Saturday October 6th 1979

friars aylesbury phase three - maxwell hall, civic centre, market square, aylesbury

exclusive friars aylesbury interview with andy mccluskey

OMD Saturday November 1st 1980 Friday September 17th 2021

Druid (Ced Sharpley) Sunday July 21st 1974  Saturday February 28th 1976

Ultravox (Billy Currie) Saturday October 14th 1978

The webmaster, north Bucks:

"I remember we were kept outside the Civic Centre longer than usual before being allowed in going on for 19.45. Turned out later that there were strong rumours that the gig was nearly pulled (hence the delay) after a king sized strop from the star turn. You wouldn’t have known there had been issues once the gig started. OMD, the support act, were simply amazing (I went on to possess all of their recordings). Two blokes and a tape recorder in front of a black curtain. As for Numan, well the stage show was immense and I remember people dropping like flies because of the heat generated by Numan’s rig and bouncers sailing past me at great speed taking another person out. An interesting show to say the least showcasing the Pleasure Principle album and the best of Replicas with a few odds and ends thrown in. He never played Aylesbury again"

Andy McCluskey (OMD)

Fond memories of both the Numan tour and our own in 1980. Loved the venue... all the best with the site

Gary Numan as at 2015 continues to be a relevant artist reinventing himself to a certain degree. He repeated The Pleasure Principle Tour in 2009 and Chris Payne joined him on one of the gigs. Numan has always cited Ultravox as an influence and borrowed Billy Currie for this tour. Ultravox went massive and after upheaval reformed in 2009 after a near 25 year break. Paul Gardiner died in 1984.

OMD sold out Friars one year later and went huge. They called it a day in the 1990s but reformed in 2007 and still play and record as at 2015.

You have no idea how close this gig came to being cancelled. The rumours I alluded to I can now reveal were true. Some bikers had called Numan a "wanker" in the Market Square and he didn't want to play due to "bad vibes" in the town. He was eventually persuaded by David Stopps (and to a large degree by John Braley) that he really ought to perform for the 1250 people who had paid for tickets. This was only the second time Stopps had to persuade an artist to perform, the other was Queen in 1974.

As can be seen by the clip from down in the park below, this was, up to this time, the biggest production seen at Friars (the pyramids didn't appear at friars due to the size of the stage)

Did you also know that George Michael and Andrew Ridgley attended this gig?

Gary Numan - Down In The Park (on this tour)  

   OMD - Electricity