Bizarre. It isn’t even Sunday, and I’m sitting in the church at the end of my road blissing out to the sweet voice echoing round the simple interior. That’s not the bizarre bit, though. The bloke perched in front of the altar singing his heart out at St John’s Church in Kington definitely ain’t a choirboy and there are no hymns involved. “How bizarre is this?” Wolfgang Van Halen voices what everyone’s thinking as he gets comfy next to Mammoth guitarist Jon Jourdan, who’s there to harmonise vocally and acoustically.
Mammoth – Wolfgang Van Halen and Jon Jourdan
St John’s Church, Kington – 12 September 2025
Words: Pippa Lang
Photography: Manuela Langotsch
Wolfie’s comment is a humble declaration – no horns or devilish gurning – rather, a look of respect, wonder (fear?!) as he surveys the minimal (therefore non-Catholic) decor of St John’s, Kingston, a mere graceful smattering of painted flowers on the arch above.
Kingston upon Thames’ Banquet Records have struck gold again. Wolfie’s joining the likes of Robert Plant and Bryan Adams, who have recently slunk inconspicuously into one of Kingston’s low-key local venues (pubs, theatres, nightclubs, churches) for pre-tour/new album skirmishes, to the delight of us locals. Tonight it is Wolfie’s turn to experience the ultimate in intimate.
He and Jon are here to big up The End (released 24 October 2025 via BMG), Mammoth’s gravely titled third platter, veering away from the predictably named Mammoth and Mammoth 2. Between songs, Radio 2’s Liz Barnes is here to host a Q&A session.
The stripped-back theme of tonight’s set is a match made in Heaven (sorry). Wolfie is as humble as the setting, surprisingly self-deprecating, and overwhelmed by the rapturous applause after each acoustic version of Mammoth tracks – “Oh c’mon, we’re not THAT good!” – from Another Celebration At The End Of The World to the bittersweet Distance and, fresh from The End, the title track and its first single, The Spell.
The acoustical magic of the church catapults Wolfie’s endless, melodic voice up to that arch before bouncing off the stone walls like an uncatchable snitch. “This solo’s gonna be weird”, he notes mid-The End, talking about the challenge of playing harmonics on an acoustic.
No problem! Many tiny hammer-ons at the high end of the fretboard. Yeah, okay, like his Dad, but transgression means borrowing and transforming into a wholly individual creation, and this is what’s going on here.
Trolls be damned! It’s a process that, in Wolfie’s case, is ably illustrated in the evolution from Mammoth to Mammoth 2 to this, The End. In the mid-set Q&A, he explains his motive for the album title is more about the end signalling a new start.
“By the third album, you kinda know what you’re doing,” Wolfgang Van Halen said. “I was a bit more confident coming into this one compared to the last two. I was figuring out how I mattered and where do I fit in as my own artist. But at this point, I really don’t fucking care, I’m just being myself.” The F word? Something in the vestry stirs.
Part of this journey to safer ground involves the grieving process and acceptance. “I do this because I don’t know what else I’d do,” Wolfgang says. “I do it a lotta the time to avoid…”, he pauses, “… it’s a way of escaping the pain of losing Dad, it really brings me purpose. I make music for myself.
“… but you guys happen to like it too,” he adds brightly as if suddenly concerned about publicly disappearing into introspection, and not wishing to reveal the depth of the scars grief has etched inside.
This may be a church, and despite the obvious fondness the assembled feel for him, we are, after all, strangers. The overwhelming onslaught of love probably feels odd. Let him retreat to an intimate, private space of familiar friends.
Sure, Wolfgang is “working through a lotta stuff” and his lyrics are therapeutic and cathartic, but, honestly? That’s his business, not ours. Bear in mind, he might think people (trolls) might retort “that cocky twat!” when aware he can play pretty much every instrument, except the piano, which he’d love to “learn properly.” He may be reluctant to reveal too much about himself in case it’s all somehow used against him.
He transfers the onus onto the songs themselves. “I feel like I’m just a vessel,” he says. “The songs reveal themselves through me.” And really, that’s his way of throwing the focus somewhere else – anywhere, but on his grief.
The topic, however, moves on to the California fires and his Dad’s guitars and studio, all of which nearly perished, but it’s a memory he chuckles at. “I am the guardian of the studio,” he says. “I need to fill it with memories… Dad’s guitars? I had to move them really fast. I was living in my car for a while with Frankenstein,” [or Frankenstrat, Eddie’s self-made guitar.]
It’s quite possible that the thought of a London hotel, instead of cars, prompted this short trip across the pond. Certainly, those there tonight in Kington enjoyed a wonderful, intimate evening that was only announced a couple of days before, along with the new single I Really Wanna. The video [see below] is well worth watching, showing Wolfgang playing in the iconic 5150 studio.
24 October cannot come quickly enough. You know that The End is going to be special.
Mammoth release The End on 24 October 2025 via BMG. For pre-orders, visit mammoth.lnk.to/TheEndAlbum.
