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We have
some odds and ends here and interesting curios (it says here), some
of which are on the site elsewhere and some
not that you may not necessarily have been aware of. Lots of random
facts under the flyers as you'll see!
Here's
some issued flyers, not all on the site, of gigs that never
took place:
Ian
Matthews should have played but pulled out quite late to be replaced by
Man
Medicine
Head nearly played in 1971
Wang
Chung should have played the 15th birthday party in 1984, Fiction
Factory's gig two weeks later became the party.
In
1974, Ronnie Lane cancelled all his current gigs including Reading but
came back three times after.
Also in
1974, Savoy Brown pulled out after their gear was held at Heathrow and
were replaced last minute by Budgie - there was no time to issue a new
news-sheet
In 1975
a second news-sheet was issued to reflect Wally being top of the bill
after The Winkies pulled out.
October
1976 saw all three gigs changed, references to two of them had already
been published - Eric Burdon and Renaissance
Killing
Joke cancelled their gig after the Jaz Coleman went missing in 1982,
replaced by Anti Nowhere League. An unusuality about that flyer is that
(like the Peter Gabriel 79 one) it was deliberately just one sided text.
 
   
   
Being
the completist, you may have noticed that some gigs had more than one
version of the news-sheet issued, usually because an extra gig had been
slotted in after they had been originally issued. Here's a couple of
examples from 1982:
Joe Jackson
Blues Band
Random facts:
Did you
know that apart from the planned Nico/Magma gig which got cancelled and
the Free Otway gigs of 1978/1980, no Friars gigs took place on a Sunday?
No particular reason, just worked out that way!
Did you
know that at least two headlining bands have referenced Aylesbury in
their songs (aside from Otway)? Of course, Marillion's Market Square
Heroes which featured a dedication to Friars on the sleeve, but did you
know that Steeleye Span's The Ups and Downs from 1973 featured Aylesbury
in the very first line?
Did you
know that Mick Hucknall played Friars? He did with his band Frantic
Elevators and they were already performing an early version of Holding
Back The Years.
Likewise an unknown drummer called Jon Moss played in 1980 in The Edge
(supporting The Ruts)
Did you
know that two gigs nearly got pulled on the day due to "difficulties"
with the main artist? They were Queen and Gary Numan. Brian May is
alleged to settled Freddie Mercury's issue of not wanting to play with "if this place is good
enough for Mott The Hoople, it's good enough for us" - of course Queen
had toured with Mott. Worth pointing out as well that Freddie and Roger
Taylor had already been to Friars in 1972 and were in the audience for
the legendary Bowie gig of July 1972. Numan's issues were down to being
verbally abused by bikers in the Market Square and suddenly felt "bad
vibes" On both occasions, Mr Stopps used his skills to get these gigs
on.
Backstage at the Captain Beefheart gig, the great Don asked David Stopps
for some water which was duly fetched in a glass. On receiving it, van
Vliet asked if it was "city water" - Stopps understandably looked
surprised. What he had meant by this was whether the water from was from
a tap or bottled. When he found out it was from the tap, he wouldn't
touch it.
Also in
1975, Camel had to postpone a Friars gig simply because their equipment
would never have fitted in the Borough Assembly Hall. It did at the
Civic in late 1975.
Did you
see a band called The Reaction at Friars in 1978? No? Well, they came
back to Friars in 1982 headlining.....as Talk Talk!
In 1980
The Reluctant Stereotypes supported The Specials and featured Paul King
and Tony Wall who went onto ultimately to form King. Never officially
revealed before, but King unwittingly cemented their place in Friars
history when Friars officially closed in Spring 1985. David Stopps
stated in his letter that the final straw was a well known band pulling
out of playing Friars so they could earn more money elsewhere. That gig
would have been on April 6th 1985 and was meant to be......King.
When
ELO played Friars Watford in 1972, David Stopps withheld half of their
fee because they turned up so late. The following day, their manager,
the notorious Don Arden (Sharon Osbourne's dad) demanded to know why
they had been half paid. After Stopps explained, Arden surprisingly
accepted it.
When
Elton John played Friars Watford in 1972, would you like to have been
the person to have sidled up to Elton on stage and ask him to leave as
there had been a bomb scare?
When
the Ramones first played Friars, they were found in the Civic kitchens
carving ham off the bone!
When
Killing Joke played Friars the first time in 1980, in addition to
everything else, David Stopps set up a banquet for them.
Very
few gigs have been cancelled because one of the band has done a runner
but that happened to Friars twice in a very short period in 1982. Joe
Strummer from the Clash went missing (in Paris) forcing the postponement
of their Stoke Mandeville gig and Jaz Coleman went missing from Killing
Joke forcing the gig to be cancelled altogether.
Only three times did Friars
present two gigs on consecutive days. In June 73 Gryphon/Capability
Brown, in 1980 with Girlschool and The Jam and also in 1980 with The
Piranhas/Otway and Barrett |
