The official FRIARS Aylesbury compendium
Borough Assembly Hall, Market Square,
Aylesbury
David Bowie
Saturday July 15th 1972
see also Saturday September 25th 1971 Saturday January 29th 1972
see also Friars Dunstable Wednesday June 21st 1972
see also Iggy Pop Tuesday March 1st 1977
David Bowie Mick Ronson Trevor Bolder
Woody Woodmansey
J.S.D. Band
Unknown
As below
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.'
As below
Thanks Richard Burt for the ticket
David Stopps, Friars Aylesbury promoter, writing in 1999 said:
'The gig on 15 July was used as a showcase for record company executives form 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'
As below - click to enlarge (75p to see a legend and still people weren't
happy!)
this was issued at some point in 1972
Do we need to actually say anything?
Sights and sounds - David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust - Live at Friars at this gig 1972 ! (audio thought to be from a few days later)
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