Mothers Club, Erdington, Birmingham
‘Memories of Mothers’– by Alan White
Mothers Club was on the other side of Birmingham from where we lived so two or three times a week my friend Bob Sumner and I drove to Erdington, parked as close as we could and joined the inevitable queue which stretched along the dark narrow alleyway at the side of the club. The club was on the first floor above a furniture shop, with its entrance on the ground floor at the far end of the alleyway. An outdoor metal staircase ran from the alleyway up to a side door on the first floor (the emergency exit / stage door). It was often raining so we used to huddle together under a trail of umbrellas. Chatting to other fans we were often amazed at the long distances people had travelled to come to Mothers: Manchester, London and even Wales – distance was no object when you are going to one of the world’s best clubs!. Having our battered membership cards at the ready together with the cover charge we surged past the small ticket office and raced up the flight of stairs to enter heaven as we knew it.
As I recall at the top of the stairs the cloakroom area was on the right and main bar area on the left. The bar was a must to visit as soon as you got there otherwise you’d never get near it later on. I recall the barmaid was the most industrious I’ve ever met – she could take three orders at a time and never make a mistake. Wonderful Midlands beer and cheap scrumpy cider! Ahead of you was the main club room (auditorium) , walls adorned with old Mothers posters (now collectors’ items) and various old images from the days it was the Carlton Club ballroom. The area comprised seating bays at the back of the room with several rows of rickety chairs in front of the stage with an open area in the middle. The chairs weren’t removed for dancing (there are very little of that – dancing was scorned, the music was everything). The stage was all of 2ft high giving an intimate atmosphere. The back wall of the stage was adorned with a huge banner which just said ‘Mothers’. The DJ’s desk was to the left of the stage (where the resident DJ Erskine Thompson or regular Friday night guest BBC DJs John Peel or Pete Drummond spun their disks). To the right of the stage was the entrance to the back room (green room) where the artists hung out (being almost as large an area as the main auditorium) – with a table football machine adored by some notable famous names. With all the lights on it was clearly all a bit tatty (you could almost say a ‘homely atmosphere’) but with the lights down it was pure magic.
We saw many amazing bands there with some memorable times… Muddy Waters – I was so close I could have reached out and touched him, a frail Son House – who was a new discovery for me at the time, being intrigued by his name on the Mothers advert in the Birmingham Evening Mail, Tyrannosaurus Rex with Mark Bolan sitting cross legged on stage, seeing Stevie Winwood’s Traffic perform their first gig, Principal Edwards Magic Theatre’s riveting stage presence, the excitement of seeing Rory Gallaher and Taste, The Who with Keith Moon going crazy on the drums, Elton John playing on an old battered ‘upright’ piano borrowed from a local pub as there weren’t many grand pianos in Erdington (and you probably couldn’t get one into the club anyway).
Groundhogs were my favourite band and we were blessed to see them at Mothers several times. But on one occasion they were stuck in Europe and couldn’t get there, so Phil Myatt (the main man) made an announcement on stage, saying that he had phoned round and got some mates to fill in – welcoming to the stage Robert Plant, John Bonham and friends.
When you consider membership of Mothers Club was 2s 6d with admission from 4s – 15s and in a single month bands such as Canned Heat, Family, Chicken Shack, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Joe Cocker and Jethro Tull would perform it’s no wonder that Mothers was indeed ‘the home of good sounds’.
