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ALL FRIARS AYLESBURY PHASE ONE GIGS HERE
CLICK FOR EXCLUSIVE PICTURES OF THE NEW FRIARAGE HALL, OCTOBER 2008, THE
DAY BEFORE IT WAS DEMOLISHED
For an official potted history of the first 10 years of
Friars (including Phase One),
please see the
news-sheet issued in June 1979 (Police gig)
See also website articles about
Phase One by
Robin Pike and
Kris
Needs
Also see
Robin's Roxette articles on the early years
Below are some of headlines generated in the
Phase One era. Remember that this website is not intended to be viewed as
a history of Friars per se, but a chronicle of the gigs that took place.
Obviously a few interesting cuttings found their way here and are worth
sharing from a curiosity point of view
The opening of the club was heralded
thus as something for the musically aware
The very first Friars billboard poster -
this format was largely unchanged throughout the years
Entrance to Friarage Hall circa 1969.
Photo courtesy of Janet Tucker.
Clockwise from bottom right, Jerry Slater, Carol Borrill, Adrian Roach,
Janet Tucker, ?, John Lennon.
The original idea for Friars came from local
school teacher Robin Pike who had seen other gigs in local (ish) towns and
questioned why something couldn't be started in Aylesbury. After all, Pike
was presenting bands at the Aylesbury Grammar/High school Xmas dances. Not
only was he presenting bands, he was presenting the likes of Mott The
Hoople at the time they were making their Friars debut. He would go on to
present the likes of Eddie and the Hot Rods, The Beez, The Piranhas, Mari
Wilson amongst others. Certainly in the early days there was a close
relationship between Friars and the local school as the below article
testifies:
Here's the Optic Nerve guys from 1969 - Mike
and Brian, affectionately known as The Gollies, also with mystery
guest.....
David Stopps became the public face and
prime organiser/promoter of this new fangled rock club and, more than
once, it nearly came a cropper in the early days and took a few gigs
before a profit was posted. Most of the original committee have
contributed to this website.
The local press seemed fair to Friars and it
wasn't long before, in the Bucks Advertiser particularly, that favourable
and regular write ups began to appear, one such article is below.
Gigs continued into 1970 and shortly after
the club had celebrated its' first birthday, they were unceremoniously
turfed out of the Friarage Hall with little notice basically for being too
loud and
if you read Robin Pike's piece,
seemingly upsetting the caretaker's wife....and the local constabulary.
The front page piece on one of the papers
seemed to blame in no uncertain terms the closure of those who had imbibed
on the funny smelling cigarettes. Certainly given the general philosophy
of love doves and peace, it seemed hard to accept this as fact given the
club's known stance on drugs.
The other local paper put it down to more
accurate reasons.
This isn't to say that people just
accepted it and there was more than a hint of suspicion that the
"authorities" were looking for excuses to put a stop to everyone's fun.
This is what was in the local paper after the final gig - a plea from
punters to sort things out. This was the end of Phase One.
Perhaps it was just as well that Friars
had put on a couple of test runs at the Borough Assembly Hall - or the
Friars Auditorium as they had cheekily referred to it - as this
would be the
next incarnation of Friars come April 1971
Here's the last
document given out at Friars Phase One - the document that says that those
attending the Argent gig in July 1970 may be attending the final Friars
gig, or at least for the time being.
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