Mumford & Sons have announced plans to play a gig in Brighton, with audience members asked to leave their mobile phones at home.
The gig takes place at Brighton venue The Dome on April 27 and will act as a warm up for the band’s upcoming festival dates and their own Gentlemen of the Road gigs in the UK and US this summer.
As BBC News points out, A section a message sent to fans who managed to buy tickets for the gig read: “As this show is happening pre-album release, the band have requested all mobile phone and recording devices to be prohibited inside the venue.”
Those wanting to take their phone along to the gig are asked to leave “a minimum of an hour” before the show to hand the devices in and also make time after the performance as, “there will be a queue after the show to get your phone back”.
This tactic is not new for Mumford & Sons as phones have been banned from their two London gigs and a date in New York so far in 2014. However, the Dome represents the biggest venue so far in which they have employed the tactic.
Mumford & Sons release new album ‘Wilder Mind’ on May 4, following on from 2009’s ‘Sigh No More’ and 2012’s ‘Babel’. It was recorded at Air Studios, London and produced by James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Haim, Florence + The Machine). A number of the new songs were written at Aaron Dessner of The National’s studios in Brooklyn, New York.