Review: Mumford and Sons, Leas Cliff Hall, Folkestone, Thursday, May 31

by Chris Price

There are not many gigs where a band can play a new song and have a crowd like putty in their hands.

Mumford and Sons easily achieved that with each of the six new tracks they played.

The London four-piece’s show was part of their Gentleman of the Road Stopover tour, playing venues Grammy-nominated A-listers like themselves do not often reach.

During their 80-minute set they displayed their knack for making people fall in love with their material and making new stuff sound like it has been a long-standing part of their set.

Throughout the gig the crowd knew when to throw their arms up, when to clap and when to “aaaahhh” their lungs out on each new track.

There was a genuine energy pulsating through the sold-out 1,500 capacity venue, which only comes with playing songs that sound as from-the-heart as Mumford and Sons’ do.

“We have been looking forward to coming to your town and we weren’t expecting this sort of reaction,” said frontman Marcus Mumford to rapturous cheers.

The applause became even louder as Marcus later proclaimed “We have just finished recording our second album which will be ready for you to purchase on September 24 this year. We would like to celebrate the fact it’s finished, so we are going to play you a bunch of new songs.”

It was a testament to their confidence that they opened with a new track. The crowd happily accepted keyboardist Ben Lovett’s invitation to “feel free to dance around and do whatever you want” as they launched into Roll Away Your Stone.

Huge reactions followed for Winter Winds and White Blank Page, before the band showed off their other great skill – getting the crowd on their side.

“This is our first time in Folkestone,” said Country Winston Marshall holding his banjo. “You know the Creative Quarter? Well we got very creative and had lunch there. It was awesome.”

As the band closed on Awake My Soul and the epic Dust Bowl Dance, it became clear there has not been this much love for a band in the Leas Cliff Hall for a long time.

The foursome seemed genuinely overwhelmed by the reaction to their return for an encore, which began with another new track, which sounds like it could be a future set-finisher.

Of course they save the best for last and The Cave prompted mass mania, with one gig-goer prompting smiles as she soaked up the electricity emanating from the stage on someone’s shoulders.

She was old enough to know better but it was one of those shows where everything was so perfect that no one cared.