Gordon in the morning: Mumford 'umble

You know that point in Michael Caine's career where he suddenly started wittering on about how it's great in America because nobody cares about class? That's the point Mumford And Sons have reached:

anjo player WINSTON MARSHALL said: “Class is a big issue here. And some people get picked on more than others. I think we probably do.

“I mean, it doesn’t help that we wear waistcoats and tweed the whole time.

“But there is a reverse snobbishness in England towards that sort of stuff.

“And I think that’s one of the reasons we really enjoy America, ’cos we’re classless.”

Yeah, Winston. People think you're posh boys because of the tweed. Nothing to do with you and Mumford having met at an Eton Group private school, of course.

Worth remembering here that a couple of years back, there was an attempt to drag The Vaccines into the posh band part of the venn diagram, but, despite the parents with expensive London property and the best efforts of Simon Price, the label never stuck.

Compare that with the Mumfords. They can send their footmen to the front gates all they like, displaying "We are classless" messages on gilded easels until it's time for a kitchen supper, but the sense that they'd be played in a sketch by John Cleese rather than Ronnie Corbett always hangs over them.

I don't think it's that America doesn't notice this; indeed, it's a big part of their appeal over in the US - a country which happily shoved all the guns from the Royal baby salute onto the news.

If Winston turned up with his banjo but without the accent in New York, he'd not be given Grammys and would probably be thrown onto a bus heading off to the Appalachians.

It's okay for the Mumfords to complain about how they get "picked on". They seem less interested in admitting the massive advantages their background gave them.

Gordon in the morning: Misunderstanding Mumford

Mumford and Sons pretty much have themselves pegged:

The group’s banjo player, WINSTON MARSHALL, reckons they’re one of the wettest bands in the business.

He said: “We’re not, like, hard men. We’re emotional. We’re not rock’n’roll.

“If AC/DC apologised, that’d be the end of their career.

“But someone doesn’t say hello to us and we’re like, ‘I cannot believe the gall!’”

I'm not quite sure that Marshall would recognise what he was describing as "wet"; I think he was going for "sensitive" or "polite".

But then Gordon seems to struggle to understand anything the band says. Take this:

[Marcus][ revealed: “Every day I use my phone and I have no idea how it works.

“Whereas I see an acoustic guitar played with gusto and I understand just how it works.”

I think that's pretty clear - the difference between advanced technology and more basic kit; the difference between knowing, say, how a guitar makes a C and how your phone knows that there's a burger bar round the corner and can give you turn-by-turn directions to get there.

The gap between having an understanding of your tools, and your tools being a mystery.

Gordon, though, doesn't appear to get it:

The group’s frontman MARCUS MUMFORD admits they haven’t even worked out how to use mobile phones.

No, he really isn't admitting that. He's not saying that at all.

Still, there's an upside:

Just as well – iPhones would be useless keeping 60,000 fans entertained at the O2.

Actually, Gordon's wrong here, too: