The Clubs And Bands Of Birmingham. Share Your Memories With Us Here

Mothers High Street Erdington.
Voted by America's Billboard Magazine The Best Rock Venue in the World
Posted by SB Sat 18th February 2012
Mothers was situated above what is now Walmsley's furniture store, High Street Erdington, opposite St. Barnabas Church


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.

Before Mothers was Mothers, it was the Carlton club
One of the bands to play there was The Idle Race Some past members were, Dave Prichard, Greg Masters, Billy king, Roger Spencer, Mike Sheridan, Roy Wood, Johnny Mann, Jeff Lyne, Mike Hopkins and Dave Walker and Steve Gibbons
This is a picture of three Brum superstars.
Dave Pritchard (lef)t and Steve Gibbons (right) Both of The Idle Race Oh and me in the middle

One great night at Mothers was when The Who performed their Rock opera (TOMMY) this was live all the way through. This was also two weeks before it's official London and World premier.
It was an incredible hot night as summer evenings tended to be at Mothers. They played Magic Bus which lasted for 32 minutes. Kieth Moon collapsed at the end of this piece and fell backwards off his drumstool. The roadies and a couple of us carried him off stage and took him through the double doors to the backstage room. He had something clear and wet poured over his face from a spirit bottle, I think probably it was Vodka'
Then he sat up and said he was going back on. One of the band, I can't remember who asked us to sit on his legs so he couldn't get up. After a while we let him up after he had, had a rest. He went on to finish a fantastic set. We were some of the first people in the world to hear this work Live or Recorded.

hi SB some cracking posts by you about mothers...im afraid that i cant add much to it as i was never a big night clubber..well not on a regular basis but the ones i can recall going to are barbarellas..the rum runner..snoopys..the hole in wall rings a bell..top rank ?? oh and what was the name of the one by edgebaston resevoir...sure my memory is getting worse..lol