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David Bowie, writing in a
blog in 2002 said:
“[Spiders From Mars drummer] Woody Woodmansey was saying,
“I’m not bloody wearing that!” There were certainly comments, a lot of
nerves. Not about the music — I think the guys knew that we rocked. But
they were worried about the look. That’s what I remember: how
uncomfortable they felt in their stage clothes. But when they realized
what it did for the birds . . . The girls were going crazy for them,
because they looked like nobody else. So within a couple of days it was,
“I’m going to wear the red ones tonight.”
Woody Woodmansey
The
Aylesbury Friars Club gig sticks in my mind as one of Bowie and the
Spiders favourite gigs. I remember the first time we played we'd spent
weeks working out the show and it was the first airing of a Bowie and
Spiders concert that we then took around the world! The audience reception
was the best.'
Roger Taylor (Queen drummer),
quoted in Mojo in 1999:
"I got Freddie out in my little Mini and I remember the
lights didn't work very well and we were going around the roundabouts and
he was going "Oh dear - I don't think you can see dear, can you?" and I
said "Don't worry Freddie it will be all right" and anyway we did get
around the roundabouts and we got out to Friars Aylesbury which seemed
like the end of the earth at the time. I think it could have been the
first-ever Ziggy Stardust gig and it blew us away - we were blown away -
it was so fantastic like nothing else that was happening and so far ahead
of its time - the guy he had so much talent to burn really and charisma to
burn as well, I hate to gush but he did have it like no one else did at
the time"
Glen O'Brien in an interview
with Andy Warhol, 1972 said:
'The
Aylesbury town hall is the size of an average pre-war high school
gym...There were perhaps a thousand peers in the hall when we entered. At
first I thought it was remarkable that RCA had spent at least $25,000 to
bring a select group of writers to a concert at which there were no seats
for them, save the floor...David Bowie did not come on unannounced. He
was in fact preceded on stage by a handsome Negro and his attendants who
attempted to work the audience to a fever pitch by tossing them balloons,
pinwheels, and hundreds of Bowie posters. The audience needed little
prodding, though, and anxiously awaited David Bowie and The Spiders From
Mars, while the giant amplifiers sounded a recording of old Ludwig Von's
Song of Joy from the Ninth Symphony. David appeared on stage with his
band to what could fairly be called a thunderous ovation. And he deserved
every handclap...His hair was a vibrant orange..And the band played
on...And David proved himself to be a unique performer
The New Roxette's, (and local leek
grower), Rick Pearce recalls the gig in 2011:
'I don’t
remember how we got hold of tickets for the July 15th Friars
date but we did, somehow.
By now the ‘Tour Without End’ had really hit its
stride and things were getting faster, slicker and even tighter than
ever. Memories of the gig itself are a jumble of confused images and
impressions
A huge wave of energy and sound coming off the
stage, Hang On To Yourself always hits like a bolt of lightening and it’s
the first time I’ve seen them in a small venue since they played here in
January…Blue lit otherwise darkened stage for The Supermen… Total strobe
disorientation and fragments of She Shook Me Cold during the jam section
of I Feel Free… Ronno raising his arm to signal the end of White Light
White Heat and Woody just keeps on drumming… Crushed against the PA by the
crowd with Jackie, Jenny and her friend Tim and being deaf for days after… Bowie
taking off his jacket towards the end of the show, ripping it to pieces,
throwing rags to the crowd. At the same time Stuey George and (probably) Stage
Manager Peter Hunsley are hurling fliers from both sides of the stage, girls are
fighting over bits of white satin and I’m wondering how it’s possible to look
cool in the middle of all of this, realising it’s impossible and giving up on
even trying… Grabbing Ronno’s guitar as he runs to the front of the stage and
shoves it out into the audience… The surface of the guitar is rough, almost like
sandpaper and the strings are very light gauge… Wondering if seeing the Beatles
at the Cavern was anywhere near as good as this…
Eventually the band leave the stage, the
houselights come on and we are left standing there, drained, deafened and
stunned by the sheer intensity of what we have just witnessed.
After that things just got bigger, wilder and
totally beyond control. DB and the Spiders were no longer able to be
just our band. The Universe, or at least America had taken them over
and we would never get them back. Sadly that’s often how it works
and the only choice we have is to live with it every time it happens
or to become bitter, twisted, cynical and ultimately deadly boring
On further consideration, there is no choice!'
Mick Rock photographing Bowie at this gig
(thanks Martyn Cornell)
This
was issued in 1972. The owner of this copy (Keith Bradbury) received this
in the Regent Cafe in Kingsbury Square, Aylesbury.
and the back simply had
this
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