MUMFORD AND SONS BY B16 AND NME

Mumford and Sons wrapped up their UK tour in London last night (October 9) with a special guest appearance from The Kinks’s Ray Davies.

The NME cover stars teamed up with the singer for the North Londoners’ classic 1968 hit single ‘Days’ towards the end of their homecoming show at the Hammersmith Apollo.

Introducing The Kinks frontman, Marcus Mumford said: “We’d like to introduce a couple of people onstage. One of them is a newer member of the band, who used to play with The Kinks. Everyone Ray Davies.”

Marcus went on to apologise to the crowd before he kicked off the song for any mistakes they may make because they only spent a short time together in the rehearsal studio.

Davies then teamed up with Marcus on vocals and acoustic guitar while the crowd sang back the words.

The band were also backed up by a three piece brass section at various points in the gig alongside a cellist and drummer as they performed tracks from their 2009 debut ‘Sigh No More’.

They also played a series of new songs including ‘Lover Of The Light’ and ‘Nothing Is Written’, which were premiered at the summer festivals, alongside an upbeat untitled new anthem featuring the lyrics: Keep the earth below my feet/Thrall my sway, my blood runs weak.

Introducing the track, the band threatened to cover Blink-182 as guitarist Winston Marshall announced: “We’ve had the privilege of seeing some great bands in this venue over the years like Alice Cooper and Blink-182 so we want to play tribute to them. Any Blink-182 songs we could play?”

But Marcus chose to stick with their new song. Earlier before kicking off ‘Little Lion Man’ to huge cheers, the singer also told the crowd: “We are not going to pretend that it is quite a big deal playing here tonight because it is. Sometimes I wish we had a bit more swagger and we could be cooler but it is really great to be here.

“It is our last show in the UK too for a while so it is a bit emotional. Not to get all lovey-dovey but it has been a great couple of years for us and we are very grateful.”

Later, the band unplugged their instruments and stood huddled at the front of the stage as they rattled off ‘Sister’ before wrapping up their performance with ‘Whispers In The Dark’ and ‘The Cave’.

Mumford and Sons played:

‘Sigh No More’

‘Roll Away Your Stone’

‘Winter Winds’

‘White Blank Page’

‘Timshel’

‘Nothing Is Written’

‘I Gave You All’

‘Little Lion Man’

‘Lover Of The Light’

‘Thistle & Weeds’

‘After The Storm’

‘Untitled New Song’

‘Awake My Soul’

‘Days’

‘Dust Bowl Dance’

‘Sister’

‘Whispers In The Dark’

‘The Cave’

Earlier, Marcus also helped out support act Matthew And The Atlas on drums.