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Mother's Club Carlton Club Ballroom Erdington

Was peacocks then dale forty top class furniture shop bottom floor shop top floor warehouse next door gardners milk bar which was one of the meeting Places for the youngsters then next door Burton's tailors above was the snooker hall later run by Chad Coton bookmaker had 4 betting shops in Erdington sold out to ladbrokes
Across the road class pub in Erdington at that time the Acorn with small dance hall at back popular because Friday night dances bar on till midnight in these days pubs shut at ten thirty


Top class guvnor jerry Keegan ran a tight pub big palm tree in the middle of the lounge an if jerry thought you looked a scruff it was the various or in his words have a walk down to the roebuck !

Ron, as a new member you may not be aware that as a rule we do not use text speak on the forum.would you like to message me, thanks.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
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Thank you I have re read my message but sorry cannot see any text speak on that message will you kindly point out where the text soe ak is ? Thank uou


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Ron, there is no way I would, under any other circumstance,discuss this on open forum but as you do not accept messages I have no choice.

You will not see the Text speak because you will see that I have edited it out of a few of your posts as well as correcting the spelling.
eg, b4 -before u- you

I took the liberty of changing Chads name his surname was Coton.

I wouldn't usually edit a members spelling but I think you are going so fast on the Ipad that you are pressing the wrong keys possibly the one next to the one you want and the words are sometimes
not even understandable.
e.g. in your post about football matches League Cup was Keague Kip
and Matches was nvtches.

Your posts are enjoyable and informative but often difficult to read so if you would read them back before you post it would help.

As I say , would rather have discussed it privately, regards Alberta.
 
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Ron, if you have any comments about the editing of posts please contact me or another Moderator by private message.

As I said in post 36 these things are not usually discussed on open forum
 
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Hello, I remember Mothers as you call it in the 6os. I took my Membership exam there to qualify to teach dancing.
The adjudicator and I had words, he said there was an amount of turn on a step in the Tango and I insisted there
was not!!! He passed me as Highly Commended anyway. Just remembered we danced in competitions there as well.
Now wondering, which came first??
Betty Hopper
 
Hi Betty: The Carlton Club came before Mother's. Mother's was opened in 1968. I used to go dancing at the Carlton Club.
 
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Mothers of Erdington - YouTubewww.youtube.com/watch?v=re8vhAwrCDk Cached
:peach:Documentary about The legendary Mothers Rock Club inBirmingham, ... 12:42 Birmingham City Centre, Birmingham, England, UK ... This is a good watch about Mother Club. :peach:

 
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I went to Mother's on a few occasions, remember sitting on the floor head banging. In 1970 I used to sell hot dogs outside (they were those awful boiled ones with boiled onions Yuck!). The chap I worked for used to ask me to eat one, as the punters came out, and look as if I was really enjoying it. Blame him for my high cholesterol. Those were the days!
 
Hello jennyann,
Thanks for that. Can you remember who ran the Carlton Club.
It was certainly a very nice ballroom and good to know it was used by so many famous bands.#
I wonder where the name came from?????
Not exactly musical and yet it survived all these years and still remembered with great affection.
Betty Hopper
 
Hi Betty. Assumed Mother's was chosen as its name because it came from 'Mothers of Invention' or the phrase 'Necessity is the mother of invention' I.e. the venue above the shops was necessary to overcome the obstacle of setting up a place playing decent, innovative music, not your regular pop etc. Don't know if this is correct, but I'd always assumed this. Also, at the time, the backing band for Frank Zappa were called the Mothers of Invention, so maybe it was seen as a radical/trendy move to name it Mothers. Agree with you, it'd be good to know the real reason for the name. Viv.
 
I had private lessons at the Carlton Club when I first started competition dancing, the instructor (can't remember his name, Betty) used to make me use the least possible strides I could to get from one end of the ballroom to the other (and me at five foot nothing). However it put me in good stead as I now have a 6ft something husband and partner and do we enjoy striding out in the waltz and quickstep. Not so good for sequence dancing however!
 
Argument in pub last night, as to whether "Pink Floyd" recorded "Umagumma" at Mother's or not. Anyone Know, for sure?
 
I liked Ummagumma, but apparently band members weren't entirely sure about it in later years. Whatever you feel about it, it was certainly experimental and Mother's must have seemed like the perfect place to record it in terms of alternative, progressive rock. Now I'm going to whisper this: was it all a bit pretentious? To be honest I remember being a bit sniffy about other music venues because they weren't like Mothers. I love all kinds of music, but as a teenager, I think I went through a phase of music snobbery at this time. For those few years Mothers was the only club to be. Your music intake could be topped up with bands appearing at the Town Hall, Odeon New St etc. But as far as clubs went, Mother's was THE place. Today this attitude seems ridiculous, but that's what it seemed like to me at the time. Viv.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ummagumma
 
The Birmingham City Council is advertising the Kevin Duffy book about Mother's on their website price £7.95
https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/cs/Sa...092730776&pagename=BCC/Common/Wrapper/Wrapper

An observation (and call me cynical if you like) but 45 years ago I suspect the promotion of that sort of venue would have been frowned upon. I expect it was regarded as a radical, lefty, drug-taking hippy place !! But today all's changed; Blue Plaque, a place in history, respectable .... what is the world coming to? Ha, ha!! Viv.
 
I agree with you Vivienne, some of the so called 'progressive' rock got very pretentious.

As to your comment about musical snobbery - I understand exactly what you are saying! It doesn't sound ridiculous and I think it still goes on today.
 
Hi A Sparks. Think the snobbery (or maybe even thinking you knew better!) was all part of the revolution in music from the 50s, through the 60s etc. I know my parents were horrified at the music I liked at the time. They were also horrified that I went to Mothers. But that probably made it all the more essential to go there! The music was new, and a far cry from the music of the older generation. But it comes full circle in time. I now listen to anything, including the crooners of my parents' era. I still sometimes think back and ask myself, now .. Captain Beefhart ... mmm... what was that all about? (But they did give an amazing stage performance, thoroughly enjoyable at the time, but doubt it would work today). Viv.
 
There's always been elements of snobbery and rebellion in popular music. Each generation tries its best to despise the antiquated or bland pap of its parents while aggrandizing the innovative and progressive stuff that comes new to it. Of course, when the new generation gets past 30 or so they start telling the next generation how cheap and trivial its likes are. And if you haven't noticed how bad the 60s/70s fans can get with their own kind of snobbery try BBC4 on a Friday night.
 
Hello Katie,
Regards your lessons at the Carlton Club The teacher could have been either Eric Rowlands or Keith Haines.
Most intriqued as to why you had to stride down the length of the Ballroom?
Unless of course, it was to increase the length of your stride.
Also can someone please tell me what is a Blue Plaque?
Betty Hopper
 
Sorry cannot agree about the snobbery comment, I think its a matter of choice and possibly influenced by what our peers were into. I am in my eighties and loved the music of the 50's/60's, Dave Clerk 5, Inkspots , the Beatles, Freddy and the Dreamers, vocals by the likes of Frankie Laine, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennet, Eartha Kitt, and loved the French singer Edith Piaf, as the style of music changed in the 70's and onward I started to listen to classical music and am now am almost addicted to it, I spend hours listening to classic FM on my DAB radio. Although I do not like modern POP, I equally did not like the music of my parents time but accept that different age groups have different choices in music, and other things. Its a continually changing world and we have to accept that. Eric
 
Thanks for the link jennyan,
Just had a browse, Decided My education was sadly lacking!!!!! Would you believe I didn't go to any of those Clubs????
Although, I did go to the opening night at The Locarno with the Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Alderman Boughton which
was a bit posh. { My only claim to fame????? }
Betty Hopper
 
cookie273uk said:
Sorry cannot agree about the snobbery comment, I think its a matter of choice and possibly influenced by what our peers were into. I am in my eighties and loved the music of the 50's/60's, Dave Clerk 5, Inkspots , the Beatles, Freddy and the Dreamers, vocals by the likes of Frankie Laine, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennet, Eartha Kitt, and loved the French singer Edith Piaf, as the style of music changed in the 70's and onward I started to listen to classical music and am now am almost addicted to it, I spend hours listening to classic FM on my DAB radio. Although I do not like modern POP, I equally did not like the music of my parents time but accept that different age groups have different choices in music, and other things. Its a continually changing world and we have to accept that. Eric
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I admit I was being a little sarcastic but the thing is not about enjoying what you like but in believing that it is so much better than anything else because you like it and, conversely, that others are so much less because they don't like what you do and like what they do. I think I managed to escape a lot of this simply because I never really had friends that believed in the music and a lot of the stuff I liked came from places that were never popular. I haven't kept up with modern pop for the last 5-10 years and find what I do hear a bit too thin but I think of that as me showing signs of age rather than anything terribly significant. I fail badly with classical music because I find things with words easier to remember and too much of it either has no words or words in a language I don't understand as much as I should. Like everyone, there's music that I do and don't like but that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with either it or me.
 
I have to admit that I also visited very few of those clubs that were indicated, as most of them were after the 60's even Mothers. Like most good married men I gave up nightclubs with the close of the 60's.
 
It was Keith Haines, Betty, and yes it was to increase the length of my stride.
Blue plaques have become a bit common denoting someone famous has lived in any particular property but I feel they are being a bit abused as how famous does one have to be to have this acknowledgement bestowed on them when they have passed on. Can't see why the Mothers Club falls into this category.
I am sure if you Google Blue Plaque it will explain what they are far better than I can.
Katie
 
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