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Mother's Club Carlton Club Ballroom Erdington

Vivienne14 said:
More established bands seem to be appearing in 1968 and so prices increased. The Carlton line-ups were starting to look like those of Mothers in later 1969
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In the mid sixties, of course, The Carlton was very much a Mod hangout. Best we got then was The Spencer Davis Group. Stevie Winwood, a brilliant musician even at 16, was adored by mods. I think there was a pub called the Navigation somewhere in Erdington where mods used to get pissed before heading to the Carlton. I love this thread!
 
Fabulous thread, thank you Viv! I was too young by a few years to go to Mothers, but have seen Jethero Tull a few times and Fairport Convention and Richard Thompson many times. Sadly it was driving back from performing at Mothers on 12 May 1969, that Fairport had their terrible accident. The Fairport gig at the Carlton would have had Judy Dyble, soon to be replaced by Sandy Denny. Mothers has a blue plaque, I think and some famous recordings were made there. What a great music scene Birmingham had.
 
Stokkie said:
Fabulous thread, thank you Viv! I was too young by a few years to go to Mothers, but have seen Jethero Tull a few times and Fairport Convention and Richard Thompson many times. Sadly it was driving back from performing at Mothers on 12 May 1969, that Fairport had their terrible accident. The Fairport gig at the Carlton would have had Judy Dyble, soon to be replaced by Sandy Denny. Mothers has a blue plaque, I think and some famous recordings were made there. What a great music scene Birmingham had.
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Yes, very sad about Fairport Convention, I had actually seen them at Mothers that night and was quite shocked to hear about the accident afterwards :pensive:
 
jennyann said:
Hi Jude:

The dance hall above Hilton's the furniture shop next but one to the Milk Bar in the High Street and opposite St. Barnabas Church(Erdington Parish)was called the Carlton Ballroom. I went there a lot and have loads of memories of the place.
The Carlton Ballroom eventually became "Mothers" the very famous club that hosted many of the famous bands. There is a book written about "Mother's" and the history of how those famous bands came to play there.

I know there were bands that played at the "Queen's Head" Six Ways Erdington, a place that was demolished just weeks ago after standing in
an awful state for years.

Here's the Wikipedia description of "Mothers" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothers

Blows you away when you think all these bands played there. When it was the Carlton Ballroom it just had a DJ....no room for a band.
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Remember Mothers very well went there a few times back in the day
 
Vivienne14 said:
A scoop for Mothers in 1969.

View attachment 191917
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Source: British Newspaper Archive
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I was there that night too, the place was very full, I think mainly as people and musicians in local bands who knew Robert Plant and John Bonham were keen to see what the band was like - they were more the draw than the other two!

I remember the Way of Life very well, my friend and I saw them quite often in the pubs/clubs around Birmingham and we became friendly with them.
 
Vivienne14 said:
RIP John Mayell

View attachment 193413
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Yes indeed, I know he was 90 but it was still sad to hear he had just passed away :(
I believe he was still working until fairly recently.

I saw his band a couple of times at Mothers, I don't think it was that night, I'm sure he played there a number of times.

As an aside, I see the Monopoly were supporting him then, that was Raymond Froggatt's band, he is also not with us anymore, RIP to both of them.
 
We were all still at school Lyn when we went there, but in the VI form (and responsible .... mmm, well maybe not !). A club that my parents would absolutely have disapproved of, but of course I never told them. It was not very clean, without a proper stage and selling very potent cider. If you sat on the floor (normal) you'd stick to the carpet. But it really was the best place to hear decent music at the time.

We have John Mayell and Clapton to thank for so much in moving music forward in the 60s/70s.
 
Vivienne14 said:
We were all still at school Lyn when we went there, but in the VI form (and responsible .... mmm, well maybe not !). A club that my parents would absolutely have disapproved of, but of course I never told them. It was not very clean, without a proper stage and selling very potent cider. If you sat on the floor (normal) you'd stick to the carpet. But it really was the best place to hear decent music at the time.

We have John Mayell and Clapton to thank for so much in moving music forward in the 60s/70s.
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same here viv...mom and dad would never have allowed me in the club but glad you managed to sneak in lol

lyn
 
Wow, just found this thread. I've still got my membership card for Mother's and, wait for it, John Mayall and Mick Taylors autographs.
Anybody remember Canned Heat performing their first ever British gig?
Pink Floyd recorded a side of their Umma Gumma there.
Long live live music.
 
Did Clark Hutchinson ever play there, or anywhere else in Brum???

Just listened to "Retribution" on YouTube.

It's still really great!
 
Speedy23 said:
Did Clark Hutchinson ever play there, or anywhere else in Brum???

Just listened to "Retribution" on YouTube.

It's still really great!
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I don't remember that name at all!
It looks as though they did though, found this on the Internet...

1: The Mooche
2: Quatermass
3: Clark-Hutchinson

uk-fff1611.png
Mothers, Birmingham, UK, 27 Dec 1969
 
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