TOY & Listing Ships sound carrying Damo Suzuki

performance at the social

Idle Fret: I went to a TOY in-store at Rough Trade East last year and asked them if they’d like to back Damo Suzuki, along side Listing Ships, at a show I was putting together and they said they’d love to. I was looking forward to this show for ages and June 25th 2013 came around slowly, but when it did, it was really exciting! Luke Insect who designed the show poster came down to play some records and Andrew Weatherall played an hour of Krautrock before Damo and his network of sound carriers played. Bobby Gillespie from Primal Scream wanted to perform with Damo too and was set to come down, but because it was an improvised performance with no Can songs, this sadly didn’t happen. Weatherall played the final song of his incredible DJ set and as the last few bars of The Fall’s I Am Damo Suzuki rang out across the venue, TOY and Listing Ships took to the stage, but there was no sign of Damo. The band started playing as I went to look for him and there he was tucked away in the corner sitting at the merch stall, not having realized that the band had started to play. I led him to the stage and then the crowd witnessed an almighty improvised set of heavy Krautrock for over an hour. It was one long song that could have happily gone on for another hour, as everyone on and offstage was having such a great time. It was definitely one of my favourite Idle Fret shows so far and we raised an amazing £1000 for Cancer Research UK and Macmillan Cancer Support from the proceeds of the show. It was a very special line up and an amazing night! (Darren Brooker)

all photography
by jim donnelly

TOY: It was one of the best times we've ever played music together! I don't think we have actually ever done an improvised thing where we just made it all up, and I totally lost track of time. We played for more than an hour but it felt like only one moment. To have the kind of Godfather Of Improvisation ask us to play with him: The greatest day in my entire life. (Panda The Barron) Damo's network is a really cool method of making music where he just kind of goes around the world and picks up people to play music with. He even sent us an e-mail before just to make sure that we definitely wouldn't arrange any kind of music or practice at all; we literally just played whatever came out. (Dominic O'Dair)

Listing Ships: I've had the pleasure of performing alongside Damo twice before and I've promoted shows for him four or five times in our hometown of Oxford too, so he and I go back quite a long time - the joy of Damo's shows really is that no two are ever the same. The band is unique, but more than that, the music they create only exists for that time and in that place, and I think there's something very precious about that in a time when every experience, musical or otherwise, is recorded and set down for posterity. I love the idea of a groove, a moment that only exists for a few seconds at that one time and never comes alive again. For tonight's show, it was unusual for me in that instead of a band entirely composed of different musicians who've never played together before, tonight it was two very tight, well-rehearsed bands who've been playing together for years, but thrown together at the same time as a backing band for Damo. This meant not only improvising with my own bandmates, but also working with Damo on where he wanted to take the music, and also reacting to and playing with another entire band at the same time. I felt it would have worked better had the two bands been physically mixed together rather than facing off opposite each other as two complete units, but the challenge was exhilarating. Not only that, but a combination of the size of the venue (tiny!), the size of the crowd (big!) and the amount of equipment we had (masses!) meant the audience was tight around us at all times, creating a wonderfully intense atmosphere. I'm usually Listing Ships' bass player, but have played synths and samplers in other bands, so tonight was also a chance for me to cut loose and focus more on keyboards and samples, and so push myself beyond my usual instrument as well. I find what Damo does incredibly inspiring, he's brought together so many musicians, and so much incredible music all over the world, and all with such humility and devotion not to the people involved, but to the music and what it can achieve, frozen in time, for everyone sharing that moment. (Stuart Fowkes)

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Northod: There is no better way to feel secret interaction between musicians than while they are running in live, improvising. Indeed Toy (last bb from UK), Damo Suzuki from the master mystical Can and Listing Ships played a show together in front of my eyes, in an intimate and warm atmosphere at The Social, London. Lots of musicians then, trying to do their best to create a huge massive sound amount of néo-psychedelia and kraut way of thinking during more than 40 minutes with no cessation. Sometimes close to nothing, nevertheless intoxicating by sound intensity and repetitive gimmick from super testosterone-powered bass to weird overloaded guitar delay and misty synthesizer. Definitely a friendly and relaxing climate between such reachable artists and lovely audience. I am happy to see this kind of things (underground comings) still happen in London. (Thom Layan)

Damo: This is what I’m doing every performance, create time and space of the moment with ever changing local sound carriers. This London show together with Toy and Listing Ships from Oxford: The venue was really hot. Already there wasn’t enough space for every sound carrier. (Stage was so tiny) So, some of them performed on floor in middle of audience. As usual I was at merchandising table, almost I missed to join them on the stage if the promoter didn’t pick me up. Member of Toy were very smart young guys and some of them told me they never done live improve. As far as situation after the performance, it must be an amazing time for everybody involved that I’m sure of. Wish many good things happened upon Toy and Listing Ships. (Suzuki)