All Points East - Mumford & Sons

Back for a second dose of All Points East.

Now this Saturday slot was a bit of a struggle as I had only turned in at 2am in the morning after a trip top the theatre in Richmond - a bit of a trek - followed by a few beers with mates. Which was lovely, but sine I seem to wake up these days around 6 regardless of how late I have go to bed, it all caught up with me.

I was going to see Mumford & Sons with a  couple who live near Victoria Park. They said come round for a barbecue beforehand. Which I did. It was wonderful. Obviously would have been rude to have turned down a bit of fizz with it. And it was a lovely sunny day, really the first day of summer. So we ate in the garden, I sat back after lunch in deckchair, and dozed off.

And of course they had their 2 year old to entertain too. So all in all we missed the early acts at All Points East and only arrived as the Vaccines were playing. So Jo, six months pregnant, and I settled at a comfortable spot to watch the Vaccines while Gareth went off to get beers and an ice cream for Jo.

 Now, I have to say I really really like the Vaccines. Wish they had been the main support with a longer set. I have seen them many times as a headline act and they never disappoint. As I remarked to Jo, they are in a sweet spot, old enough to be seriously good live with a back catalogue of crowd-pleasing anthems, butt young enough that singing songs like "Post Break Up Sex" doesn't sound to creepy.

Anyway, Gareth returned through the crowd with goodies, and on came Dizzee Rascal.

Now, few acts to my mind are as overrated as Dizzee Rascal. I just don't get what he is for. I suppose he does talk very fast and unintelligibly and therefore might have a role at the end of those US adverts for drugs where they are legally obliged to announce the side effects (like death) after showing miraculous recoveries from piles or whatever. Even the crowd most likes the bits of Dizzee that aren't actually by him. the bits they join in with are the Calvin Harris bit in Dance with Me, or the Florence Welsh bit in their collaboration. The only real bit of Dizzee they joined in with was his closing "Bonkers".

 Anyway, in the meantime, Jo decided to go to the toilet, and then felt unwell, so the upshot was that Gareth took her home, and so they really didn't get much out of their £65 tickets. And nothing at all of Mumford & Sons. Any way, I moved to the front and waited for the main act as the sun went downs - rather prettily.

 I confess Mumford & Sons are not my favourite act. I appreciate that they have managed to plough their own furrow, turning the distinctly minority taste of blue grass music into internationally popular sounds. This show was basically a combination of their wildly successful debut album Sigh No More and their new album, Delta, which is quite slow paced but also has several songs of real beauty,

I had watched them very happily until about their encore where a brainless group of Irish mostly female teens worked their way to around where I was standing and, drunk in the way that teens get, proceeded to holler and whoop and talk loudly and inanely just as Mumford started to sing their quietest ballads. And that is a bit of a catch with seeing Mumford live - some of their stuff doesn't ideally suit a huge arena audience.Much would be a lot nicer somewhere intimate, but they don't tend to play anything that isn't huge.

I also find some of their audience engagement a bit on the oleaginous side. It is better than none at all, but one should be able to fake sincerity better than this with practice.

But having said all that, there is no doubt that they have a lot of good songs, and a sound of some originality. Would not hesitate to see them again.

He does get quite emotional. Just unconvincingly so

I tried to make a break for it as they played the last song to beat some of the crowd to the tube. So I was catching from a distance their Beatles finale "I'll get By With A Little Help from my Friends. Accompanied by quite a lot of the performers from earlier in the day. (But not Dizzee of course as he can't sing).