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Saturday February 10th 1973

friars aylesbury phase two - borough assembly hall, market square, aylesbury

mott the hoople inducted into the friars hall of fame in 2009

exclusive friars aylesbury interview with morgan fisher

first friars gig to cost a quid!

Mott the Hoople
Darien Spirit
 
related friars history (click on date)
Mott the Hoople Monday December 8th 1969 Monday February 2nd 1970  Saturday September 4th 1971   Friars Bedford Thursday 1st January 1970  Thursday 26th November  Friars High Wycombe Tuesday 29th September 1970 Friars Dunstable  Friday September 15th 1972

Mott (Dale Griffin/Overend Watts) Saturday September 13th 1975  Saturday June 12th 1976

Hunter Ronson Band Wednesday March 19th 1975

British Lions (Dale Griffin/Overend Watts and guest appearance by Ian Hunter) Friday December 23rd 1977

Ian Hunter's Overnight Angels Saturday June 11th 1977

Cheeks (Verden Allen) Saturday November 2nd 1974

 
setlist
Likely setlist:  Drivin' Sister; Sucker; Sweet Jane; Hymn For The Dudes; All The Way From Memphis; Angeline; Rose; All the young dudes; Jerkin' Crocus; One Of The Boys; Rock And Roll Queen; Get Back; Walkin' With A Mountain
 
band line up
Mott the Hoople
Ian Hunter (vocs/guitar/keys)  Verden Allen (keys)  Mick Ralphs (guitar)  Dale Griffin (drums)  Overend Watts (bass)
Darien Spirit
Jack McAllister (guitar/vocs) Harry McDonald (guitar/keys) Dennis Cowan (bass) Alan Waterson (drums)
 
gig poster and flyer (click to enlarge flyer)
 

 

 
ticket

 

memories
Ian Hunter

 I was a big mate of Pete Frame’s, who said to come with him to the club. Pete had my dog when we left to come to the States. I always liked Stoppsy, in those days of strange promoters he was one of the good ones at that time

We always seemed to have a great time there: One of those gigs which became entrenched in your memory for some stupid reason. We did hundreds of gigs like that but, for some reason, that one would stick out. It just became this very special gig that was up the M1. There were hundreds of ‘em but some that stuck out. Friars was one of ‘em. Great little club

Verden ‘Phally’Allen

  That’s where it all started off. Our first gig was at an air force base with King Crimson. Ian was dressed in a suit. It didn’t sort of happen. We done the Roundhouse then Aylesbury and something just clicked. That was it. It all started in Aylesbury!

Ian Hunter, on his website, responding to this website's webmaster in 2008:

 "Well, it was Pete Frame, Dave Stopps and Kris Needs territory wasn't it? I met Dave Stopps on the Ringo tour (he manages Howard Jones) and Kris and Pete came to a recent gig in Milton Keynes (Spring 2008 - we were there too!). (Friars) itself was great but like I say I remember the people - 'Zig Zag' and all that"

Ian Hunter, quoted in the Aylesbury Roxette (talking to Radio 1), summer 1976

"Aylesbury is like a little San Francisco. It's one of those places where everything seems to start...I don't know what it is, but the people there seem to sense what's going to happen. I know Mott the Hoople happened in Aylesbury long before anywhere else, and it was the same for David Bowie. Everybody seems to be friendly, and they make you feel good - and whenever I played there, I felt like an old friend being welcomed home. In fact the atmosphere of Aylesbury got to me to such an extent that I was seriously considering moving there at one time...but then I moved to America instead."

Paul Brett: I can remember playing at Friars a couple of times and vaguely with Mott the Hoople. My old band members in Sage can remember the gig but nothing that sticks out, except the audience were always good and receptive to our music. Pity no one back then kept a diary of individual events. There are lots of great live venues that have closed over the years and that's a shame

Les Payne, Friars stalwart sent this to the Friars Aylesbury website

This is the badge and mask that Hunter and Overend respectively gave to Les.

 

thanks neil storey for the below

 
odds and trivia
At the reunion shows in 2009, did we really see a Friars Mott flyer going across the screens? yes we did!
 
what happened?
Mott The Hoople  Mott the Hoople split in 1974, not before Hunter brought out the highly acclaimed 'Diary of a Rock and Roll Star' book. Ian Hunter still records and tours to this day (the webmaster saw him in 2007/2008 and he was on blistering form, with Terry Allen joining him on stage in 2007). Hunter played Friars in 1975 as the Hunter Ronson Band with the late Mick Ronson and in 1977 as Ian Hunter's Overnight Angels. The remainder of Mott the Hoople carried on as Mott with a couple of line up changes (see date links above) Hunter also provided a guest appearance at the British Lions (remains of Mott with John Fiddler from Medicine Head) gig in Dec1977. Mick Ralphs, post MTH, joined Bad Company with Free's Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke. Dale Griffin continued into the Mott and British Lions periods (both of whom played Friars) and then became a Radio 1 producer and is now in ill health.

Mott the Hoople with the original 1969 line up reformed for 40th anniversary shows in October 2009 at the Hammersmith Apollo. Some of the Friars team were there and can confirm it was a sublime experience. They played again in 2013 minus Griffin.

Darien Spirit made only the one album

 
official web presence
Ian Hunter official site 
 
sound and vision
 
Mott The Hoople - All The Young Dudes
 
 
 

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