A true musical menagerie, 9-piece big band Babylon Circus, have notched up over 900 concerts in 30 countries and built up a worldwide following with their electric live shows and addictive albums.

As befits a band with their name, their exploits include police chases, beatings and imprisonment in Irish jails, bathtub vodka, double concussions and hospitalisation in Russia and Muslim carnival processions in Syria. They have to be seen to be understood.

It started in Lyon, France, during 1995, when singers David Baruchel and Manu Nectoux devised a racy sound mainly fuelled on punk energy and hot with defiant social anthems sung in French and English – sometimes both in the same song. The duo worked with seven partners in crime who are at least as mad about music as they are: Georges on guitar, Olive on keyboards, Dadé on drums, Basile on bass, Rimbaud on accordion and saxophone, Laurent on trumpet and Clément on trombone.

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The Basement Sydney - Fri March 5 & Sat March 20

WOMADELAIDE Sat March 6 - Mon March 8

Corner Hotel Melbourne - Wed March 10

WOMADNZ Taranaki -Fri March 12 & Sun March 14

The Zoo Brisbane - Thur March 18

Great Northern Byron Bay - Fri March 19