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Why?
Here's a very simple fact.
No Robin Pike, no Friars. Ever. Robin was a local school teacher very
tuned in, unlike many of his colleagues, to what was happening
musically. He suggested to David Stopps whom he had met whilst Stopps
was managing local band Smokey Rice (and appeared at the Grammar School
Sixth Form dance in 1968) the idea of running a music club in little old
Aylesbury. Stopps was not convinced given Aylesbury's dubious record of rock
promotion and also felt it might work better in High Wycombe with a
bigger population. Robin persisted and with a very enthusiastic
collective, Stopps came on board.
Robin found a suitable
venue, the ex-Services club, The New Friarage Hall in Walton Street and
on June 2nd 1969, Friars opened as a club for the musically aware.
Despite trials and tribulations and more than one brush with closure,
the club got bigger and bigger and who'd have thought we would have seen
Phase Four 41 years later? Without Robin, we quite probably wouldn't
have.
Step forward Robin Pike,
Friars Hero.
Here's Robin in 1976 at
the Kevin Ayers gig (third from left)
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