David Bowie Mick Ronson Trevor Bolder
Woody Woodmansey
JSD Band:
Jim Divers Sean O'Rourke Des Coffield Chuck Fleming Colin Finn
Also Friars offered a chance to be on the list in case Bowie came back.
Thanks Richard Burt
David Stopps, Friars
Aylesbury promoter, writing
in 1999 said:
'The
gig on 15 July was used as a showcase for record company executives from
all over the world. I remember doing a little history of the town and
giving this out to these high-flying executives. This was an amazing gig,
there was real hysteria. We had a hard time with security too. It was
really that intense. It was also quite clear at that point that it was
breaking huge. I had put on the gig in Dunstable the previous month and
Bowie was extremely good. I remember the fellatio with Ronson at that gig
and I remember everyone being pretty shocked. It was breaking literally
by the day and by the time 15 July came around there was great excitement
in the air. Needless to say, the gig had sold out instantly'
NB - Stopps
considers this to be the greatest ever Friars Aylesbury concert.
Roger Taylor (Queen drummer),
quoted in Mojo in 1999:
"I got Freddie out in my little Mini and I remember the
lights didn't work very well and we were going around the roundabouts and
he was going "Oh dear - I don't think you can see dear, can you?" and I
said "Don't worry Freddie it will be all right" and anyway we did get
around the roundabouts and we got out to Friars Aylesbury which seemed
like the end of the earth at the time. I think it could have been the
first-ever Ziggy Stardust gig and it blew us away - we were blown away -
it was so fantastic like nothing else that was happening and so far ahead
of its time - the guy he had so much talent to burn really and charisma to
burn as well, I hate to gush but he did have it like no one else did at
the time"
Glen O'Brien in an interview
with Andy Warhol, 1972 said:
'The
Aylesbury town hall is the size of an average pre-war high school
gym...There were perhaps a thousand peers in the hall when we entered. At
first I thought it was remarkable that RCA had spent at least $25,000 to
bring a select group of writers to a concert at which there were no seats
for them, save the floor...David Bowie did not come on unannounced. He
was in fact preceded on stage by a handsome Negro and his attendants who
attempted to work the audience to a fever pitch by tossing them balloons,
pinwheels, and hundreds of Bowie posters. The audience needed little
prodding, though, and anxiously awaited David Bowie and The Spiders From
Mars, while the giant amplifiers sounded a recording of old Ludwig Von's
Song of Joy from the Ninth Symphony. David appeared on stage with his
band to what could fairly be called a thunderous ovation. And he deserved
every handclap...His hair was a vibrant orange..And the band played
on...And David proved himself to be a unique performer'
David Bowie, writing in a
blog in 2002 said:
“[Spiders From Mars drummer] Woody Woodmansey was saying,
“I’m not bloody wearing that!” There were certainly comments, a lot of
nerves. Not about the music — I think the guys knew that we rocked. But
they were worried about the look. That’s what I remember: how
uncomfortable they felt in their stage clothes. But when they realized
what it did for the birds . . . The girls were going crazy for them,
because they looked like nobody else. So within a couple of days it was,
“I’m going to wear the red ones tonight.”
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.'
Mick Rock photographing Bowie at this gig
(thanks Martyn Cornell)
This
was issued in 1972. The owner of this copy (Keith Bradbury) received this
in the Regent Cafe in Kingsbury Square, Aylesbury.
and the back simply had
this
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.
