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Winston Marshall
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Winston Marshall
Winston Aubrey Aladar Marshall (born 20 December 1987) is an English podcaster, political commentator, and musician. He is the former banjoist and lead guitarist of the folk rock band Mumford & Sons. Prior to this he was in the bluegrass sleaze rap group Captain Kick and the Cowboy Ramblers. With Mumford & Sons, Marshall won multiple awards, including two Grammys and two Brit Awards.
After leaving Mumford & Sons in 2021, Marshall has become a vocal political commentator. He hosted an interview podcast titled Marshall Matters on The Spectator from 2021 to 2023. In 2024, he launched his own politics and culture podcast, The Winston Marshall Show.
Winston Aubrey Aladar Marshall was born in Wandsworth, London, on 20 December 1987. He has a sister Giovanna who is a singer and songwriter. His father is Paul Marshall, a British hedge fund manager who co-founded the Marshall Wace hedge fund and is the co-owner of GB News. His mother, Sabina de Balkany, is French and comes from a genteel European Jewish family.
His maternal grandmother was novelist and property developer Molly de Balkany, who was one of the first female property developers in France, and his maternal great-uncle was the collector Robert Zellinger de Balkany. Molly and Robert's family relocated to France after World War II, where they added the nobiliary particle "de" to their name despite that they had not been ennobled. Marshall has said that 13 members of his family "were murdered in [...] the Holocaust" of which his maternal grandmother was a survivor.
Marshall was educated at St Paul's School, an independent school in London. He began playing guitar aged 13, and started a ZZ Top cover group called Gobbler's Knob. He was inspired to play banjo after seeing O Brother, Where Art Thou?, switching to folk music and wearing his hair in dreadlocks. Marshall did not attend university, opting instead to pursue music.
Marshall and future bandmate Marcus Mumford met as teenagers at church, playing worship music at a church group together and in a worship band, with Mumford saying Marshall is "magnetic to be around". Marshall, a multi-instrumentalist, has said that he chose to focus on banjo over guitar because there were fewer banjoists and so it was easier for him to get session jobs.
In the early 2000s, Marshall was in a bluegrass sleaze rap band called Captain Kick and the Cowboy Ramblers, who had songs such as "Jesse the Gay" and "Country London". Marshall was credited as "Country Winston Driftwood" and played the banjo, guitar, dobro, mandolin, and harmonica. With Captain Kick and the Cowboy Ramblers, Marshall ran a jam night "for teenagers who wanted to drink and play music" at Bosun's Locker, a tiny music club beneath a pasty shop on the King's Road in Fulham. The jam nights attracted a number of musicians who had an affinity for earthy acoustic music, including Noah and the Whale and Laura Marling.
The group Mumford & Sons came together in December 2007 after its four members had already been performing together in various configurations. Co-founder Mumford started songwriting after seeing Marshall's band Captain Kick, and other similar artists, perform while Mumford was at university in Edinburgh; Mumford was struggling at the time and found Marshall's music "a glimpse of salvation", especially as Marshall encouraged him to join them on-stage. The first Mumford & Sons performances took place in 2005 at Marshall's Bosun's Locker jam nights as informal performances of the musicians "like a hoedown". Mumford began performing here, and was joined by Marshall as well as other musician friends with whom he had previously performed, including Ben Lovett and Ted Dwane. As well as together, Dwane, Marshall, and Mumford all performed with Marling's band during the jam sessions. Mumford said that "eventually, Ted [Dwane], Ben [Lovett], and Winston [Marshall] stuck. It wasn't until [they] started writing songs together that [they] realized this was an actual band and not just a singer/songwriter with a couple of mates." Marshall played the banjo, guitars, dobro, and provided backing vocals, for the group, and was often identified as the comic relief of the line-up.
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Winston Marshall
Winston Aubrey Aladar Marshall (born 20 December 1987) is an English podcaster, political commentator, and musician. He is the former banjoist and lead guitarist of the folk rock band Mumford & Sons. Prior to this he was in the bluegrass sleaze rap group Captain Kick and the Cowboy Ramblers. With Mumford & Sons, Marshall won multiple awards, including two Grammys and two Brit Awards.
After leaving Mumford & Sons in 2021, Marshall has become a vocal political commentator. He hosted an interview podcast titled Marshall Matters on The Spectator from 2021 to 2023. In 2024, he launched his own politics and culture podcast, The Winston Marshall Show.
Winston Aubrey Aladar Marshall was born in Wandsworth, London, on 20 December 1987. He has a sister Giovanna who is a singer and songwriter. His father is Paul Marshall, a British hedge fund manager who co-founded the Marshall Wace hedge fund and is the co-owner of GB News. His mother, Sabina de Balkany, is French and comes from a genteel European Jewish family.
His maternal grandmother was novelist and property developer Molly de Balkany, who was one of the first female property developers in France, and his maternal great-uncle was the collector Robert Zellinger de Balkany. Molly and Robert's family relocated to France after World War II, where they added the nobiliary particle "de" to their name despite that they had not been ennobled. Marshall has said that 13 members of his family "were murdered in [...] the Holocaust" of which his maternal grandmother was a survivor.
Marshall was educated at St Paul's School, an independent school in London. He began playing guitar aged 13, and started a ZZ Top cover group called Gobbler's Knob. He was inspired to play banjo after seeing O Brother, Where Art Thou?, switching to folk music and wearing his hair in dreadlocks. Marshall did not attend university, opting instead to pursue music.
Marshall and future bandmate Marcus Mumford met as teenagers at church, playing worship music at a church group together and in a worship band, with Mumford saying Marshall is "magnetic to be around". Marshall, a multi-instrumentalist, has said that he chose to focus on banjo over guitar because there were fewer banjoists and so it was easier for him to get session jobs.
In the early 2000s, Marshall was in a bluegrass sleaze rap band called Captain Kick and the Cowboy Ramblers, who had songs such as "Jesse the Gay" and "Country London". Marshall was credited as "Country Winston Driftwood" and played the banjo, guitar, dobro, mandolin, and harmonica. With Captain Kick and the Cowboy Ramblers, Marshall ran a jam night "for teenagers who wanted to drink and play music" at Bosun's Locker, a tiny music club beneath a pasty shop on the King's Road in Fulham. The jam nights attracted a number of musicians who had an affinity for earthy acoustic music, including Noah and the Whale and Laura Marling.
The group Mumford & Sons came together in December 2007 after its four members had already been performing together in various configurations. Co-founder Mumford started songwriting after seeing Marshall's band Captain Kick, and other similar artists, perform while Mumford was at university in Edinburgh; Mumford was struggling at the time and found Marshall's music "a glimpse of salvation", especially as Marshall encouraged him to join them on-stage. The first Mumford & Sons performances took place in 2005 at Marshall's Bosun's Locker jam nights as informal performances of the musicians "like a hoedown". Mumford began performing here, and was joined by Marshall as well as other musician friends with whom he had previously performed, including Ben Lovett and Ted Dwane. As well as together, Dwane, Marshall, and Mumford all performed with Marling's band during the jam sessions. Mumford said that "eventually, Ted [Dwane], Ben [Lovett], and Winston [Marshall] stuck. It wasn't until [they] started writing songs together that [they] realized this was an actual band and not just a singer/songwriter with a couple of mates." Marshall played the banjo, guitars, dobro, and provided backing vocals, for the group, and was often identified as the comic relief of the line-up.
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