I was fortunate to be invited to the VIP opening evening recently of The Evolution Of Friars, an exhibition at the Bucks County Museum celebrating the famous music club in Aylesbury.

Eurythmics played in Aylesbury in 1983 and was the first date of The Touch Tour, I have since moved to a village just a few miles away from Aylesbury, but I had never realised what a rich history of music Aylesbury had.

Friars in Aylesbury had over 93,000 members and today is still one of the biggest and certainly most historic music clubs in Europe.  Founded in 1969 and still going strong today, Friars became famous for its great atmosphere, the iconic bands, the cheap admission but more than anything was the enthusiastic audience for any artist that appeared.

Friars has been  recognised as being an important part in the careers of David Bowie, Genesis, The Jam, The Clash, and so many more.

The exhibition currently at the Buckinghamshire County Museum is worth a visit for any music lover, there are some great exhibits, Toyah’s outfits, Howard Jones synthesiser setup from the 1980’s, part of David Bowie’s ripped shirt, Mike Rutherford’s guitar and a guitar kit from Pink Floyd. There is also a huge collection of rare posters, photographs and memorabilia, and on the opening night, more memorabilia was being brought in by visitors. 

As I mentioned earlier, Eurythmics played just the one date but David Stopps the founder of Friars remembers the night with fond memories, he recalled that it was the first night of Eurythmics Touch tour but they had been booked before they had really broken into the mainstream market. David Stopps went on to spend a lot of time with Dave and Annie in the US as he was Howard Jones’s manager and Howard toured the US with Eurythmics. Sue Greensmith also added that there was a lot of excitement when Eurythmics played at Friars, as they had broken into mainstream and here they were playing at Frairs.

The exhibition is now open until 5th July at The Buckinghamshire County Museum in Aylesbury and admissions is just £4 and free for under 16’s. For full details, click here