New website celebrates history before Friars

The painstaking research project, which coincides with Friar’s boss David Stopps publishing a manifesto on how to bring the town back to its music best, is the result of work by Stephen Daglish.

Retired Mr Daglish’s career trajectory reflects his love of music; he ran Earth Records in Aylesbury for Friars boss David Stopps, and later managed royalties and contracts from the EMI and Columbia record labels.

And with the website he says that he has loved getting his teeth into the project as an ‘enthusiastic amateur researcher’.

He said: “The process has largely been going into the Centre For Buckinghamshire Studies and using the local newspapers to try and work these things through. I must admit that I was not there, and an awful lot of people were, so the next stage of the project is to try to speak with as many people as possible, and record their memories.”

He added: “We want to find out about all the local bands and artists, because they weren’t always represented in the local press at the time. For example, Lol Coxhill was a huegely influential jazz player, but he only really got a passing mention in the papers.”

The website, www.aylesburymusictown.co.uk, is live now, and is a work in progress.

Mr Daglish added: “There are some real tales and personalities that have come out of it so far, I’ve fallen a little bit in love with some of the characters that I’ve learned about, and hope that people will get in touch and help to add that extra human dimension to the site.”

To find out more about how you can get involved, and share your memories for the project, email [email protected]