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Birmingham Nightclubs of the Past - Memories

  • Thread starter Thread starter mazbeth
  • Start date Start date
Bren, sometimes I think I sound ancient as well. I remember going to lunchtime dances at the Casino in Corporation Street opposite Lewis's when I worked in town not long after leaving school. I think my mother thought it was a den of iniquity as she had told me I wasn't allowed to go - so I used to go with my friend:D
 
Dilly, Sorry, I don't remember a jazz club called the Swingshift. The Golden Eagle was in Hill Street - I don't know whether there was a jazz club there but I remember going to that pub and as I was into modern jazz at the time just thought that might have been why I went. Just wondered if anyone knew if other types of music were played there apart from Rhythm & Blues.

Judy
 
Hey Judy, I used to go to the Casino on Wednesday lunchtimes too. You paid threepence and they gave you a newspaper. There was a disc jockey who played mostly jazz records. 78s of course. Do you remember the 57 Club in Digbeth?
 
New Romantic Gal said:
Hi there Anyone remember Bonkers at the back of Central TV studio?? We used to see male strippers....everything off......and snakes wrapped round their shoulders and they gave sweets out.....

And Millionaires, Faces, Peppermint Place and Burberrys on Broad Street...those were the days...really they were........
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Hi ...ye I remember Bonkers...it was by Alpha tower ...well underneath it.....peppermint place...faces....millionaires.....loads of mirrors in there...I always fared well in millionaires....never left alone always pulled that was late 80s I used to go....do u remember the club up the side of the hippodrome...it wasnt there long ...and im talking from 82 ish to 1984 ish.....it was a small place quite intimate for a night club...and i just remember the walls being draped in these kind of elegantly hung white sheets.....ooooh what was the name of it ??

Karl x
 
Hi Dilly

I can't remember how much it was to get in at the Casino - you have a very good memory. I remember it was like a theatre inside with seats and tables on tiers and the dance floor was in front.

I don't remember the 57 Club in Digbeth. I think the only club I went to there was the Trad Jazz Club at the Midland Institute or was it the Digbeth Institute. It was always hot and sweaty but good fun.
 
This one will test your memory; Who remebers The Marmoset Club on Gt. Hampton St/Row. It was owned and run by Henry Bloomfield. Another one was The Surfside Stop on the corner of Summer Lane and Constitution Hill, just down a bit from Red Line Private Hire and the Club Cedar in the late 50s early 60s.
 
Travelled along the Hagley Road today (awful jams caused by roadworks!). The Rainbow Casino/Club is still there on the corner of Clarendon Road and Portland Road, just past the Strathallan. Poster outside advertising 'immediate membership' so I guess it's still open.
 
Re: Birmingham Nighclubs of the Past- Memories

SuBee said:
The Locarno was my fave..............

Dolca Vita - saw Shawaddywaddy there live

The Dome...............I was on the dance floor the night the press took the picture of the opening of The Dome (loved The Night out Too)

Bloomers

Barbarellas - loved all the different rooms with the genres of music

Top rank

Rainbow Suite

Ooooooooooooooh..............those were the days
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I also loved the Rainbow Suite which was above the Co-op and the Top Rank - walking in to the sound of Green Onions by Booker T. Rebeccas and Barbarellas were great, Rebeccas was a bit small though. The Rum Runner on Broad Street was popular although I never went there, the 'older generation' seemed to go there ! I met my first love at the Plaza, Handsworth and also saw The Kinks and Spencer Davis Group there too.
Yes...............those were the days.............
 
We went past the Dome yesterday it looks very sad and delapidated I wonder what will be done with it?
 
I used to go into town a lot in the 1960's and one of the clubs that I remember was the "key club". There was a barman there named Dudley who had a girlfriend named Hazel. I used to love the music my best, I loved listening to the Everly Brothers in this club until the early hours.

My mum would have killed me if she had known that I was going into the heart of brum, but I used to go anyway (thats kids for you, never do as they are told.)

Nice memories, I ended up marrying the man who used to take me there.
 
Hi Valerie

The Key Club that I remember was at the back and over the Sombrero Coffee Bar. I never went into the club, but spent many many hours in the coffee bar listening to the Everly Brothers, it was the first time I heard them singing - All I have to do is Dream. That song always reminds me of those days.

Judy
 
Hi Judy, Yes that would be the one. The love of the Everly's stayed with me up to the present day. I went to see them when they came to Birmingham about 2-3 years ago, they were still great.
 
I'm glad you enjoyed seeing the Everly Brothers a couple of years ago. I always like their early songs, but I saw them quite a few years ago at Cornwall Coliseum and I was very disappointed as they didn't sing any of the songs I remembered them for.

Judy
 
I remember the Sombrero Coffee Bar and the Everly Bros records, etc.
I believe that Greek Cypriots started the Sombrero. It was very different to anything we had in Brum in those days. Don't forget you can go to
www.youtube.com and listen to all the early Everly Brothers records.
 
used to be on "committee" at dolce vita, went out with waitress karin, bunny was doorman and mr spragg manager gret place
 
Hi Judy,

You're correct about a jazz club called the Swingshift, though I can't for the life of me remember its exact location. It would have opened up sometime in 1960 as I moved south shortly afterwards in January 1961.

In the late 1950s the band at the West End was Sonny Rose and the rest of us jazzers - Johnny Patrick, the late Colin Willetts, Mike Burney, Brian Finch (who loved to spell his surname as ffinch), Johnny Beck, Jim Barker, Pete Vicary and many others - regarded the Sonny Rose Band as rather toffee-nosed as they didn't join in the Saturday lunchtime jam sessions that took place upstairs in the Chapel Tavern in Great Charles Street.

For a time in the late 1950s we also had a midweek jazz session in a pub in the Cotteridge/Stirchley area, but for the moment the name excapes me.

One of the highlights of that era for me was the visits to the Golden Cross on a Sunday night by Ronnie Scott & Tubby Hayes & the Jazz Couriers. Marvellous stuff! :)
 
I remember seeing Tubby Hayes at the Mermaid on the Stratford Road. They used to have modern jazz sessions there on (I think) Monday nights.
 
Regarding the Sombrero and the Key Club. Both were run by "Joe the Greek" who was a Cypriot.
I too saw Tubby Hayes and the Jazz Couriers at the 57 Club in Digbeth - no one else seems to remember this. Named the 57 Club because it opened in 1957. It was around 1957/58 when I went to the Swingshift jazz club - upstairs in a pub. Of course I was under-age. I remember it was a very old pub on a corner and not far from the Midland Red bus depot.
Great reminsicing.
 
I still can't remember the name, Lloyd. If you took me there it might trigger the memory, but you would probably have to take me back to 1958.
 
Sospiri - It was Dilly who mentioned the Swingshift, not me. I have never been there as far as I know, but I may have been and not remembered the name!! See Dilly's recent post.

However, the Golden Cross is another matter, and I went there regularly, mostly a couple of nights a week. The jazz nights there were great, and I also went to the Cha Cha Club there, but can't remember which night it was on. It was called Studio 1. It was a great club wasn't it?

Judy
 
I wasn't much older Lloyd, but with high heels and some make-up, I could pass for 18.
No it wasn't the Bull's Head in Digbeth. It was around the back of New Street Station somewhere. There is probably not anyone old enough on this thread to remember it!!:explode:
 
Sorry Judy, age creeping up on me! :explode:

Yes, the Golden Cross was brilliant. Around about that time they'd started construction of Smallbrook Ringway and if you stood on the south side and looked down, there was a pub which also used to have jazz upstairs. We used the same room of a Sunday lunchtime for the rehearsal of a 6-piece. So many places that I can picture, but can't remember exact locations or names! It doesn't help that I was away from Brum for over 30 years!:010:
 
Sospiri, I've just found my old membership card for the Jazz Studio 1 (Modern) and The Americana which were both at the Golden Cross. The date is 1959.

Sorry I can't help with the club above the pub that you are trying to remember, but someone on the forum might. I left Brum in 1964.

Just out of curiosity, I have a 1961 membership card for Ronnie Scott's Club (Midland Section), but I can't remember where this was. I know it wasn't in Broad Street where the club is now (or was last time I was in Brum). Perhaps this was held at the Golden Cross as well. Do you know?

Judy
 
Hi Judy,

I haven't a clue what the Ronnie Scott Club (Midland Section) was in 1961, but the Ronnie Scott's Club (Birmingham Branch as they called it) didn't open until the autumn of 1991. Ronnie Scott and Pete King struck a deal with Alan Sartori and Barry Sherwin (who ran the Rep Cafe Bar) to operate a Ronnie Scott's as a franchise. However, it nearly didn't happen when Scott threatened to pull out because he didn't like the 1980s/90s style of the place, and quite a few changes had to be made. I've just checked these facts against John Fordham's book "Jazz Man: The Amazing Story of Ronnie Scott and his Club".

I'm sure it wouldn't have been anything to do with the Golden Cross as numerous different bands played this venue and you just paid on the door as I recollect - I think it was just a quid to get in.

Just checking the same book, the Jazz Couriers played their last gig in Cork on 30th August 1959 and Tubby formed his Big Band shortly afterwards. In the early 60s the Band was featured on BBC's Jazz 625 series, some of which were repeated on BBC4 two or three years ago. (There are a few numbers from this series currently on YouTube too). :explode:

Regards
 
forgot the name of one club,you gained access from Boots the chemist in new st {the big top} and went up in a lift i can remember one of the acts was the King Bees.A good account of the Whiskey a mate of mine introduced me to it the band on were The Grame Bond Organization Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce part of the line up.I think a guy called Chris was the dj used to play best sounds in Brum "Housewives choice" was a favourite of a guy who had come up from london.The west end would not play certain records cuz if you stamped your feet the floor bounced,this Whiskey reunion is a great idea.
 
The king Bees where regulars at The Whisky a go go, one of the band was called Lenny Cash, does anyone know of his whereabouts for our next reunion? CAN ANYONE HELP?? :023:



jag said:
forgot the name of one club,you gained access from Boots the chemist in new st {the big top} and went up in a lift i can remember one of the acts was the King Bees.A good account of the Whiskey a mate of mine introduced me to it the band on were The Grame Bond Organization Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce part of the line up.I think a guy called Chris was the dj used to play best sounds in Brum "Housewives choice" was a favourite of a guy who had come up from london.The west end would not play certain records cuz if you stamped your feet the floor bounced,this Whiskey reunion is a great idea.
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hi, someone posted on here stating many posts ago !!!

theres 4 clubs still with the same name today

snobs, the tower, the elbow room.

im stuck !!!!!
 
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