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Otway and
Barrett Saturday June 16th 1973
Monday September 20th 1976
Saturday
March 19th 1977
Saturday February 20th 1982
John Otway
Thursday December 23rd 1971
Saturday 13th September 1975 Saturday March
20th 1976 Tuesday December 6th 1977
Sunday August 13th 1978
Saturday April
28th 1979 Thursday December 27th 1979
Sunday December 28th 1980
Saturday March 5th 1983
Willy Barrett
Monday June 16th 1969
Monday June 23rd 1969
Friday February 11th
1972
Phil Seaton (The Anal
Surgeons), writing for the
Friars Aylesbury website in 2009 said:
'I
was a member of The Anal Surgeons and of Friars [from Jan 1974] I knew
the venue well having seen many bands there [also at the previous venue]
so to play was a great treat for me. We had already played all the gigs
in the Chris France empire, and were friendly with John (Otway) and
Willy (Barrett). It was interesting to see things from the artistes
perspective [the sign at the rear said Artistes Entrance which caused
much joy amongst the band.] we had a proper dressing room, crate of beer
and a shower. The thing I remember most was walking out then the stage
lights came on, I thought i was going to melt!. Growing up in a council
house in Hemel, I never dreamed such warmth possible. The reason for the
name change to The Untouchables was that the main newspaper in the area
did not like to print the original, another was that Mr. France had also
had a problem with the council in Leighton Buzzard, and having postered
the place silly for a gig at the Hunt hotel, was forced to take them all
down. My thoughts were stuff them its a good name but we came to a
compromise. The surgeons split after a year in which we learnt our
trade, with lots of gigs in the area and some with Planet Gong, Here and
Now and diverse others. I formed Vince Pie and the Crumbs and my pal
Mick played with the Vice Creems, then formed the Funboy Five. I saw
some great gigs at Friars and it was by far one of the best music venues
in the country, very fond memories indeed.[ps. Vince Pie and the crumbs
have a retro MySpace site"
Mick Sinclair (The Anal
Surgeons), writing for the
Friars Aylesbury website in 2009 said:
"I’m thrilled to discover from Phil Seaton that we (I was the guitarist
in the Anal Surgeons) were ‘learning our trade’ as I’ve often wondered
what it was we were doing that year… I’d been a Friars member since
joining as an underage 15 year old in 1972 (Lou Reed that year and
Ramones with Talking Heads in 1977 eclipse all else) so actually playing
there was indeed a treat. That said, my main memory is breaking a
string, not one of the thin strings that often break but the a string,
one of the thick ones nobody would normally break in a hundred years.
Yes, the dressing room was larger than most of the venues we played in
but the beer had all gone by the time I wanted to drink some and I was
too scared to go in the shower after John Cook (our other singer) had
used it. I did form the Funboy Five (see
www.funboyfive.co.uk)
and subsequently became a music journalist though I only got back to
Friars once, to review UK Decay."
From 'Fast and Bulbous'
Otway is, was and always
will be an Aylesbury legend. After Really Free gave Otway his one hit
wonder status in 1977 which he regularly played on ('I'm now going to do a
selection of my hit'), he confounded everyone by being back on Top of the
Pops in 2002, 25 years after last troubling the charts, with the
entertaining 'Bunsen Burner'. Plans for a world Otway tour where he took
the audience with him in a plane fell through in 2006. He's still gigging
today, occasionally with Wild Willy himself.
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