Mumford & Sons plan ”a hoedown” for Galway visit

Date Published: 30-May-2012

Saturday, June 9 promises to be a day out with a difference, when Mumford & Sons bring their Gentlemen of the Road show to Salthill Park.

The English quartet top a bill that also includes indie stars The Vaccines and the superb American singer Willy Mason. The band are also taking part in a similar event in Huddersfield in England as part of a tour taking in places that often get overlooked by major acts.

Mumford & Sons plan to have a ball during the Gentlemen of the Road tour.

“We wanted to play some gigs this summer and we liked the idea of curating our own one-day event with lots of different bands, making it more of a festival type thing rather than a Mumford & Sons show,” says front man Marcus Mumford. “And we wanted to do that off the beaten track.

“We wanted to come to Ireland, because Ireland’s been amazing to us,” he adds. “We didn’t just want to go to Dublin, and we’ve not played Galway as much as we should have, and we love it here. It felt like a good fit for what we’re trying to do.”

Mumford & Sons’ 2009 debut Sigh No More was a phenomenal success, shifting over two million copies and winning the group a Brit Award and Grammy nominations. Were the four lads surprised by becoming so big so soon?

“We thought we were brilliant and we k

new it was going to happen!” jokes Winston Marshall, the banjo/guitar wielding vocalist. “It means we’ve got to tour a lot, which is a good thing, because that’s why we started the band. But we always want to put out a new album as well; we got carried away a little bit. We’ve almost finished, we’re pretty happy with it.”

“The first one was relatively quick –this one’s been slightly different,” adds Marcus. “We’ve also been touring in between recording phases.

Again, we’re paying for it ourselves and we’ve not wanted to go crazy on studios, so we recorded at Ben’s [the band’s accordion/keyboard player] parents’ house in the country, and a friend’s farm, and someone’s house in London.”

As well doing some promotional work, Marcus and Winston are in Galway to organise some events that’ll be taking place across the city after the Salthill gig.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.