Author Topic: Small Heath  (Read 262204 times)

Telstar

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Re: Small Heath
« Reply #44 on: March 08, 2009, 09:26:02 PM »
The Jigsaw Club in Alum Rock was another late one, with Paddy on the door, the guitar player on stage singing Pretty Woman .... Don't walk away .... please stay .... and we all went back for more .... Mercy! .....

Telstar .....
The truth always prevails.....

Phil

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Re: Small Heath
« Reply #45 on: March 08, 2009, 09:44:18 PM »
bernie

The Talk of the Town, that would be the one on Stratford Rd by Walford Rd. No I never got in there. If I was around there I always went into my mate Paul's the Beverley Hotel it wasn't a club just a drinker but he never threw you out until you wanted to go.

I called him a mate, some mate. He conned everybody the banks finance companies he re-mortgaged all his properties got improvements loans and grants he even got a grands worth of reclaimed materials from us. In all he raised about a million pounds or more and disappeared back to India.

You know I don't begrudge him a penny, good luck to him for getting away with it with some of those blood suckers he conned.

Phil
Phil died in 2020. RIP.

Jerry

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Re: Small Heath
« Reply #46 on: March 08, 2009, 09:46:34 PM »
Hi Phil
I never used any of those other places you mentioned but when you say "bottom end clubs" I gotta say in them days they were the only end clubs in Brum, there weren't any better class clubs that I knew of.
I used to get around London and Manchester a lot in them days and the night life really put brum to shame

Jerry
Always make sure you've got a comfortable bed and a comfortable pair of shoes because you're gonna spend most of your time in one or the other

Jerry

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Re: Small Heath
« Reply #47 on: March 08, 2009, 09:54:52 PM »
I went in the Talk of The Town regular, after a few drinks I thought it was brilliant 8)

We used to play roulette and blackjack and the bouncer was Seamus Donlevy, a professional heavyweight wrestler and a perfect gentleman. He never got nasty with the punters, if someone was playing up or too slow to leave at closing time he'd come up behind them, wrap his giant arms around them, lift them off the floor and carry them out, then he'd place them back gently on their feet like you would a toddler. Most of them got the message ;)
Always make sure you've got a comfortable bed and a comfortable pair of shoes because you're gonna spend most of your time in one or the other

Phil

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Re: Small Heath
« Reply #48 on: March 08, 2009, 10:10:12 PM »
Jerry

As you say there were no really good clubs in Birmingham, but there were some that were a cut above the ones that have been mentioned. There again I have been in clubs in other cities that could have been put to shame by the worst of Brum's roughest.

I would have thought you would have remembered the Gaylords in the old church building in Miles St Small Heath.

berniew

I think the worst club in Birmingham was the Press Club, I think it was in Watt Street in the City off Dale End. I only ever went in there once and that was enough.

Phil
Phil died in 2020. RIP.

berniew

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Re: Small Heath
« Reply #49 on: March 09, 2009, 09:39:44 PM »
Hi Jerry and Phil the few times i ended up in the Talk of The Town were afternoons when for one reason or another we had finished or not gone to work and had a day on the lash , it may well have been different nighttime but i remember it being really rough . I do remember Gaylords vaguely it looked like an old chapel or scout hut by the Plume in Miles Street i think i went there a couple of times but i don't remember it being open for that long ,I don't remember too much about it so I suppose it wasn't either good or bad but you could get a drink Bernie

Jerry

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Re: Small Heath
« Reply #50 on: March 09, 2009, 09:55:55 PM »
Hi Phil I don't remember Gaylords but talking to some people who do they say that, at least when it first opened, white people weren't welcome, it was a West indian type of club. I mostly used the clubs on the Digbeth/ Sparkbrook run because they suited us with a view to getting home at closing.

Bernie, you reckon the Talk of The Town wasn't too great or too bad but you could get a drink there. Sounds a bit like The Blues to me :D
Always make sure you've got a comfortable bed and a comfortable pair of shoes because you're gonna spend most of your time in one or the other

Phil

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Re: Small Heath
« Reply #51 on: March 09, 2009, 10:18:06 PM »
Hi Jerry

I don't remember the Gaylords being exclusively West Indian, but there again I used to love shebeens, I know that word is Irish but all the ones I went to in Balsall Heath and Sparkbrook were run by West Indians.

One of the best clubs I used in Bristol was the Bamboo Club in St Pauls. I think me and my mate were the only two white chaps that ever went in there. It was great drinking white rum and listening to reggae and the blues.

Phil
Phil died in 2020. RIP.

Jerry

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Re: Small Heath
« Reply #52 on: March 09, 2009, 10:26:25 PM »
Know what you mean Phil, I used to love going to "blues parties" in the 60s. which were usually held in private houses. curried beef and rice and Guinness at 2/6d a bottle.
Though we were always the minority we were always made welcome and I never felt threatened at any time. Different folks, different times ;)
Always make sure you've got a comfortable bed and a comfortable pair of shoes because you're gonna spend most of your time in one or the other

berniew

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Re: Small Heath
« Reply #53 on: March 09, 2009, 11:27:03 PM »
Hi Jerry you right about the Blues I have spent many an afternoon there  I would rather have spent in the Talk of the Town , but I still go now and then , still live in hope . My memory is not very good but I don't remember Gaylords being a West Indian place , there was a club later on the cov called the Porsh Club but that was later , or i am talking about the wrong place. The place i remember as Gaylords was in Miles Street off regents park road   Bernie

Phil

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Re: Small Heath
« Reply #54 on: March 10, 2009, 10:45:30 AM »
berniew

You are right on all counts the Gaylords was in Miles St and that ran from Bordesley Park Rd to Sandy Lane.

The Porsche Club was I think frequented by mainly West Indians and as this didn't open until after I was married I never used it. At the time I used to drink in the Old gate on the Coventry Rd and if I remember correctly the Porsche club was around the back in Chapman or Regents Park rd.

I also frequented the Blues, but I never watched a match there I used to use the club under the stands at night. I dated a barmaid from there for a few weeks.

Phil
Phil died in 2020. RIP.


 

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