times we’ve had a dance party, we had a little one when Simian Mobile Disco played too but this one was better. We like having DJs play after we finish our set so it doesn’t feel like a boring headline show. We had a massive dance party with Yacht Club DJs and that was very memorable, it was as hot as balls.”
Speaking of balls. “We’re trying to organise a football, sorry, soccer game in Melbourne,” Mumford wonders aloud. There just so happens to be a twice-weekly friendly game at 1pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays near the Skate Park next to the Yarra River on Boathouse Drive. They just so happen to be in Melbourne on a Thursday. Arrangements are hastily made.
“Mikey, this is big news,” he says, as if addressing a table of world leaders at the Pentagon.
“No shinnies (shinpads). Apparently little Buggy is quite good. He loves his little soccer. We play with The Vaccines all the time. This is definitely on, we’re talking and playing football when we get to town.”
SEE: Mumford and Sons, Riverstage Brisbane, November 7; Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne, November 12; The Domain, Sydney, November 14.
Originally published as Mumford and Sons who tour Australia in November want a game of soccer in Melbourne
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