Peter Murphy, writing for
the Friars Aylesbury website in 2007 said:
"As
a teen, I would stay with my wonderful Sunshine big sister Shirley in the
village of Ivinghoe, for many a full summer school holiday, the nearest
town being Aylesbury and Aylesbury Friars was the first venue that I felt
the moment I walked in at 15 years old, that whatever was going on there
was connected to what was really going on in the music scene. The only
other music hall that I'd regularly visited in Northampton, seemed to only
book either older failed metal bands that were past their prime, or 'B'
rated non starters. Long before I began my own band, I’d go to ‘Friars’
alone and soak up the scene. One of those gigs was the Iggy Lust For Life
Tour, where it seemed unbelievable that he’d be in town, as not only had I
relentlessly got heavily into "The Idiot" that particular summer, but
there was The Igg himself, a far cry from the mythical Detroit USA. One
of the lasting impressions of that particular gig was the Mark & Spencer
like grey flannel trousers the he was wearing that night, which seemd
completely incongruous with the man and post gig, I surpassed my shy self,
going to the security man and nonchalantly telling him that I was a friend
of Jimmy (Osterberg) and to tell him to come down and see me backstage.
Without a blink, the man promptly gave the message and I was told to ‘go
up’ where the IGG was waiting for me! As it turns out, I lost my way in a
spinal tap like search along the corridors and bottled out finally. Still,
I had a prescient knowledge or perhaps resolve that I would someday be on
that stage. How,
why or when, I had no idea at all.
Then, some time in 80 something, I read that Bauhaus were voted the best
band to have appeared at Friars. It didn’t seem ironic in the least but a
magical synchronicity."
Simply, U2 grew and grew and
became the world's biggest rock band and it is a perch they still sit on
as at 2010. They have kept the same line up in nearly 30 years. Bono got
his knighthood in 2007. Their performance at Live Aid 1985 is every bit as
iconic as Queen's performance.
