Steve Jones 1962-2020

DDesperately sad news to impart with the untimely passing away of Steve Jones, after a long period of poor-health following a personal injury. One-time Friars stage-crew 'humper', Steve (known to his friends as 'Spiv'') worked as part of an Aylesbury Grammar School cohort recruited via Friars founder Robin Pike, becoming one of the senior crew members. Steve's work at Friars in the late '70's to early '80's was a foretaste of his eventual director's role for the company Stage Miracles who provided stage crews for major artists including Prince, Madonna and Paul Weller, taking him on tour all over the world. After many years on the road he decided to pack it all in for a less stressful life with his wife Kim in the Plymouth area. Tragic though this news is, there's so much to celebrate about Steve, a truly brilliant bloke, a real 'one-off'; athletically built (a renowned rugby and soccer player back in the day), ferociously intelligent, uproariously funny, and possessed of a sense of fair-play that drew unspoken respect from all who encountered him. The picture below was taken around 1984 at Steve's bedsit in Bierton Road, Aylesbury, in all likelihood strumming 'Wish you were here' - he was a massive Floyd fan. Those that knew him will sorely miss him

BIG BIG TRAIN & THE FLAMING LIPS

RESCHEDULED DATES CONFIRMED

 Friars Aylesbury is thrilled to be able to announce that new rescheduled dates are confirmed for the mighty Big Big Train and American underground legends The Flaming Lips. 

Big Big Train were originally scheduled to appear on 16 July 2020 but due to CV19 and the fact that the Waterside Theatre was closed a new date had to be found. We are so pleased to be able to confirm that the new rescheduled date is: 

SUNDAY 18 JULY 2021 

BIG BIG TRAIN + LIFESIGNS

The original Big Big Train date also featured French band Lazuli but they won’t be appearing on the rescheduled date. Instead we are over the moon that LIFESIGNS, a band Friars has been trying to put on for a decade, will be special guests. Lifesigns feature prog legend and local hero John Young who has been featured in Prog Magazine many times.  Friars remains very impressed by Lazuli and efforts will be made to find  a way of putting them on at Friars in the future. 

The Flaming Lips were originally scheduled to appear at Friars on 24 July 2020 but due to CV19 and all live gatherings being outlawed, a new date had to be found.

We are elated to be able to confirm that the new rescheduled date is: 

WEDNESDAY 21 JULY 2021

  THE FLAMING LIPS

Tickets for both the above new dates are now available from ATGTickets, Ticketmaster and See Tickets. Tickets already purchased for the original dates are valid for the new dates. Please hang on to your tickets. Thanks for keeping the faith in these difficult times. Friars thanks all those who have loyally held on to their tickets which is a huge help to us. We can’t wait for live music to return and we want you to be a big part of it.

STEVE HACKETT

GENESIS REVISITED – SECONDS OUT + MORE

FRIARS AYLESBURY at the WATERSIDE THEATRE  18 OCTOBER 2021

 TICKETS on sale now from ATGtickets.com, Seetickets.com and Ticketmaster.co.uk.  

Tickets limited to a maximum of 4 per person. Please note the Waterside Box Office is not open due to CV19. 

Following his stunning sell-out Friars date in November 2019, Steve Hackett returns to Friars Aylesbury, the place where Genesis began, for a special one-off show featuring songs from the Genesis live album ‘Seconds Out’ plus other tracks from Steve’s solo albums. This will be the first new Friars date to be announced since the CV19 lockdown. 

Seconds Out was the hugely successful double album recorded on Genesis’s 1977 concert tour together with The Cinema Show, from their 1976 tour, and featured Steve Hackett on guitar alongside Mike Rutherford, Tony Banks and Phil Collins who had taken on the role of vocalist following the departure of Peter Gabriel. The tour included music from each of the six studio albums from Steve’s time in Genesis and marked his final recordings with the band as he left to pursue his solo career upon its completion.

 Says Steve: 

“I hugely look forward to being back on the road in the UK, bringing the whole of Seconds Out back to life! The set features some of the most thrilling Genesis material, this time all numbers played in full, plus additional surprises...”  

Steve will be joined on the tour by regular musicians Roger King (keyboards), Jonas Reingold (bass), Rob Townsend (saxes/flutes) with Nad Sylvan on vocals.

Craig Blundell  (Steven Wilson, King Crimson, Iron Maiden) will be on drums & percussion. He was voted by Modern Drummer and Rhythm Magazine readers as one of the top progressive and forward thinking drummers in the world.

 Steve’s autobiography, A Genesis In My Bed is published on 24th July 2020.   Steve talks candidly about his early life, his time with Genesis, and in particular his personal relationships with the other four band members, with great insight into the daily goings on of this major rock band.

 About Steve Hackett

 Steve Hackett joined Genesis at the beginning of 1971 and first played Friars Aylesbury in June 1971. He quickly gained an international reputation as the guitarist in the band’s classic line-up alongside Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins. Steve’s intricate guitar work was a key element of Genesis albums from Nursery Cryme (1971) to Wind And Wuthering (1977) including the classic Selling England By The Pound.

After leaving Genesis at the end of 1977, Steve’s solo career, which now spans more than 30 albums, has demonstrated his extraordinary versatility with both electric and acoustic guitar. Steve is renowned as both an immensely talented and innovative rock musician and a virtuoso classical guitarist and composer and this was recognised in 2010 when he was inducted into the Rock Hall Of Fame. He has also worked alongside Steve Howe of YES in the supergroup GTR.

Steve’s compositions take influences from many genres, including jazz, classical and blues. For his later studio works The Night Siren (2017) and At The Edge Of Light (2019) Steve has explored the influences of world music.

 Reviews from Steve Hackett’s most recent Genesis Revisited Tour

 ‘the night’s prog feast.. was Selling England’ ‘ which allowed the guitarist’s band to fully showcase their talents…’   ‘for one evening at least it was fantastic to dance with the Moonlit Knight once more.’  Simon Carter - The News Portsmouth 

‘Hackett's guitar effortlessly carves a path through the songs mixing melodic lines with experimentation and flat out rock...’  ‘The individual personalities of the band also shine throughout…’    Stuart Avis -The Brighton Magazine

 ‘a great riff, great lyrics and another guitar solo to die for...’ ‘the magic seems never-ending...’ Alan Jones – Getreadytorock

 ‘complex time changes and elaborate melodies were recreated by Hackett’s superb band with verve and skill.’  ‘Hackett may well be the best guitarist around. Oh, and a great light show too. Obviously.’  S Copeland - Brighton Argus

 “This is a consummately highly talented group of musicians, possibly the best working band currently playing anywhere in the world. Seriously.”  Paul H Birch – Ramzine

Steve Hackett backstage at Friars Aylesbury at the Waterside 2 Nov 2019

FRIARS AYLESBURY ARCHIVE PROJECT

 The Friars Aylesbury Archive is a not-for-profit project wherein we are trying to create a complete archive of all Friars related memorabilia including Friars news sheets, posters, tickets, video, recordings, press cuttings etc. We are then intending to completely digitise everything so that there is a permanent record of everything that has happened since Friars first started in June 1969. 

In order to finance the project we will be offering for sale items where we have excess copies. Any funds created will be used to add additional security to the archive, digitise the archive and to create a fund to buy any missing items of which there are quite a few, as you will see below. We were recently thrilled to be able to purchase a Friars U2 poster from June 1981 which we’ve been after for many years.

As explained we are very keen to acquire the items we are missing, for the archive. Some people have already kindly donated items to the archive for which we are very grateful, but we are quite prepared to pay for them if necessary.  

These are the missing handouts and posters as of June 2020: 

HANDOUTS 

POSTERS   (20” X 30”) 

If you have any of the above items and would like to donate them or allow us to purchase them from you we would be enormously grateful. Please contact Sue@fmlmusic.com 

Many thanks

FD

FRIARS 50^th ANNIVERSARY PODCASTS

Friars Aylesbury first opened its doors on Monday 2 June 1969. Exactly 50 years later on 2 June 2019, the 6 Friars Founding Fathers reunited in Aylesbury’s Kings Head to talk about the early days of Friars and the first magical years of Friars Aylesbury. 

Those participating are legendary rock journalists Pete Frame and Kris Needs as well as the Friars Founding Fathers Robin Pike, Adrian Roach, Jerry Slater, Terry Harms, John Fowler and David Stopps. Also participating are John Braley who managed the Borough Assembly Hall and the Civic Centre for many years, Stephen Daglish who managed Earth Records and created the Aylesbury Music Town website and Keith Martin who was Friars member No 1. 

http://www.buckstv.co.uk/friars-50th-anniversary-podcast-part-two/ 

http://www.buckstv.co.uk/friars-50th-anniversary-podcast-part-one/

 The photograph below shows those participating in the podcast: 

Left to right: 

Kris Needs, Adrian Roach, Robin Pike, David Stopps, Terry Harms, Jerry Slater and Pete Frame.

Wow, that Steve Hillage and Gong gig was amazing - galleries from that gig and the other Friars gigs this year by clicking the relevant poster.

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HEROES....JUST FOR ONE DAY

The statue was unveiled on Sunday March 25th to a large crowd, a large audience watching live online and covered by local and national media. This was followed by an amazing gig featuring local heroes Marillion, Howard Jones, John Otway and the Dung Beatles.

To see the statue live, there is a dedicated webfeed here

Full gallery here

Neale Wareham's gallery here

Full gallery from Erasure gig here

The Thin White Book now available to purchase

At last it's here!

The Thin White Book - A History of David Bowie and Friars Aylesbury is now available here from the Friars Aylesbury online shop - link above in menu or click this link. goo.gl/D6LbGf