Those poor tweed-clad Twickenham boys have been getting a bit of a hard time lately. It may be tough to sing with a silver spoon in your mouth or indeed to make a banjo solo sound drastically different to your last banjo solo but no one can deny that Mumford & Sons do stadium folk like no one else.
There’s been a backlash against the former public schoolboys and other artists like Frank Turner but Marcus, Ben, Winston and Ted have turned to that other very English trait of self-deprecating humour and hired a bunch of American comedic actors to play them in their latest video for ‘Hopeless Wanderer’. You’ll recognise Jason Bateman from shows like Arrested Development and 30 Rock while there are other stellar performances from Jason Sudeikis, Will Forte and Ed Helms.
Class is a big issue here [in England]. And some people get picked on more than others. I think we probably do. I mean, it doesn’t help that we wear waistcoats and tweed the whole time. But there is a reverse snobbiness in England towards that sort of stuff. And I think that’s one of the reasons we really enjoy America, ‘cos there we’re classless.
Winston Marshall