RE: OPEN ALL HOURS - 93

Evening all, I had a very nostalgic visit this morning, I went with my wife Jo to High Street Erdington, to the re-opening of Walmsley's furniture shop. Why because upstairs was where MOTHERS CLUB used to be. Mothers was previously known as the Carlton Club for some of our mature readers.
The object of the occassion was to get a blue plaque to be put on the wall.
It changed to MOTHERS in 1968. Mothers was like no other club. There was very little furniture, two very cheap bars (Scrumpy Cider 1/6d pint). The walls and ceiling were painted very dark and it used to be packed to capacity.
What made Mothers so special was the atmosphere, it was incredible friendly/genuine people who just wanted to see the best Rock/Blues/ Folk bands in the world at the cheapest price possible. My night out at Mothers cost 10/- entrance fee and with my bus fare to get there and a couple of Ciders I could just do it for under a pound. That was with walking home from Erdington to Sheldon of course. Sometimes we had a lift home from local bands after we helped the roadies with the equipment.
It was also known as the hottest place in the world, it was very hot in there especially in the summer, it was quite common to see girls pass out with the heat and they had to be passed overhead to the fire escape to be cooled down and brought round.
The bands we saw were what went on to be the biggest in the world, some still going forty years on. The first three bands I saw there was Deep Purple, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin.
Others many will not have heard of.
The Who performed their masterpiece Tommy for us. We saw it Live in it's entirety Two weeks before it's London debut.
Pink Floyd recorded part of their Ummagumma double album live there, some of it was recorded at a Manchester College.
Billboard magazine in America possibly the worlds biggest Music publication voted Mothers "The Worlds Best Rock Venue" now considering there were thousands of them, that was some accolade. Mothers slogan was "The Home of Good Sounds". It was also full of really nice people. You could walk into Mothers any time it was open and just start chatting to anyone. If you did that nowadays you would probably end up battered.
I have to say I saw and heard many ghosts today and recalled just some of the best memories. In it's heyday Mothers boasted 36000 members so you can imagine it was very full.
The re-opening was performed by Steve Gibbons who at 71 years of age is still playing great gigs with his band. Dave Pritchard was also there with other members of The Idle Race a Brummie Band from the sixties.
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I think it would be a good idea to have a Birmingham Music thread, considering Brums Club history, countless bands and artists there was no way it could be exhausted.
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It was a pleasure to see Frothy and his wife who came to have a look, unfortunately I didn't get much time for a chat hopefully I will next time.

So it was a club then?

Phil

GERROFF

right so after reading all that SB i can take it you rated mothers then seriously though so glad you had a trip down memory lane today..the club certainly did a lot for the upcoming bands of the day...did they get the blue plaque????and whats this about froth and cath being there...a meet without me ???

nice post SB any piccies...