Live: The Destroyers

Photos by Hannah Daisy

Headline: The Destroyers
Support: Trio Manouche, Bev Lee Harling
Venue: Wilton’s Music Hall, London
Date: 5th June 2009

Tucked away in a backstreet somewhere in East London you can find Wilton’s Music Hall. There are no grand neon signs, no elaborate billboards. Just a plain wooden facade with peeling paint and the sense of having seen better days. But venture through those doors and you find yourself in a wonderland: possibly the most beautiful small venue in London. A true Victorian music hall with the spirit of the cabaret still burning faintly somewhere in its heart. As we arrived, bursts of brass and wild guitars echoed down the stairs from the ongoing soundchecks, and we were politely asked to wait for a few minutes to meet Paul Murphy, the vocalist and band-leader of Birmingham’s inimitable The Destroyers.

Murphy is not what you’d expect from a band on the cusp of releasing their debut album. He’s a musical veteran, involved in music since 1967 – as a solo musician, in bands, and as proprietor of The Songwriter’s Café. He explained to us that the band came together “in a basement – the basement of one of UB40′s houses, actually”, a collective of like-minded musicians – several classically-trained at the Birmingham Conservatoire – with backgrounds of life and study in Hungary and China (among others) that helped create the band’s unique fusion of styles. When we asked whether the joy of music was in the creation, or if the essence of his music was in the live performance, Murphy didn’t hesitate for even a moment: “Onstage. Definitely.” He went on to describe the circular relationship between artist and audience; that “the perfomer’s energy has to reflect the vibe from the audience”.

When asked if the band had a particular political outlook or philosophy, he demurred slightly; “of course, everyone has their outlook, but you’re not always writing from your standpoint… the point is never to impose your views on the audience”, before engaging in a lively discussion of Peter Brook’s theories of performance and the importance of the theatrical touch. He speaks quietly, articulately, with the unmistakeable voice of someone with a true passion for his art.

Chatting to members of the crowd before the show, it seemed that the audience was an eclectic mix of those attracted to the music, those attracted to the venue, and those who were just passing by. Opening act Trio Manouche set a toe-tapping tone for the evening with their gypsy-swing sound and bluegrass interludes, playing with entertaining verve and good humour. They were followed capably by Bev Lee Harling, with her backing band The Kitchen Sink. The London singer-songwriter (and member of Mediaeval Baebes), with her stunning voice and jazzy folk sound, played a fantastically suave set, with a stage presence that was at once innocent and seductive. This is an artist who even manages to make playing a cheese grater look inexplicably sexy. We chatted to her briefly after her set, and we hope to bring you more from this very talented woman soon.

Then the show takes a strange turn. Hooded figures make their way through the crowd to the stage. There is a moment of silence. The hoods come off, and our new friend Paul Murphy bounds across the stage, leading us through lines of burning poetry that melt into a manic brassy Klezmer overture, as the crowd’s collective pulse begins to race.

The wizened, quietly amiable figure we spoke to an hour previously was transformed onstage into an unstoppable force in a smoking cap. The Destroyers’ sound is so wildly compulsive that the entire crowd quickly succumbed, and the entire room became a blur of motion and sound, the wooden floor creaking in time to the frenzied strings and wailing brass. In this electrified atmosphere, the musicians floated around the stage in a blur, their instruments complex extensions of their bodies. From “Out of Babel”, a riotous ode to Birmingham’s cosmopolitanism, to the wild folk instrumental of “Kopanitsas”, the band seem genuinely at ease onstage; practised and polished in their performance. When it was over, the band left the stage, only to be drawn back by the sound hundreds of feet stomping in unison. If anything, the encore proved more riotous than the performance itself, a grand full-stop on a blazing tour de force of a set. The Destroyers are touring the country through the summer, and you owe it to the primal, uninhibited part of yourself to experience the frenetic glory of their live show.

Our Arbitrary Numerical Verdict:

Thanks to everyone who chatted to us at the show, and apologies to anyone that we offended with our (admittedly somewhat spasmodic) dancing. Due to Marcus’ low-rent tape recorder, we lost a large portion of our interview with Paul, but we’re hoping to chat to him again soon. – Ed.

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