We remember when these four were barely out of short trousers, playing teensy tiny gigs in the backrooms of West London pubs and getting confused about shorthand. Now look at them, kicking Michael Bublé off the number one spot in the album charts with a record they released in September last year. My, they’ve gotten to be fancy boys.
Following their headlining set closing Glastonbury last weekend, copies of Babel have been wending their way into the hands of new waistcoat-wearing banjo converts all over the UK, helping Ted, Marcus, Winston and Ben to hit the top spot once more. Embarrassingly, the Rolling Stones have managed a rather pathetic number 20 position.
The band’s first album, Sigh No More (originally released way back in 2009) is also doing a roaring trade, coming in at number 12. Turns out playing the Pyramid Stage on Sunday night wasn’t such a bad idea, after all.
Here they are at Glastonbury, showing off about how many friends they have (to be fair, their friends are Vampire Weekend, the Vaccines, First Aid Kit and the Staves):