Mumford & Sons: 'Ticket sales are important, not selling albums'

Band ask manager to keep quiet about sales

Thursday 18th April 2013 by Michael Baggs | Photos by WENN.com

Mumford & Sons have revealed they have little interest in selling albums (although they are very good at it), and claim their only interest in a band is selling out gigs.

The band are playing two enormous shows this summer - as they headline Glastonbury festival alongside The Rolling Stones and Arctic Monkeys, and at their recently announced Olympic Park gig, which is their biggest headline slot to date.

"We’ve asked our manager just not to keep us up to date on records," says frontman Marcus Mumford in an interview with Absolute Radio. "We know about ticket sales pretty well, because that’s what we sort of know and love, record sales aren’t really that relevant to us."

The 'I Will Wait' singer adds that while the band have achieved huge international success (and yes, sold millions of albums), their 2013 gig plans come with their own worries, as they share stages with some of the biggest bands of all time.

"Glastonbury is this big old juggernaut and its legacy is huge," Mumford continues. "We’re playing the night after the Stones and of course it comes with a different kind of pressure.

"One that we’re up for I think, otherwise we wouldn’t have said yes. It’s such a big deal for any English band, it is just kind of the biggest deal."

Mumford & Sons will headline Glastonbury 2013 alongside The Rolling Stones

When it comes to album sales, Mumford & Sons may want to look away now - they are doing OK for themselves. In 2012, their second album Babel broke US sales records, and becoming the biggest selling rock album since 2008, as well as scoring the largest debut album sales week of 2012.

Tickets for Mumford & Sons 6 July, 2013 Olympic Park gig go on sale on Friday 19 April at 9am. For more information, visit Gigwise Gig Tickets.

Below: Mumford & Sons perform huge London homecoming show