Page 3 Profile: Mumford & Sons, Folk Rock Band

Marcus Mumford (Getty)

Have they got a new album out?

Nope – the opposite. Folk-rocking quartet Mumford & Sons are to take a hiatus after their tour came to an end on Friday. Keyboard player Ben Lovett told Rolling Stone: “There won’t be any Mumford & Sons activities for the foreseeable future.” And we can’t blame the boys for wanting a break. It’s been quite the year, from the highs of winning the Grammy Award for Album of the Year for Babel to the lows of having to cancel three shows when bassist Ted Dwayne underwent an emergency operation to remove a blood clot from his brain.

How are their fans taking it?

They’re disappointed, of course. But we couldn’t help but notice a few celebrations. We don’t know what it is about banjos and jaunty tunes, but people really love to hate this band. They’ve been accused of shamelessly pinching lines from Shakespeare and looking a bit like they’ve been dragged through a hedge backwards. Not surprisingly, Beady Eye frontman Liam Gallagher’s not a fan. He told Q magazine: “Everyone looks like they eat lentil soup with their sleeves rolled up. They all look like they live on the heath…” And 19-year-old singer-songwriter Jake Bugg opined: “They just look like posh farmers with banjos to me.”

That can’t be nice to hear…

Something tells us the boys are in on the joke. In the August video to “Hopeless Wanderer” they pluck their way through a five-minute parody, featuring a scene in which the “band” throws itself into an enthusiastic hoedown.

Are they gone for good?

We doubt it. Lovett said they were looking forward to a schedule-free life, but everyone knows you can’t resist the call of the banjo for long.