Mumford & Sons Return with Ted Dwane After Bass Player's Brain Surgery, Perform at Glastonbury Festival
Mumford and Sons performed together on Sunday night for the first time since their bass player's brain surgery.
An audience of 80,000 fans came to support the band and return of Ted Dwane. The 28-year-old bass player was hospitalized in early June for emergency surgery to remove a blood clot on the surface of his brain. For the first time since Dwane's surgery, Mumford and Sons performed at the Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival in England.
Sunday's line-up included Vampire Weekend, Smashing Pumpkins, Jessie Ware, Bobby Womack and Sir Bruce Forsyth. The band agreed that they would have pulled out of the headline slot if Dwane had not made a full recovery.
"Was the show ever in doubt? I think it's fair to say it was," keyboard player Ben Lovett told the BBC. "Nothing was more important than Ted's health."
Their moving performance was wrapped up within in their rendition of The Beatles' With a Little Help from My Friends. Members of Vampire Weekend, the Vaccines, and folk-rock groups First Aid Kit and the Staves joined together to help conclude the 90-minute show on Sunday.
"We knew we were closing out the festival so we thought we'd do an appropriate song with the appropriate people," frontman Marcus Mumford told Rolling Stone.
Mumford & Sons enlisted an all-star choir to help bring Glastonbury 2013 to an emotional climax. Dwane, wearing a hat to cover his scar, showed no ill effects from the surgery that caused the band to cancel its U.S. tour earlier this month. The band made only one reference to his illness, with Mumford joking, "Also, Ted's fucking alive, isn't he?" to loud cheers from the crowd.
Mumford and Sons first played at the Glastonbury festival in 2008 when only 200 people showed up. With a little help from supporting audience members and contributing artists, the band was nothing but appreciative.
"We feel very much that we didn't do anything very special to get here," added Mumford later in the set. "But we're proud and honored to be here and we truly feel that you got us here."
