The Richard Spooner Column: Blue notes at the Tower�
Those of us of a certain age will remember the Tower Ballroom fondly. Clinging to the edge of Edgbaston Reservoir, it was one of the favourite nightspots of the West Midlands that flourished in the days of big bands and the music revolution sparked by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
It 's sad to hear that it is now set to be demolished while controversy persists over what use the site should be put to.
It first opened as an ice rink in 1827 before converting into many people 's favourite Birmingham niterie.
I 'm grateful to Jim Simpson, the Birmingham Jazz Festival supremo, for recalling those heady days when from about 1963 his band, The Blueshounds, had a weekly Sunday night residency.
He says it was a “terrific gig, great audiences, a lot of dancing, nice backstage area - and that revolving bandstand ”. Now I recall that the bar also revolved but that may have been more to do with an intake of too many attitude adjusters.
But Jim remembers the revolving bandstand well, especially when the popular Chris Barber band headlined with the Blueshounds supporting
Jim recalls: “In all honesty, we didn 't feel that the band was the coolest, though they did boast some fine players, and when they played on over the time allocated for their set, there we were, waiting on the reverse, hidden side of the bandstand for them to finish.
“We had held down that residency for more than a year, so we knew how the revolving bandstand was operated, and thinking what a fine jape it would be to revolve the bandstand with the Barber Band left playing to a black wall while The Blueshounds were left playing to a visibly amused audience.
“The venue manager however, didn 't find it terribly funny, and, saying that it wasn 't the first time we had transgressed, sacked us on the spot. ”
What I particularly remember of our Tower Ballroom days was the quality of the musicians in The Blueshounds. I have always had a policy of hiring musicians who were better than me - it seemed foolish to do otherwise. Still does. ”
The ballroom has been down this path before. A 'Last Dance' event was held in December, 2005, to commemorate it. However, following a successful campaign to save the building, Birmingham City Council refused to change the use of land, and the planned demolition was not carried out. The building reopened in 2008 as just 'the Tower'. But the venue closed in 2017.
The city council has said that the land is "much-needed" for family housing and added that any future development would be sustainable and respect the nearby nature reserve.
There is a view that the site should be used for a new community facility. In fact, feelings have become so strong that a vigil was held to protest against the housing plans and promote the idea of a community centre.
Watch this space�