Live: Borough Assembly Hall, Aylesbury

David Bowie performed at Friars Club in Aylesbury for the third and final time on 15 July 1972.

Bowie first played the venue on 25 September 1971, and kicked off the Ziggy Stardust Tour there on 29 January 1972.

This was the the 46th date, and the end of the first leg of the tour. Bowie had a month-long break before the tour resumed at London’s Rainbow Theatre on 19 and 20 August.

By this point in the tour, Bowie was a bona fide star in the UK, with ‘Starman’ rising up the singles chart and the music press keen to cover his every move. That week the Melody Maker told readers “A Star Is Born”, while the New Musical Express carried the news of the Rainbow Theatre shows.

Attending the show was Dennis Katz, who had signed Bowie to RCA in America. A Cadillac had been hired to take Bowie to the venue but, when it failed to show up, a pink Rolls-Royce was booked at a last minute replacement.

What made this unique, apart from a brilliant audience, was the fact that RCA had spent $25,000 to fly over a select group of American journalists to review the show. Defries had seen this as a perfect opportunity to create a media frenzy prior to our scheduled arrival in the US in September. That night we did an impromptu version of the Beatles’ ‘This Boy’. We’d only ever done this once before, in Liverpool as a nod to the Fab Four. From reports at the time the reviews were very favourable.

Bowie was mobbed as he attempted to leave the venue, and suffered a bleeding nose as he went to get into the Rolls-Royce. After the show he was taken to London’s Kings Cross Cinema where Iggy and the Stooges were performing.