Author Topic: The Castaways Club  (Read 47812 times)

Anne W

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Re: The Castaways Club
« Reply #77 on: December 26, 2014, 08:10:40 PM »
I worked at The Castaways 1971 and met my first husband when he came to reception to renew an insurance policy John Reed had taken out. We originally wore black hot pants with a white top then went on to wearing Hawaiian girls outfits. A tie round top and a wraparound mini skirt held together by Velcro. I worked on the top floor, reception and the first floor which was the disco area. I also sat halfway up the stairs to greet customers, it was here that the owner made a proposition which I declined, he was about 30 years older than me. Early in the evening they used to send us in to city centre in our 'outfits' to hand out flyers encouraging people to come in later. Mom would've gone mad. if she'd seen me. Still have my membership card and lots of happy memories. Cally, what was your Mom's name and would she have been there in 1971? There was a lovely lady who ran the place then! Anne

Callyfitz

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Re: The Castaways Club
« Reply #78 on: December 28, 2014, 10:09:17 AM »
Hi Ann
Many thanks for,your reply:  lovely to know there are people out there willing to help me. I'm not sure if mum would still have been there....I think she may have just been.  Her name is Anne Faulkner and us the 3 girls (her daughters) used to come and play in the venue during the day - I'm the youngest so don't remeber it as much as my elder sisters, but I can still vaguely remeber it.  There isn't a week that goes by without mum mentioning the Castaways.  She loved it so much.  She then went on to The Nightout but it was too big a club for her and didn't have the family feel she loved.


Do you have any pictures at all?  Would you be able to send a picture over of your membership
Card?  I'm trying to find anything to put in an album for her.


Hope,you have had a good Christmas
Kind regards
Caroline
P.s.
Absolutely no idea why I said Ron Rogers as I know is name was John Reeve.....perhaps I had a 'blonde' moment lol!

Anne W

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Re: The Castaways Club
« Reply #79 on: December 30, 2014, 03:05:21 PM »
Hi Caroline, I have sent you a PM. I will find out that membership card and send you a copy. I don't recognise your Mom's name but she is about the right age. The lady I remember was quite slim with blonde hair, does that fit? Anne

brumboyo

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Re: The Castaways Club
« Reply #80 on: March 09, 2015, 12:46:11 PM »
Anyone go to see P.J.Proby at any of the Brum nightclubs in the 60's,70's or even 80's? If so what were your opinions. I've heard he was sometimes brilliant & sometimes & little OTT with his alcohol! LOL!
  I remember in the 1970's going to The Castaways one lunch hour to see a strip tease show. I was with some of my work-mates from John Hanks The Printers. Our building was the old Birds Custard place in Deritend.
     

Phil

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Re: The Castaways Club
« Reply #81 on: March 09, 2015, 01:18:05 PM »
Hi brumboyo


Welcome to you, I remember seeing P J Proby whilst in Bristol so that must have been sometime in 65 and I remember seeing him at the Birmingham Town Hall some 12 months or so later. He was brilliant of course on both occasions.
Phil died in 2020. RIP.

brumboyo

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Re: The Castaways Club
« Reply #82 on: March 09, 2015, 03:46:06 PM »
I regard Elvis as The King. No doubt. Two great singers I saw in Brum were Gene Pitney & Roy Orbison. Tom Jones & Engelbert very good also. The one singer who should also be up there with those 5 is Texan P.J.Proby. Seems to me that he's never got the respect he so deserves. Ever since he split his trousers a couple of times onstage in early 1965 & Mary Whitehouse wanted him deported is when all went wrong for him. He now lives in Pershore,Worcs & still makes recordings & tours. Wish he was called a Legend! On the 25th March he'll be the special guest of Van Morrison's at the Royal Albert Hall. I thank V.M for showing Proby some respect.So many acts got their breaks because of P.J. .....The Walker Bros.,Tom Jones & Led Zeppelin to name just a few. I wish some of them would do as Van Morrison is doing!
  I also wish that Birmingham would organise a Proby show at a top venue. I'd be back over to my city straight away.
     I like the way Brum looks nowadays but I still prefer the 60's version. And of course back then 99% of the people around were proper "Brummies". Those numbers are slowly declining. Not many Brummie accents to hear now. Plenty of "foreign" chatting! LOL!  ;D

vamann

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Re: The Castaways Club
« Reply #83 on: March 10, 2015, 07:03:55 PM »
Hi brumboyo


Welcome to you, I remember seeing P J Proby whilst in Bristol so that must have been sometime in 65 and I remember seeing him at the Birmingham Town Hall some 12 months or so later. He was brilliant of course on both occasions.
Booked to see PJ in a club in Prudhoe  late seventies, but had to leave ( babysitters) before he eventually arrived.  Next time was in a pub in Blackpool (Landsdown) late eighties.  PJ was sitting on a stool drinking Carlsburg special, kept falling off and the audience had to shout out the words as he kept forgetting.  Saw him a few a few times more in the sixties revival shows and my Wife thought he was great.

brumboyo

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Re: The Castaways Club
« Reply #84 on: March 10, 2015, 07:36:58 PM »
I saw him at The Lansdowne Hotel,Blackpool a couple of times in about 1992. He did great shows & poorish shows depending on his intake of booze. That all changed in 1993 when he finally gave up drinking alcohol & 22 years later he's still booze free & singing brilliantly. At 76 he's not even thinking about retiring & I don't blame him.
   When will he get the recognition he truly deserves? Tom Jones copied him back in 1965 & he's now a multi-millionaire & a huge star. P.J. cannot understand why he isn't in the same category now as Tom.Us Proby fans don't get it either. Show-biz is not always fair!

townie

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Re: The Castaways Club
« Reply #85 on: March 11, 2015, 12:24:13 PM »
Didn't the castaways become a strip club? Probably got that wrong as I do much everything else I post on here.
Was it a vision, or a waking dream?

LORZ

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Re: The Castaways Club
« Reply #86 on: September 14, 2015, 05:50:39 AM »
I worked as a barmaid at the Castaways I remember a slim blonde lady  who ran the place, it was on three floors a disco with a juke box and a bar downstairs, a side bar and the main area where the stage was, and it would have been around 1971-1974 sometime around then.

brumboyo

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Re: The Castaways Club
« Reply #87 on: September 14, 2015, 08:38:10 AM »
Yes it did become a strip club. In the mid 1970's I worked at John Hanks the printers in the building that used to be the Birds Custard Factory. All of us guys went to the Castaways one lunch-time to watch a great strip tease show.


 

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