Spiegeltent 17 May 2019
https://www.theturbans.co.uk/
Great fun high energy band. The Turbans are a collection of travelling musicians from a variety of home countries - Bulgaria, Israel, Albania, Turkey and more, bringing a real fusion of styles in a long lineup: three wind players, four guitars, and two percussionists, all men, looking as though they had just blown in from the desert - I especially like the oboe player whose dreadlock hair was wound round his head like a turban, and the two guys with rose-covered suits.
They were all skilled and versatile musicians, playful and entertaining, real showmen, including a guitar (or was one a balalaika?) battle with tunes played from behind the back and sometimes more drama - a crowd-surfing lead guitar playing as he was carried on shoulders before he finally dropped flat out into the crowd who caught him and carried him back to the stage. The crowd were suitably excited and responding to their exhortations to respond to the musicians. The were so excitable by the end it seems that they would play on for hours, improvising and supporting each other.
The whole gig was somewhat marred though by problems with the sound system which meant that the band were distracted as they couldn’t hear their monitor speakers and were constantly trying to adjust them or communicate with the sound guys, and then attempts to adjust just made the sound muddy and pretty awful. After a while though, the band just got on with it and were very charitable to the sounds guys at the end. Who knows whose fault it was but the end result was pretty poor from that point of view. The band we keen to sell CDs and give away tee-shirts and generally everyone was good humoured and enjoyed the evening in spite of sound issues. Hopefully they will be fixed by now as there are plenty more Spiegeltent shows to go.