New Street
A once beautiful cinema, now divided into eight screens. The Paramount Theatre opened on 4th September 1937 with Errol Flynn in “Charge of the Light Brigade”.
Tag: Venue
A venerated venue in Selly Oak, as Mike has written in, it needed its own page.
Hi – we need a page for the above as this was a major local venue. Rock Against Racism had regular slots there showcasing local punk and reggae bands. They also used to have great sound systems on plus there was always a really great atmosphere. There was a large room upstairs and the small cellar bar which was a great place.
Dangerous Girls played there a lot as did the Suburban Studs. Here & Now – now that was weird plus the Scent Organs (Duranies drummer was in them), Rudy & the Rationals also.
As ever, please help us build up a list of gigs at the venue, send in flyers, tickets, posters, photos and everything else!
Here is the poster from The Cravats and The Nightingales gig at Bournbrook.
Historic venue that was above the Communist Book shop in Essex Street in the city centre. Main Punk venue and featured in the BBC John Peel Arena show featuring a set by the Nightingales.
Brenda Burrell also sent this picture of the membership cards for the Star Club.
As always, we need your memories of this venue and gigs you saw there!
© Brenda Burrell 2010
The Cedar Club was located on Constitution Hill and is a fondly remembered place where visiting musician who were playing at the Odeon would swing by for impromptu jams. Jimi Hendrix dropped by one night and clambered on stage for a bit of a session!
Opened by Eddie Fewtrell, whose empire in Birmingham, became one of the greatest in club history, and one of the best of it’s kind in the country. Birmingham would definitely not be the place that it is today without Eddie Fewtrell, known as ‘King of Clubs’. From his first club, the Bermuda Club, in Navigation Street,
The Cedar Club, on the corner at the left of the picture
Eddie moved to pastures new, in the form of the Cedar Club, on Constitution Hill
Eddie’s brother Don managed the Cedar Club in Constitution Hill, which ran for 30 years and changed the face of nightlife in Birmingham for good.
The Cedar Club featured many top names, from The Faces, Rod Stewart, Status Quo, and 50’s and 60’s stars such as Duane Eddy and Cat Stevens.
The Cedar was also notable for having probably one of the first DJ’s in the city, by the name of Ted. He was an eccentric character, with a ‘posh’ voice.
One of the first resident bands was Carl Wayne And The Vikings who had just returned to Birmingham from Germany.
In the mid 1960s in Birmingham, the Cedar Club was the place to go and see the “happening” acts. Other local bands who performed there regularly was Danny King and The Mayfair Set and Mike Sheridan and The Nightriders. Various members from these three groups would sometimes get together
on stage for spontaneous jam sessions.
Davy Jones and The Lower Third from London were performing at The Cedar Club one evening late in 1965 and their singer (who would later change his name to David Bowie) mentioned to Trevor Burton from the Mayfair Set and Ace Kefford from The Vikings that they should consider forming their own group,so they did and promptly became The Move.
Compiled by Keith Law
Our aim to build a complete list of gigs at the Cedar Club. Here’s a start but we need your help!
The Toast 27/11/68
Gnidrolog 10 11/07/72
Hackensack 13/07/72
Tea and Symphony 17&18/07/72
Capability Brown 19/07/72
Terry Savage was a DJ at The Cedar Club and he sent this picture of himself, aged 18, dj-ing at the club.
John Peel live on Air from the Medicine Bar in 2001.
The Medicine Bar in Birmingham, England started as a collaboration in the 1990s between the London Medicine bar and local hip hop DJ ‘Simon Fat Head’, who began his career at the legendary ‘Brothers and Sisters’ at the ‘Coast to Coast’ club on Broad Street.
The bar is in the Custard Factory in Digbeth, and has hosted many techno, acid jazz, funk and hip hop events.
Substance (which evolved out of Amplified) is the longest running hip hop night in the bar, with DJs Roc1, Magoo, Chris Reid (also from Scratch in London) and MC Mad Flow. It has brought hip hop acts including Afrika Bambaata, De La Soul and Jeru the Damaja to Birmingham.
Leftfoot is the bar’s main funk and soul night which is part run by ex Rockers Hi-Fi DJ Dick and Adam Regan (who now owns the Bull’s Head bar in the birmingham suburb of Moseley). Leftfoot hosts many large acid Jazz type events with appearances from Gilles Peterson to Mr Scruff. Both nights feature live acts.
Other events to take place at the bar include breakdance and graffiti art shows.
For a short period in 2006/07, the Medicine Bar hosted the Birmingham leg of Club NME.
[info via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicine_Bar ]