I have to admit, I felt old when I learned there was a Mumford & Sons tribute band.
It seems like yesterday they were the band of the moment. Where did the last 15 years go?
We all have a particular period when it comes to music that we are hopelessly, gut-twistingly nostalgic for.
A formative time in our lives that had its own indelible soundtrack.
And here we are, older, a bit heavier, a bit wearier, but able to be transported back to a magical time by a simple chord-change or riff.
I’m unashamed to admit (or too old to care) that I was weak for the banjos and tweed of the UK folk rock revival scene during the late 2000s and early 2010s.
It included the likes of Noah and the Whale and Laura Marling, but none had the impact of Mumford & Sons, who took the UK and later the US by storm.
The Mumford & Sons Story worthy of bearing the name
And in The Mumford & Sons Story – who performed at the Tivoli Theatre in Aberdeen – they have a tribute band worthy of bearing their name.
The foursome from England are all talented musicians in their own right, and each of them capable of stepping up to the mic during the beautiful harmonies that were a signature of the real band.
The likeable quartet immediately struck up a rapport with the Aberdeen crowd, chatting between songs about both themselves and the real Mumford & Sons, from playing in tiny West London pubs to headlining Glastonbury.
The Mumford & Sons Story only formed a year ago, and are currently on a 40-date full UK tour, with the dream being to take to the road in America.
On the evidence of their Aberdeen gig, they’ll get their dream.
Of course, as a tribute band there’s only so far you can go, but there’s no doubting The Mumford & Sons Story’s talent, nor their passion for the original band’s music.
And if their night at the Tivoli is anything to go by, there’s clearly an appetite for their music.
They played all the hits from Mumford & Sons’ first two albums, Sigh No More and Babel, and had the Tivoli on its feet during at least half of them, particularly Roll Away Your Stone, Little Lion Man, and I Will Wait, and raucously so during their encore of The Cave, which had the grand old theatre rocking.
We genuinely didn’t want it to end.
Band stuck to the early – and best – years of Mumford & Sons
The choice of songs – only from the first two albums – seemed like a clear statement.
It’s pleasing to know that it’s not just me who thinks Mumford & Sons lost their soul after Babel, ditching the banjo and becoming a wishy-washy mainstream band like so many others (see Kings of Leon, who dropped their glorious Americana sound for stadium rock after their first two albums).
The nefarious freezing out of banjoist and lead guitarist Winston Marshall in 2021 truly brought the curtain down on a short but golden age for those of us who like our folk with a bit more oomph than a dustbowl ballad (no harm to Woody Guthrie).
Mumford & Sons’ glory years of 2009-2012 were something special for those of us who were there to get caught up in it.
So I’m grateful for fellow enthusiasts (who actually have the talent) such as The Mumford & Sons Story, and for them coming to Aberdeen.
For just one night I was back there, with the tweed, the banjos, the sun which always seemed to shine.
Then it was back home to the middle-age grind.
“Take care of all your memories, for you cannot relive them,” Bob Dylan said.
Perhaps not. But for two hours at the Tivoli, I was very close.
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