The Legendary Mothers Club (Birmingham UK) Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Mothers club in Birmingham was opened in August 1968 by John 'Spud' Taylor and promoter Phil Myatt. Over the next three years pretty much every big name in British rock music was to play there. The Who played several times at Mothers including one set in 1969 where they played their first rock-opera in its entirety. What was the name of this rock-opera?

Answer: Tommy

"Tommy" by The Who was released in 1969 and tells the story of the trials and tribulations of Tommy, "the deaf, dumb and blind kid".
"Lifehouse" was meant to be a follow up project to "Tommy" but for a variety of reasons Pete Townsend never got round to finishing it although a number of the songs such as "Baba O'Reilly", "Behind Blue Eyes" and "Won't Get Fooled Again" did appear on the "Who's Next" album.
"Quadrophenia" The Who's second rock-opera was released in 1973.
"A Quick One While He's Away" is from The Who album "A Quick One"(1966) and also features on later versions of "The Who Live at Leeds". Pete Townsend describes it as a "mini-opera" and as "Tommy's parent".
The Who performed "Tommy" at Mothers in March 1969. Later in the same year they returned for another gig. After about an hour or so Keith Moon actually passed out and fell prostrate to the floor at the end of "Magic Bus". He was taken backstage where he had water thrown over him and after a short period of recovery he went back onstage to take his place behind the drums.

2. Mothers quickly established a great reputation for live music, helped in part by the influence of national radio DJ John Peel who appeared there many times and wasn't shy of promoting the venue on air. Live recordings made at Mothers club include versions of "Astronomy Domine" and "Saucerful of Secrets" released in 1969 on the "Ummagumma" album. Which band released this album?

Answer: Pink Floyd

"Ummagumma" was a Pink Floyd double album; one disc contained studio recordings while the other was a live album comprised of recordings at Mothers and Manchester College of Commerce. Members of Pink Floyd have declared that "Ummagumma" was purely a nonsense word which means nothing at all although others maintain that it is a euphemism for sexual activity.
"Ummagumma" peaked at number five in the UK album charts but was less well received in other countries with a 74th place high spot in the USA. However its total sales did eventually realise a platinum disc in America.
Family, Blodwyn Pig and Free all performed several times at Mothers.

3. A Birmingham quartet with first names of John, Tony, Bill and Terence played many of their early gigs at Mothers. Two of these band members were much better known by their nicknames and the band was destined to become world famous and usually credited with being the originators of heavy-metal music. Which band is this?

Answer: Black Sabbath

John 'Ozzy' Osborne, Tony Iommi, Bill Ward and Terence 'Geezer' Butler were better known as the original line-up of Black Sabbath. The band played several of their early gigs (they were Wednesday night regulars) at the club so I guess if Black Sabbath were the fathers of heavy metal then you don't have to look far to find the Mothers.
In the late 'sixties Birmingham's economy was still heavily reliant on metal-bashing industries and the heavy sound of local bands like Black Sabbath struck a chord (or several) with the Birmingham crowds.
The Moody Blues, Savoy Brown and The Groundhogs all played gigs at Mothers.

4. Three bands who played regularly at Mothers were King Crimson, The Nice and Atomic Rooster. The bassist from King Crimson, the keyboard player from The Nice and the drummer from Atomic Rooster would later form which classically inspired prog-rock band?

Answer: ELP

Drummer Carl Palmer was a local boy from Handsworth and knew many of the local musicians, (Greg lake and Keith Emerson were from Dorset and Yorkshire respectively). Together they would form an incredibly successful trio with albums such as "Pictures at an Exhibition" and "Brain Salad Surgery".
ELO were formed after Mothers had closed but Jeff Lynn and Bev Bevan played there in various bands and were also regulars in the audience.
Yes played Mothers several times as did The Incredible String Band

5. One of the main aims of Mothers was to give opportunities to up and coming artists and bands. Some of these never made it, some gained national success and a few went on to achieve world domination. A recently formed band that first performed at Mothers in March 1969 certainly fell into the last category. The band was comprised of a drummer and vocalist from local group The Band of Joy, a bassist best known as a session artist and a guitarist from The Yardbirds. Who were these guys?

Answer: Led Zeppelin

Robert Plant and John Bonham had both appeared in various local 'Brumbeat' bands, most notably together in The Band of Joy. John Paul Jones has played bass on hundreds of recordings, so many that even he couldn't remember doing all of them and Jimmy Page had been guitarist with The Yardbirds.
They had just completed a tour of Scandinavia when they played Mothers for the first time performing tracks from their recently released debut album. Later that same year Led Zeppelin II was released and the rest is history.
Deep Purple, Jethro Tull and Tyrannosaurus Rex (later T Rex) were amongst the many great acts to perform at Mothers before they hit the real big time.

6. The legacy of Mothers lives on to this day and although most of the memories are happy and positive there were inevitably some sad times. One band were on their way home from a successful gig at Mothers in 1969 when their van was involved in an horrific motorway crash. The band's drummer, Martin Lamble, was killed as was guitarist Richard Thompson's girlfriend, Jeannie Franklyn. Which band was involved in this tragedy?

Answer: Fairport Convention

Fairport Convention were at the forefront of the English folk-rock scene although their playlist at the time of the accident would have been an eclectic set of straight rock, traditional folk numbers and self-penned songs with covers of Dylan songs, (one sung in French) etc thrown in for good measure.
They were due to play at the Newport Folk Festival later in the year but, not surprisingly, they had to cancel that appearance. In fact the band very nearly broke up as, besides the deaths, everybody in the van received injuries some of them serious.
Eventually however they regrouped, recruited some new members, including Sandy Denny, and went on to produce their seminal "Liege and Lief" album. It is one of my all-time favourite albums but I rarely listen to it without thinking that such a great piece of work was born out of such tragedy.

7. One night that passed into Mothers folklore was the day after the tragic death of Jimi Hendrix. The crowd were downbeat and local heroes The Edgar Broughton Band were playing at Mothers. What did they ask the crowd to do at the end of the gig?

Answer: Leave the club while the band were still playing

Edgar Broughton's mix of anti-establishment values and crunching guitar work had a resonance with Hells Angels and other motor cycle gangs. The idea of them leaving the place quietly and orderly shows how much respect Jimi Hendrix was afforded by music fans.
Here is account by Eddie Blower who was there at the time,

"The club was packed and there were a lot of Hell's Angels in - there always were when Edgar played. The band always looked real rough and ready, very loud and very raunchy with their frizzy hair and bullet guitar belts. The atmosphere was really down that night because we had all just learned that Jimi Hendrix had died. Edgar asked for two minutes silence and at the end of the gig Edgar asked everyone to leave while the music was playing. It was really moving, seeing everyone leave the club while the band were still onstage playing."

I should add that Edgar Broughton's gigs invariably finished with their anthemic "Out Demons Out!" which was usually the cue for the crowd to go mental.

8. It would be fair to say that the majority of acts performing at Mothers were British artists but there were a fair number of bands from across the Atlantic who also played there. These included Steppenwolf, Chicago, Love, Santana, The Mothers of Invention and Skid Row. One band who were "Going Up The Country" to Mothers before heading out "On The Road Again" liked the place so much they put a mention of it on one of their album's sleeve notes. Which band was this?

Answer: Canned Heat

Canned Heat played at Mothers a few times and made reference to the club on the liner notes of their 1969 album "Canned Heat Cookbook".
Spirit, It's A Beautiful Day and Country Joe and The Fish all trod the boards at Mothers at one time or another. Apparently the Spirit gig in January 1970 was pretty memorable; I can quite believe it, I saw them a couple of years later and Randy California was amazing if a little, shall we say, eccentric.

9. The penultimate gig at Mothers in January 1971 featured a young man just breaking through into the big time. He was destined to become one of the best known artists in music; I wonder if he'd have become so big if he'd kept his birth name of Reginald Kenneth Dwight? No doubt he sang a song for you that night, who was he?

Answer: Elton John

Elton John had just began his extraordinary successful career when Mothers was forced to close its doors. "Your Song" was just about to be released as a UK single and was destined to become Elton's first big hit, reaching number seven in the singles charts.
One of Elton John's early musical ventures was in the Bluesology band who provided backing for Long John Baldry; the same Long John Baldry who also gave a certain Rod Stewart an early musical career break. Rod later appeared at Mothers as a member of The Faces in June 1970.
Mothers closed its doors on January 3rd 1971 as Taylor and Myatt could not arrange a further leasing arrangement with the landlords. They tried to set up in other premises but the magic was lost; it proved impossible to recreate that special atmosphere anywhere else.

10. Mothers, the 'sixties club which had a small but significant part to play in rock history, could be found in which of these Birmingham locations?

Answer: Above a furniture shop in a suburban high street

Mothers first opened its doors to the public in August 1968. The premises (previously the home of The Carlton Ballroom) were situated above a furniture store in Erdington High Street, some five miles or so from the city centre.
The much missed influential DJ John Peel was quoted as saying, "...I sometimes get mail from younger people who live in Erdington who are amazed to hear that for a few years, the best club in Britain - and it was, because I went to most of them - was right here in Birmingham".
There were plenty of clubs built in around the (then) newly developed Bull Ring complex but most like The Dolce Vita and The Mayfair were designed with the dinner dance/cabaret clientele in mind and eschewed by rock fans although The Mayfair did occasionally put rock/blues acts on - I remember seeing a double bill of Rory Gallagher and Canned Heat; they seemed somewhat incongruous in those surroundings but still a good night.
The area around Broad Street has long been the home for various night clubs; in the 'sixties there was The Opposite Lock and the (in)famous Rum Runner where strange things could happen inside the enormous barrels which were provided for seating. The Rum Runner should always be applauded however for continuing to provide live music throughout the 'seventies when most venues had long given in to the disco boom. A policy which was later to present a residency to a little known local band called Duran Duran, not sure what became of them...

Source: Author mutchisman

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor kyleisalive before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Mothers was voted the best live rock venue in the world in the late 'sixties by the American Billboard magazine. Just the mention of its name will have Brummie rock fans of a certain age go all misty-eyed with nostalgia. Oh yes, we all loved our Mothers!

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