Tim Hughes talks to an eclectic band’s frontman who fled from Saddam’s army

He may have been one of recent history’s greatest monsters, but we have one thing to be grateful to Saddam Hussein for.

Winning an X Factor-style talent show in Kuwait at the age of 17, singer Tarik Beshir was waiting for the good times to roll... when Saddam’s Iraqi army marched in.

When things got really bad, Tarik, his Egyptian-born parents and four brothers, squeezed into the family Peugeot and drove for five days to the safety of Cairo.

But while Tarik’s hopes of stardom in the Gulf may have been cut short, his musical career continued — leading him to Oxford, where he now fronts one of the most creative, and certainly eclectic, bands the city has ever produced: Brickwork Lizards.

“I suppose you could say it was Saddam’s fault that I ended up here — eventually,” he laughs. “I had a record contract and everything in Kuwait, but Saddam ruined that — so I wasn’t a big fan!”

He added: “It was scary at first after the invasion, and steadily got worse. We decided to leave when the public hangings began. My dad drove us through Iraq, Jordan and the Sinai all the way to Cairo — and he did it with a broken foot and in convoy to protect ourselves from the gangs of bandits.”

Melding the evocative melodies of Tarik’s Middle Eastern roots with rap, bluegrass, Balkan and Gypsy dance and English folk, Brickwork Lizards are like nothing else you’ve heard. “We have been described as ‘Turkabilly’ or Arabic hip-hop,” says Tarik, who lives in East Oxford and works as an engineer when not performing with his band.

“I suppose the best way to describe us is as a fusion band. We are a collective of musicians from different backgrounds who each put our own influences into the pot and come up with something completely original. It’s a flexible arrangement where anything goes.”

The band were born eight years ago following a chance encounter at a dinner party, when Tarik, who plays a Middle Eastern string instrument called the oud, met Wolvercote-based rapper Tom O’Hawk — then running an open-mic night at the Turf Tavern. The pair bonded over a shared appreciation of the music of 1930s American vocal group The Ink Spots, and arranged to meet to listen to records and jam.

“The Ink Spots are still a big influence,” says Tarik. “We have even borrowed the riff they use to begin their songs.”

They went on to recruit other musicians, eventually settling on an eight-piece line-up alongside cellist Louisa Lyne, keyboardist and trumpeter Steve Preston, guitarist Spencer Williams, drummer Andrew Mack, bassist and percussionist Bruce Douglas, and bassist, guitarist and banjo player Ian Wilde — who will shortly leave the band to pursue other interests.

“The most important thing is our use of melody,” says Tarik. “Because of where I come from, I use Turkish and Arabic scales and even cover a couple of Ottoman classics. But we write songs in a classical style, with intro, verse and chorus, and layer our influences. We each bring things in which we then work on as a band. Our songs never come ready-made. If it were up to me, I’d make it 100 per cent world music, but the rest of the band have other ideas which make it appealing to the Western ear — including bluegrass and 1930s-style croon-ing — which is how the band came together in the first place.

“Every person in the band is a musical connoisseur with a vast collection of music,” he goes on. “We all agree somewhere in the middle.”

On Saturday, the ‘Lizards’ join jazz/swing rhythm and blues party-starters The Original Rabbit Foot Spasm Band, The Dublings and Temple Funk Collective for the latest installment of the O2 Academy Oxford’s Upstairs local music showcases, in association with BBC Introducing.

They follow with summer festival sets confirmed at Corn-bury, Riverside, Wilderness, Towersey and Wychwood. They are also recording their second album at Nick Moorbath’s Evolution studio in West Oxford.

Their mix of styles and influences make their sound difficult band to define. And while most of their songs are original, they radiate a vintage glamour which gives their shows a timeless quality. Tarik admits it is not fashionable in the traditional sense. “We are certainly not a trendy band,” he smiles. “I’m always looking to explore other genres, the only question is ‘does it sound like the band?’.”

Tarik’s oud is at the forefront of the Lizards’ sound. “For many bands, the strings are secondary, but not for us,” he says. “The oud drives everything; it’s there in every song.”

In adapting this exotic instrument — with its double sets of five or six strings — he is keeping alive a tradition dating back 4,000 years. “It is one of the oldest instruments,” he explains. “They were played in ancient Iraq and were taken to Andalucia by the Moors. They then developed into lutes, violins and guitars.

“The instrument has a gentle, calming sound and, importantly, is designed to accompany singers.”

But, he insists, there’s nothing soporific about a Brickwork Lizards gig. “We play a lot of big numbers for people to get up and dance to,” he says. “But we also bring it down and play listening tunes. We never play two songs of the same genre in a row, though — we get too restless!”

He urged gig-goers, and the simply curious, to join the fun on Saturday night. “There’s a great line-up and the night is being headlined by the Original Rabbit Foot Spasm Band, who are fantastic,” he said.

“Like us, they are influenced by that 1920s and ‘30s sound — but they go all the way with it.”

“We’ll all be hitting it hard though. It’s going to be quite a party!”

Brickwork Lizards, The Original Rabbit
Foot Spasm Band, The Dublings and Temple Funk Collective
O2 Academy Oxford
Saturday
Tickets £7.05 inc fee from ticketweb.co.uk