• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team
  • HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
    Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
    im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
    we are now using a backup solution

Birmingham Nightclubs of the Past - Memories

Gary Owen

YES PATTY
You was very right alot of us publicans used the gary
which was our place , and only certain publicans used it
after hours ;
incidently there was nothink wrong with the gary ,good bands ,
good music , good food good conversation ,
keeping us all in touch with one and other [publicans ] i mean also
just want to mention that brendan joyce is part of my family ,
a very close member of the family indeed .
it got a bad reputation ,only by the silly old press bulling up statements
about the place ,and dramaising the place
have a nice day everybody , best wishes astonian ,
 
Garry Owen

The downfall of the Garry Owen is easy to explainn. At one time Small Heath was a mainly Irish community. Along with lots of other people they used the club.

Now Small Heath is a mainly Muslim community and their religion forbids the drinking of alcohol. So the clubs local customer base has disappeared. Combine this with the changes to the licensing laws and the distance from the main night club scene in town, and what do you have? A recipe for dropping sales.

This in turn leads to less attention being paid to admissions and thus in the end the wrong type of customer being admitted. This of course leads to trouble and closure.

I have to say in all the times that I used the club I never saw any sort of trouble, and even though I do not use clubs anymore would like to see it re-open.

Cheers,

pmc1947
 
That's the one, Mossy did you know any of the Daltons? Robert, Paul and Philip that went there.
 
Ronnie Scotts Broad St was one of my favourite places for the time it was open,i know it was expensive,but the goups and singers they put on were the best around thats only my opinion

I know Birmingham City Council lent them money......i wonder if they got it back......i dont thik so

Is it a lap dancing club now? so much for B C C
 
Patty it was a long time ago cant remember some of the names my mates name on the door was Joey Spence
 
This could be on wrong thread The Bull Coventry Rd groups used to play in The Hereford Lounge i saw The Herd paly there fonted by Peter Frampton,dont know for sure if their name derived from the pub, top brum band Idle Race used to play their as well
:rolleyes:
 
Boundry Club

Yes
I Remember That One So Named Since It Was On The Border Of Olton And Acocks Green ???? Down By The 44 Bus Shelter And Clocking In Terminus . Happy Hours From Memory M & B Beers On The Way To The Golden Arrow Or On The Way Back Home Used To Live In The Flats In Woodcock Lane Opp The Dolphin On Warwick Road.
John
 
gary owen

hi there pmnc
what planet are you on ,what year are you talking about
it was nothink to do with the commutiny of the area ,nor the changing
of the emediate area it was an muslin area donkey years before
brendan openend up ,he enployed afew asian door men .and bouncers in side
i would really like to know what you think you know about the licening laws
because unless you was an expublican ,or licencee, you won,t know half .
joe public think they know the licence laws ,but believe me when you go
before the licing officierand thecourts you would learn a thing or to believe me ,nothink to do with the new licenceing laws ,nor the muslims
it was an political thing to do with the police ,and brendan ,
incidentle the door crew of the night clubs was taken over from the daltons
by a firm whom worked for me ,al .stevens crew
happy clubbing , astonian ,
 
Garry Owen

Hello Astonian,

I know very little about the licensing laws and politics. I was in fact refering to the relaxation of the hours pubs were allowed to stay open. When this happened it made it difficult for lots of the clubs I used to use. especially of an afternoon.

Cheers,

pmc1947
 
When the Garry Owen was named The Brum Cavern it had nothing to do with gansters and publicans, it was purely for Mods.
There was no trouble there because it was self governed by the punters themselves. I will admit that a little bit of drug dealing went on in the toilet area, but most times the "SO CALLED " drugs were nothing more than Aspros obtained from the vending machine.
Pubs and clubs are no longer run by illiterate thugs who are backed up by Neandetral bouncers who are all brawn and no brains.
IF it was done by the police sorting out the riff raff, I say "good on 'em.
Citizens of this great City should be allowed to walk the streets at any time and NOT be too intimidated to visit a pub or club of their choice.
The days of the publican who could "BAR " somebody just because he didn't like their face or colour are well and truly over, and quite rightly so.
 
Yes
I Remember That One So Named Since It Was On The Border Of Olton And Acocks Green ???? Down By The 44 Bus Shelter And Clocking In Terminus . Happy Hours From Memory M & B Beers On The Way To The Golden Arrow Or On The Way Back Home Used To Live In The Flats In Woodcock Lane Opp The Dolphin On Warwick Road.
John

haaa the memorys of the boundry club spent many a night in there
but due to the good ale they are still abit hazy:)

did used to drink in the golden arrow as it was just down the road from wher i worked in the laundry oppisite the boundry club.
used to live up by the bowling ally. it's realy stirred som fond memorys from that era of my life. many thanks johnedward.
 
Does anyone remember the Moat House in Moat Lane? I used to go there in the early 60's. Great atmosphere and always buzzing. Judy
 
i think the club by bingle hall was called Barbarella's

do you remember the oppisite lock club by the canal ?
 
clubs of b,ham

hi there postie ,
whom told you that about publicans ,
barring people because of the dis liked to there faces , or colour, ? .
the publican had a moral duty to up hold the law ,just like a policeman .
to protect the members of th public from intimerdation from drunks,
and toe rags junkies and prositution and of course the under age bridgade
teen agers no fighting not to serve police officiers on duty nor even the
vicar on sundays , also i would like to say ,and people do not relize
that when you walk into a public house , or an night club
you are entering the publicans home , so you must show respect
to him , and is family and furnititure and fitting ,
if a person is known to the gather as an drug dealer, what ever greed he or she may be , which makes no differents in this world
you only want a good cliental in your premises ,or other wise the decent people do not want to come in
if you get any fight in your pub you get your cards markrd by the police
so when the gathers licence comes up for renewal , you don,t get the licence we are in the bussines to create entertainment for familys and people to enjoy life and we invest alot of money in our bussines,s
so we don,t won,t our houses wrecked by some rif raff coming in
and abusing our places ,
we have within the b,ham city a selected members of under cover
magistrates whom visit the licence premises at every given time
24 , seven , to see if any under arm dealing are going on ,
when you get the licence for such bussiness , you only get once
in your life , its not like a driving licence, you loose it
and get it back in a couple of years it don,t work like that
so i can only imagine where you get that idea from of gathers taking that
attitune from regarding don,t like your face or colour
you must have got it from the movies ,
astonian ,
 
Hi Peanut,

I'm afraid the Boundry Club has now gone, its a Greek Restaurant, So has the Golden Arrow, it a block of flats (sorry apartments), and even the laundry where you worked its now a factory estate.

Cheers,

pmc1947 (Phil).
 
I remember the Moat House Judy. Used to be full of what we called 'Townies'. Hmmm...wonder why we called 'em 'Townies'?
Maybe they were the elite of Birmingham. Must have been, if we went there :) :D !
 
Yes, I did consider myself a 'Townie' in those days - part of the 'Town Crowd', that always frequented the city centre clubs etc. Of course we were the 'elite' Charlie!! Always considered ourselves very suave didn't we? I used to go on to the Moat House sometimes after the Tudor Club in the Locarno. I know a lot of Aston Villa and Birmingham City footballers used to frequent the Moat House.
 
Judy, our paths must have crossed at some time as I went to all those places, we would start off at the Alambra for a drink then move on to the clubs.
 
Small world isn't it Patty? I guess a lot of us on this forum probably went to the same places and knew each other, if only by sight! I don't remember the Alambra but it is possible I went there. They were great days! I mostly remember the Sombrero, Kardomah (both New Street and Colmore Row), Locarno, Bermuda, Moathouse, but there were lots of other little clubs and coffee bars in the town centre that we used to go to, apart from the odd pub here and there!!!
 
Le Metro

I went to the Metro Folk club where the tables were lit with candles in wine bottles and the condensation ran down the bare brick walls. Ian Campbell (father of the UB40 Campbell bros) and his sister, Lorna, used to play there regularly, along with the Black Country Three and Martin McCarty.

I don't recall the Metro's folk era, but I do remember Soul on a Sunday and (my first love) Blues on a Thursday. I saw Robert Plant (pre-Led Zep) singing with Chicken Shack, Peter Green's 'original' Fleetwood Mac and many more. Great atmosphere, easy parking near the GPO tower and, well, Birmingham just seemed safer in those far off days.
icon6.gif
 
Metro Sunday

Yes Graham...Sunday night was Soul night at The Metro such a good atmosphere as you say.Unfortunately no-one I knew had a car in those days so we had to make do with the 55 Bus !! Ah well it was worth it :)
 
1973 clubs

loved the contributions and the reminiscing, don't think anyone mentioned the castaways or a club called the Factory (very hippyish) off broad street close to the rumrunner. Anyone remember the name of the downstairs club located by Edmund street ?
 
Hi, I think your refering to the one in Newhall St which was Top Cat then it became Pollyannas or vice versa.
To respond to postied and astonion, you are both right in what you say and at the same time both wrong. As a present licensee I think I'm qualified to comment, as a licensee I have the right to refuse to serve anyone and to withold the reason for doing so. No one except customs and excise has the right to come into my pub without my say so.
Yes it is my home and I expect it to be treated the same as most people would treat their own home and if I dont like the look of you then I dont have to have you in my home and there aint no law in the land that says otherwise!
The Gary Owen, I frequented this place from about '78-83 ish, I worked as a radio operator at the time and it was where most drivers went to wind down and have something to eat after we finished at 2 am. I loved it, little old shack, fantastic steaks and steak sarnies, have a dance if you wanted to and the atmosphere was brilliant. I can honestly say I never saw any trouble in all that time and yes it was mostly Irish folk in there. On the door yes a couple of heavies, a black guy and a couple of white guys but when they said no they meant it and you didnt argue. Then it closed down and had a refit and, IMO the Gary Owen was lost to a new generation. Door staff were the most rudest arrogant bunch of thugs you could wish to meet, often causing more trouble than they were worth. And these were the all new licensed crowd! It was one of my daughters friends birthdays and she wanted to go to the Gary so we all went along with her, I was 56 and my daughter was 36 and her friends all around that age at the time. We're standing in the queue waiting to go in and a big black man with attitude came up to me and my daughter and said I'll be watching you two tonight your always causing trouble!!!!!!! excuse me aint been in the place for about 6 years but he was having none of it. His whole demeanure was aggresive in the end we told him to shove it and took our custom elsewhere. Since its rebirth I have been down on several times and watched the doormen absolutely lay into men and women for no reason. Its a shame, it got too big for its own good!
Back to the clubs, although not in town I'm amazed no-one has mentioned the Aero nr Birmingham Airport, now that was a club have some great memories from there. Couldn't understand why it closed it was always busy and it didn't have to worry about noise levels as it had no residential neighbors.
 
Michael's uncle was the manager of the Garry Owen for many years in the 50's and 60's. He told me about why it chaged so but I can't post it as it would no be politically correct.:rolleyes:
 
Two other low down dives I used to frequent in my callow youth if I was just looking for a drink were. The Golden Gloves on the corner of Moseley Rd and Stratford Place Highgate, its only redeeming feature was it did the biggest T bone Steak you could get anywhere.

The second was The Gaylord’s in Miles St just off Sandy Lane., Camp Hill. No redeeming features for this place other than it was somewhere to go for a drink after the pubs closed.

Cheers,

pmc1947
 
Back
Top