When Mothers Club Came to Coventry

 

When Mothers Club Came to Coventry

by Pete Clemons

Mothers Club in Erdington was one of the first of its kind outside of London that really meant anything to the music fan. When it opened as the Carlton during 1963 its aim was 'to provide live music and regular dances for the burgeoning teenage population'. And that policy continued when it was renamed Mothers during 1968. Occasionally dances would move to places like the Town Hall in Birmingham. A Mothers themed night was added to the Lanchester Arts Festival of 1970.

King Crimson were supposed to have headlined the evening and, even during mid January 1970 within a fortnight or so of the event, they were still being advertised in the national music papers and local press. But instead, and at very short notice, they were replaced on the bill by Danny and the Heart-throbs. The rest of the bill was completed by Free, Yes, Mott the Hoople, Atomic Rooster.

For that downstairs main hall gig social secretary, Bob Jones, did a lot of hyping for Danny and his Heart-throbs in 'Lanch' bulletins with a backstory saying they had come over from the USA. And it seemed that many bought it. But in reality it turned out that several local bands combined to put together Danny and the Heart-throbs. And they lasted for just two gigs.

The idea for Danny and the Heart-throbs came from future Indian Summer bass player Malcolm Harker. He drafted in band mates Brian Whittle on sax and Paul Moreton from Ultra Sound. Completing the band were sax player Tim James, guitarist Steve Cottrel, Bob Jackson on keyboards and Paul Hooper on drums. Paul Morton took on lead vocals as Danny. There was also a great boogie woogie piano player and a brass section. To give the band an image Malc had them all dress in drape coats, bootlace ties and brothel creeper shoes.

The first gig was at the 'Lanch' in a top floor room, for a Freshers party, where, as a result of this gig, further live music was banned. The crowd were so enthusiastic jumping around to the rock n roll - which was pretty much a novel genre at the time - that they cracked the floor/ceiling so no bands were allowed to play upstairs after that. That aside, the band were invited back again because they had gone down so well. The second, and final gig, was as part of the main Lanchester Arts Festival and Danny and the Heart-throbs went down an absolute storm with a set made up of tunes like 'Rock Around the Clock', 'Heartbreak Hotel', 'At the Hop', 'Summertime Blues', 'Shakin All Over' and 'Lucille' to name a few.

The event was reviewed in a national music paper as follows: An odd sort of evening at Mothers, the Birmingham 'heavy' club, as Friday's contribution to the Lanchester Arts Festival.

No really popular groups, and last act of the evening, so presumably top of the bill, was a last minute addition, local group Danny and the Heart-throbs. Unheard of outside Birmingham, Danny and his boys do a rock 'n' roll set which is a send up of the whole scene, black leather greasy hair and all, although the music is a straight laying down the line of what rock is all about.

Free were on before Danny's mob and played a predictable set including the popular 'Woman'. The crowd loved them and gave them the accolade of being the only group of the evening to be asked to do an encore. Much better live than on record, Free had the audience on its feet with a mind blowing ear splitting set.

Yes, possibly one of the finest live acts in the country, seemed a little out of their depth and got something of a cool reception until they moved from their sweet music on to some more pounding material.

I asked Paul Hooper for his memories of the gig: We did it as a spoof joke but in fact, had we kept it together, there may well have been potential for real success as was proved a little later on by Showaddywaddy amongst others..but we didn't take it seriously. Because we'd done a gig shortly before upstairs in the Lanch, and bought the house down, I do recall Chris Welch giving us rave review in Melody Maker. Perhaps we should have stuck with it eh?

Bob Jackson agreed: We went down a storm. I was in drag along with Paul Hooper. So it was a wild night!! It was packed in there and I got pulled off the stage by my ankle onto the floor. I had a shift dress on but that was all. You've never seen anyone move so fast to get back on stage. It was a winning formula.

Thanks to Bob Jackson and Paul Hooper for their help with this article.

PS Pete Clemons adds "the Danny gig was at the point where Malc Harker got to join Indian Summer. Steve Cottrel was still guitarist and he left shortly after, making way for Colin Williams as lead guitar in Indian Summer.

Indian Summer above  Colin Williams, Malc Harker, Paul Hooper, Bob Jackson