Fill Your Heart, Buzz The Fuzz, Space
Oddity, Amsterdam, The Supermen, Oh You Pretty Things, Eight Line Poem,
Changes , Song For Bob Dylan, Andy Warhol, Queen Bitch, Looking For A
Friend, Round And Round, Waiting For The Man
David Bowie Mick Ronson Trevor Bolder
Woody Woodmansey
Rick Pearce, Friars fan from
Aylesbury, writing for the Friars Aylesbury website in 2007 said:
'Above
everything else I really remember a sense of occasion. I had heard the
singles, Space Oddity, Prettiest Star (with Marc Bolan) and Memory Of A
Free Festival. I had also heard chunks of Man Who Sold The World on the
radio so I knew that whatever happened this was going to be something
special.
Having arrived at the Borough Assembly Hall
and seated ourselves on the floor (as one did back then) we heard that
America would not be appearing as support were being replaced by Mick
Softley and Lol Coxhill. It was shaping up to be an interesting evening,
although this anticipation was not shared by the two girls seated in front
of us who were loudly complaining that they had only come to see America
(by this time Middle England was well into its infatuation with almost
anything Californian and acoustic).
Mick Softley was on first and did not go
down well with some sections of the audience. The two girls in front were
becoming more strident with every song. Incensed by the background noise
and lack of attention, he walked off briefly but was persuaded to return.
The only song I really remember was Time Machine, which reminded me of Roy
Harper in some ways. Mick deserved a better audience.
Lol Coxhill came on stage almost
immediately. Wearing a granddad vest and longjohns (or maybe a set of
combinations of the kind one was sewn into for the winter back in the
glorious days of Empire), Lol perched on a stool with his Soprano Sax and
made it clear that he was just there to improvise and we could listen, go
to the bar or talk amongst ourselves and he wouldn’t mind a bit.
We did all three but I’m afraid most of the
music went right over my head. These days I know I’d really appreciate all
the textures subtleties and nuances but back then I was just a simple
rockophile. Meanwhile the two girls in front kept up their ceaseless
complaint.
Bowie arrived on stage to a collective OOOH!
worthy of Frankie Howerd. I’m not sure what some people were expecting.
Major Tom, or a drag act or something of both, but he certainly looked
different. Wearing huge dark blue oxford bags, a white satin jacket and
the red and black platforms seen on the reissue of the Space Oddity
album, he was light years away from your average beardy, shaggy muso
bloke. Mick Ronson, who was accompanying on bass and acoustic guitar also
looked fairly individual in a grey smock thing with pleats that looked
like a schoolgirl’s gymslip, white shirt, jeans and girl’s shoes.
Moving on from the fashion notes and
getting to the music, Bowie and Ronson were an awesome duo. Doing Biff
Rose and Jacques Brel covers and, of course Space Oddity they made the
hall as intimate as your living room. Eventually they brought on the other
two soon to be Spiders, who did look like beardy, shaggy muso blokes, and
later someone who had been in The Animals. They played a quiet and
thunderous version of Supermen and a nicely unadorned Oh You Pretty
Things/Eight Line Poem and Changes. Even the two girls in front had shut
up and started to take notice. I had recently discovered The Velvet
Underground and was delighted to hear the band and Lou Reed eulogised from
the stage as part of the between song chat before Queen Bitch. Bowie did
some great Lou impersonations that night finishing the set with Waiting
For The Man. From memory it was all very similar to the BBC In Concert
from earlier in the year but without the guest vocalists.
It was a brilliant evening and I could
never run out of superlatives describing it. Almost everyone I knew at the
time was there and most of us agreed that we had been given a glimpse of
something truly wonderful and very different. Although I’m afraid
hindsight always helps at times like these.One thing I do like to imagine
though, is the two girls in front forgetting all about America, lost in
the desert with their nameless nag, and instead spending the last three
decades dining out on how they saw the pre Ziggy Bowie for 50p.
Woody Woodmansey, writing
for the Friars Aylesbury website in 2008 said:
'The
Aylesbury Friars Club gig sticks in my mind as one of Bowie and the
Spiders favourite gigs. I remember the first time we played we'd spent
weeks working out the show and it was the first airing of a Bowie and
Spiders concert that we then took around the world! The audience reception
was the best.'
Clippings from Bucks Herald/Bucks Advertiser
Melody Maker got in on
the act (sorry about the quality)
Do we need to actually say anything?
Bowie unleashed Ziggy Stardust in 1972 at Friars and never looked back.
Has been on a hiatus for a few years but re-appeared singing with David
Gilmour in London on his last tour in 2006.
