The official FRIARS Aylesbury compendium
Page last updated 26th June 2008
Vale Hall, Civic Centre, Market Square,
Aylesbury
Mink de
Ville
Saturday September 17th 1977
Tyla Gang
Unknown
None yet
As below
Kris Needs, writing in Zig Zag, October 1977 (reproduced with permission of Kris Needs)
"THERE'S OVER 1,000 people from kids to hall staff grinning, swaying, dancing and screaming with delight at the stage on which Mink DeVille are playing the set of their lives. Willie DeVille is bent double, sweat-drenched and hollering his soul out on the classic 'Stand By Me'. As each of the three silk-suited Immortals takes a line of the verse the waves of ecstatic cheering build until the whole place feels like it's gonna explode, your head feels like it's gonna explode with pure, undiluted...happiness at what you're lucky enough to be experiencing. This is New York band Mink DeVille's first British gig. I'm not talking about the Rainbow, but Friars, Aylesbury, the club where the band repaid the crowds overwhelming arms-outstretched welcome to these shores with a total of five encores. At the Rainbow there were two. That about sums it up.Big London gig, the place to be seen that weekend, big press build-up stoked by impressive debut album. Make no mistake, Mink DeVille were GOOD at the Rainbow. It was the biggest place they'd ever played in their lives. They knew they HAD to be good, more than good, AMAZING to live up to their reputation. But Aylesbury was the gig where they did it.I know several people who were quite disappointed at the Rainbow, though realising the group could be the hottest thing on eighteen legs in a smaller place. "It was like watching a film", said a disgruntled Danny Baker of the Rainbow. Right, But at Aylesbury it was like you were part of that film, extras in a milestone movie of the decade. After that how could the Rainbow not be a bit of an anti-climax."
None sourced yet
Willy de Ville official website
Sights and sounds - Mink de Ville - Spanish Stroll (1977)
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