The Destroyers in Concert :Birmingham Town Hall, 11 Oct 2009

There I was again, dancing like a mad woman at the front of the crowd to The Destroyers and as usual being moved by the creativity and talent of this 15 member ‘boy’ band! The Destroyers play Baltic gypsy music that just makes your feet want to dance, with tales spun by the great Paul Murphy. All I could think of was "Here we go!"

The order of songs that evening is a bit of a blur, mainly because of all the frenetic dancing that me and my friends did for the evening at the front of the crowd. All the songs were familiar to me and drawn from their newly released first album called Out of Babel.

One of my favourites, Out of Babel, is really, for me, a great ode to Birmingham and the diverse cultures that contribute to its makeup. Its a crowd rousing song which ends in the chorus "Here we go" My favourite verse draws from the Biblical tale of the tower of Babel where the people of Birmingham, coming from both the East and West, all talking different tongues, must now learn how to sing as one. Its a celebration of the cultural diversity we have in the city and how we should celebrate what we have. And as relevant to Birmingham this song is, it could be an anthem for the UK as a nation.


Keeping with the times there is another track called "where has all the money gone", about the financial crisis we are in. There is quite a lot of jazz influences in this song which does not make it not one of my favourites, but it is yet another one to get the crowd singing along. There should be more of these songs in all idioms, especially folk: Please let us know if you have come across any and leave the details as a comment with a cross reference to it.


The Destroyers love to experiment and I have seen many of their shows where they allow individuals in the band to show off their talents and creativity such as the Halloween special a few years ago at the Glee Club, where they provided soundtrack to some famous black and white horror movies, a collaboration with the Dhol Blasters, and more recently, a sound track to the Flatpack show, Curzonara, at the Town Hall. I am notoriously known by my friends at Birmingham Friends of the Earth for stalking out the Destroyers at Glastonbury and usually have about 3 to 4 shows at this one festival. You will see from the review of their performance at the Sheep Music Festival back in the Summer that I have even infected by parents with the Destroyers bug.

This night they didn't disappoint either, where Copanistas starts with a slow solo on the Armenian duduk, I think from memory. I have visited the Armenian museum in Jerusalem and my family was very moved by the music played at this understated small museum in the shrinking Armenian quarter. There is something very haunting about Armenian music and this song took me back to the beautiful sun-drenched courtyard in the middle of Jerusalem and memories of the tragic history of the Armenians'. This track moves forward with a solo on the oud and builds to a crescendo which then brings the whole of the band into the track before returning to the fast and frenetic music that the destroyers are so good at. As with all of the Destroyers tracks, even when they start slow, they build up speed and tempo towards the endthrough the track, and this is no exception.

And then there are other very fun tracks, like The Glass Coffin Burial of Professor Zurinak which is a creepy tale of Professor Zurinak who is buried alive in his coffin and builds to the chorus cry of "Let me out". Yet another crowd rousing song and lots of manic dancing. The Destroyers have produced a great video to go with this. Then there was another favourite, the tale of Methuslelah Mouse, who will live for ever but sadly comes to an abrupt end. Then there are moving songs like Questa Canzone, beautifully sung in Spanish or it could be Italian (oops I didn't know I was so bad at identifying my languages!) about how music transcends borders and brings people together, another one of my favourite songs, and ideas.


The evening was ended by bringing out their support band the Old School Band and doing a frantic Irish jig, which I was told by someone at the back of the Town Hall brought the whole crowd to a bouncing reverie. Thank you Destroyers, till the next time!

Mary Horesh

(Photos courtesy of Ben Mabbett- cheers!)

The Destroyers at Sheep Music Festival:19th July

Sian and I must be fans as we have never been to a music festival before and so since we could make this our first, and combine it with seeing the Destroyers, the idea was irresistible. Their blend of Balkan, Gipsy and Klesmer music combined with other European influences creates a unique musical experience. Add their rip roaring speed of attack, and the poetic lyrics of Paul Murphy and you are in for a breathtaking set. With their debut single already out, Out of Babel and an album due any minute now, you should be hearing a lot more of them. Money. The Glass Coffin Burial of Professor Zurinack and Methuselah Mouse were among the dramatic numbers delivered. The audience on Sunday was packed into the festival’s biggest venue and there were few spaces in the crowd. With the forthcoming CD due their set was a great advert for those new to the group. The audience was made up of all ages and we were pleased to see we weren’t the oldest old bloggers present. The group has a good following in Presteigne (Powys,Wales) having appeared here before, but there were quite a few around us who had not had the ‘Destroyer Experience’ before. Needless to say expressions of puzzlement and surprise soon gave way to appreciative attention.

The beat and volume ( excellent level and mix) soon got us all dancing and joining in and I have rarely seen so many people smiling for such a long time while jumping up and down. I am more used to reviewing books rather than festival performances so it will probably be less embarrassing for all concerned if I strongly encourage all those who haven’t seen them live to visit their blog for a list of venues. Get that smile ready.

The strong percussion drives the combination of brass, fiddles, and guitars, not to forget the accordion and hurdy-gurdy. With its klesmer influences the essential presence of the clarinet makes this a remarkable combination of some twelve or more musicians. After an hour you should feel quite in need of a sit down ( that’s probably just us thgough) and wondering how the band have kept playing, dancing and prancing across the stage while producing their unique sound, especially when we learnt this 6 pm set was just one of many gigs in the past week, having just travelled from Bridport in Dorset..

You can check all this out at http://thedestroyers.co.uk/blog/ but this is a band which must be experienced live to get the full musical impact and for the ‘Destroyer conversion’. Although there were many excellent performers still to come in the closing hours of the festival, the impact of this group seemed to dull the senses for anything else and the feelings of exuberation and well being are still with me now as I write this review.

I’ve just remembered, I have been to a festival once before, it was the last Beaulieu Jazz Festival in 1960 which ended in a riot. According to Wikepedia I now learn it was between traditional and modern jazz fans, a ‘sub-cultural clash’. And there was I thinking they were just a bunch of drunks. I left just as the constabulary were arriving.