#largenumber

Damo Suzuki / Oxes / The Telescopes / Bikini Atoll / Vibracathedral Orchestra / Large Number / Youthmovie Soundtrack Strategies / Sunnyvale Noise Sub-element

The Zodiac, Oxford :: AUDIOSCOPE04

...And once again onto the main event. Audioscope04 was our first little leap up into the (ahem, relatively) big time, as we got Damo Suzuki THE SINGER OUT OF CAN OH MY GOD to come to Oxford for the first time, as part of his neverending tour, travelling the world to improvise with musicians anywhere he can. To this day, waiting in Stansted airport for Damo Suzuki to emerge off a Ryanair flight to get into my car and drive to our festival is one of the most surreal experiences I've had. I remember him saying 'you look young. I thought you were older from emails', and later sitting in the car thinking 'WHAT THE HELL DO I TALK TO THE BLOKE FROM CAN ABOUT?'. Absolutely lovely, genuine bloke, happy chatting about German football or anything else really. He came, he drank Guinness, he helped blow up balloons to decorate the venue (I would dearly love to get hold of the only photo of this happening), and his performance with members of Lords was outstanding. I'm really happy to say I arranged for Damo to come back to Oxford four or five times, had the honour of playing with him twice, and am still in touch with him.

Other assorted Audioscope04 highlights:

- Vibracathedral Orchestra almost being ejected by the bouncers during their set for lighting incense on stage; being declared genius by a quarter of the audience and utter bollocks by three quarters;

- The Telescopes breaking the hearts of a room full of 90s shoegaze fans by playing a set of oppressive, experimental drone culminating in drilling through their guitar pickups. I swear I saw at least two grown men crying at this point;

- Oxes stealing someone's glasses off their face during their set, wearing them, then disappearing backstage. All while still playing their song note-perfect.