Emergency Questions #7: Demolition

As always, I'm indebted to Richard Herring for giving us something to talk about on a Friday - from his book Emergency Questions.

Have you ever demolished a wall or a building?

The Style Council - Walls Coming Tumbling Down

Ken Sharp - Break Down The Walls

Kiss - When Your Walls Come Down

Growing up among a family of builders, there was always the opportunity to wreck things. Before side-stepping into building houses, my brother specialised in demolition. I never really accompanied him on any of these wrecking jobs, but I'd see him knocking stuff down for my dad around the farm every now and then. My greatest memory of his destructive tendencies involved my first bike, which he drove over with his JCB when I made the mistake of leaving it in the yard. My sister carried it back into the house and held it up to show me what had happened... but it wasn't until she turned it side on that I realised it was flat.

Electric Soft Parade - Holes In The Wall

Smokie - When The Walls Comes Down

Broken Records - The Crumbling Wall

My dad was a joiner by trade, but he could turn his hand to most jobs. He built sheds, turned our old barn into the house my Mum still lives in today, and single-handedly wood-panelled the house I grew up in to within an inch of its life. Wood panelling was very big back in the 70s, especially if you were a joiner. There was always some DIY project ongoing, despite the fact he had a full time job at the car auctions and also managed the farm. 

Kris Kristofferson - Let The Walls Come Down

Def Leppard - When The Walls Came Tumbling Down

Suzanne Vega - Crack in the Wall

I do have one specific memory of a demolition job that I got involved in, and this was when I was very young... maybe 4 or 5. There was a wall down the side of the staircase that my dad had started knocking down so that he could make the small sitting room a bit more open plan. This was an old farmhouse, so all the walls were built of stone - no plasterboard when that place was built. Removing the wall was taking him some time (in between all his other jobs), but one morning he and my Mum woke up very early to the sound of hammering... only to discover me sitting on the stairs with a lump hammer in my hand, cheerfully knocking out the bricks. I guess I wanted to be like my dad...

The Mendoza Line - Before I Hit the Wall

There was one song I had to play today, but I really couldn't choose between the two best versions. So here they both are...

Plus one more relevant tune that I haven't heard in years...