Ex-Mumford & Sons member Winston Marshall to return as ‘Spectator’ podcast host

Former Mumford & Sons member Winston Marshall has announced his first project since leaving the band in June 2021.

The banjo player and guitarist quit the group this summer after controversy was raised over a since-deleted tweet in which he praised right-wing author Andy Ngo.

Writing on his personal Twitter page earlier this week (December 20), Marshall confirmed what he termed “exciting personal news”. “I’m partnering @spectator to bring you… Marshall Matters,” he wrote.

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His bio on the social media site confirms that Marshall Matters is a new podcast set to launch next year. In his tweet, he added it will see him “interviewing people across the creative industries to find out what indeed is the state of the arts”. “This is gonna be fun,” he said.

In March, Marshall had shared praise for Ngo’s book Unmasked: Inside Antifa’s Radical Plan To Destroy Democracy, calling it “important” and its author “a brave man”, and immediately faced a backlash for his words.

After announcing his departure from Mumford & Sons, the musician said in a BBC Radio 4 interview that his former bandmates had been targeted by “internet mobs”, while he himself had received “a lot of very horrible negativity” over his tweet.






“What was sort of unpleasant about it is that they went for my bandmates, they went for my friends, and that’s not fair on them because it’s got nothing to do with them,” he said, adding that was “what was so troubling for me about the experience – was to see my friends getting dragged under the bus with me, which is not fair on them.”

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Marshall confirmed he was leaving the band with a statement reflecting on his time with them. “From odysseys through the Scottish Islands to headlining Glastonbury, from The Betsy Trotwood to Madison Square Garden. We’ve done it all,” he wrote. “What a blessing it was to be so close to such talent as those three lads. I will look back at it all with immense pride and love. However, after much reflection and consideration, I have decided it is time to move on.”