Mumford & Sons tell Reading crowd it’s ‘the one place we wanted to play more than any other’

Band are closing first night of festival

Mumford & Sons tonight (August 27) told the huge crowd for their Reading Festival headline set that they’d been aiming to play the event ever since finishing their amped-up third album, 2015’s ‘Wilder Mind’.

The band took to the Main Stage at 9.30pm, following a dazzling performance by Alt-J. The band – dressed variously in combinations of their old-school folkie outfits and latter-day leather jacket look – sprung to life with ‘Wilder Mind’ track ‘Snake Eyes’ on a stage illuminated by white lights and red beams that reached out over the crowd.

After, frontman Marcus Mumford told the crowd: “It’s fucking good to be back at Reading. How are you doing? We came here for a party.” With that, Winston Marshall began strumming the intro to ‘I Will Wait’ on his banjo, and the rendition of the band’s 2012 hit had the huge crowd singing along in unison. It climaxed with horns blaring and a roar of approval from the audience.

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“Are you looking forward to your weekend?” asked keyboard player Ben Lovett after. “When we finished our third record there was one place in the world we wanted to play more than any other and that was here for you fine people.” Mumford added: “Are you ready for a dance then, Reading?” before playing a rousing ‘Little Lion Man’ from the band’s 2009 debut ‘Sigh No More’. “We’ve been around a few times – not enough – but there’s fucking nothing like a British music festival, I’ll tell you that,” said the frontman after.

Check back for a full report following the conclusion of the set.

The first day of Reading 2015 has seen performances from artists including Palma Violets, Panic! At The Disco, Run The Jewels and many more.

Over in Leeds, headliners The Libertines walked on stage to the sound of Vera Lynn’s wartime favourite ‘We’ll Meet Again’ and opened with two songs from their debut album in the shape of ‘Horror Show’ and a ramshackle ‘Vertigo’.

See the best photos from day one at Reading and Leeds festival 2015.

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