Mumford & Sons Review - An Arena Sized Comeback with a Backyard Vibe

Photo by Callum Robinson

In a year where it has seemed everyone is getting back together and touring the world, one of the quieter comebacks has been Mumford & Sons but Newcastle welcomed them back for the opening night of their UK tour with open arms. The London folk band are celebrating their latest album Rushmere and bringing Sierra Ferrell along for the ride. 

It was great to see the Utilita Arena packed out for the opener - Sierra Ferrell - as she and the band transported us back to the old western honky tonk with their folk, bluegrass and jazz sounding songs. The look they opted for on the night also told the same story as Sierra looked stunning in a black and white - perfect for Newcastle but more on the football later - Victorian inspired gown. The performance was truly mesmerising and really got the toes tapping from the audience. 

It didn’t seem like a long wait for Mumford & Sons to arrive in style on stage and open up with an unreleased song ‘Run Together’. It is interesting to open with a track no-one can get their hands on but from numerous videos online from the previous tour dates, it didn’t at all feel out of place to the crowd. 

Photo by Callum Robinson

The second song of the night was the title track for the second album, and arguably their most popular, Babel and then were treated to ‘Rubber Band Man’ which is the lead single from their upcoming album “Prizefighter” due out in February.  During this song, they utilised the four-tier lighting system above their heads and it showed a beautiful display of hearts, stars, flowers and birds as they sang. I really loved this element as the backing screen was focused on live viewing of the band so this gave more a graphic show feel without taking anything away from the screens and gave a more immersive feel to the arena.  

We then were taking in a little segment of some of the ‘classics’ by performing some of my personal favorites like ‘Little Lion Man’, ‘Hopeless Wanderer’ and ‘Lover of the Light’. This section opened up the next part of the lighting in the arena. For ‘Little Lion Man’ specifically they had warm toned string lights from the stage down to the middle of the arena and this gave a very intimate back yard feel that I loved. Marcus also swapped the mic at the front of the stage for the drum kit at the back for ‘Lover of the Light’ and not once did he falter in sound even when drumming! 

After a few more songs on the main stage, the band ran their way through the standing crowd and made it to the B-Stage which was towards the back of the arena. I personally love it when a band does this as it allows everyone an up close chance to see them perform, no matter how much someone has paid for a ticket. Three songs were sung there; their own ‘Ghosts We Knew’ they then invited Sierra up for a cover of ‘If I Needed You’ by Townes Van Zand and then ended with an acoustic performance of ‘Guiding Light’ which is the only song from Delta the band performed. 

Photo by Callum Robinson

Once more, running their way back to the main stage, the band then performed six more songs including the title of the latest album ‘Rushmere’ and one of my favourites from said album ‘Malibu’ before “closing out” with ‘The Wolf’. Of course, that wasn’t actually the end and the band came back out for a four song encore which consisted of a very quiet rendition of ‘Timshel’, ‘Awake My Soul’ ‘I Will Wait’ and then closing with ‘Conversations With My Son (Gangsters & Angels) 

I loved the setlist and it got to showcase some of the fantastic songs from all albums. I would say I was a little surprised to see that there were only three songs from the latest album as that is the one they were celebrating on this tour. That being said, I will not complain as I have never seen the band before so I felt extremely lucky to hear so many of the older songs live when I most certainly should have seen them before now. 

Another great thing about the night was the crowd interaction from the band. Marcus addressed the crowd on numerous occasions, talking about Sierra, the other nights, being excited to start the UK tour, being here at Newcastle and even had a couple of chats about football. Even though after rightly pointing out that both major North East teams had won their games that night, it didn’t stop the booing from both sides when the other was mentioned. As a football fan (NUFC of course) I loved this but didn’t quite love Marcus calling us badgers rather than magpies - I am not sure what that was about and the Newcastle fans in the arena didn’t either. 

Photo by Callum Robinson

As well as running through the crowd to get to the B-Stage, Marcus also took a trip up and around the seating area and made his way all the way to the back of the arena. Unfortunately for me, this was only on the right hand side of the stage so we didn’t get a chance to see him up close and in person on the night. 

Sound wise, the band was fantastic! They perfectly combined their raw folk sound into an arena on a rock level. There were numerous occasions where the band dropped back and had more stripped back versions to songs which allowed the focus to come to Marcus’ vocals and how strong they are after a longer break from touring - which the band apologised for throughout the evening. 

We are hoping it is not as long as the last for the next time we can get to see the band live and with the release of Prizefighter round the corner, I am hoping another tour and festival slots might be in sight. Overall, this was an all round brilliant night, one I would recommend to fans and one that reminded me of my love for the band and the genre.

Photo by Callum Robinson

Article by Neave Farry, Photography by Callum Robinson