In September, we were delighted to bump into Martin Bache outside Moor Pool Hall. Martin grew up at 43 Moor Pool Avenue but now lives in Canada and was in the area for a nostalgic visit. Our Hall Manager, Barbara, got chatting to him and discovered a fascinating connection between Moor Pool Hall and one of Birmingham’s legendary rock bands. We asked Martin to share his story:
“Growing up on the Moor Pool Estate during the 1950’s and 60’s, my parents attended St John’s church and I joined, firstly the Boys Brigade and then as a teenager, the Young Peoples Fellowship (YPF). As probably with any group of teenage girls and boys at the time, we felt that we needed a little more adventure and excitement than could be found in weekly YPF meetings at the church hall, so we asked the group coordinator if we could arrange a dance.
The elderly church vicar at the time, Mr Leatham, was not the most progressive of clergy and he told our group coordinator that to hold such a function on church property was utterly unacceptable. Not being encouraged by this response, a sizeable group of us decided to leave the YPF and form our own social/sports club called the Woodbourne Sports Club. (I’ve often wondered if the YPF survived that mass departure.)
On the sports side, we quickly formed both cricket and football teams and competed in local Birmingham leagues. On the social side, we arranged to rent a room for club get-togethers every Saturday night at the “Toc H” club house on Wentworth Road directly across from the top of Wentworth Gate. (That building and it’s adjacent garages were removed years ago for a group of new houses.)
We very soon decided to arrange the much anticipated dance and a social committee was struck to find both a venue and a live group. They soon settled on Moor Pool Hall for the venue. I have no recollection of how much we paid for the hall but I remember clearly that the committee were allowed £10 to hire a group. There was much consternation when the committee announced, on the eve of the dance, that they were unable to find a group for that budget but had found what they said would be a terrific group for £15. We had to arrange a quick “whip-around” to raise an extra £5.
I’m not exactly sure when this event was held but I suspect I was about 16 at the time which would make it around 1964.
Prior to the dance, I volunteered to help the group unload their audio equipment from the van and move it inside the hall. By that age I had never been to London and was amazed at the conversation between the group members while moving their equipment, which was entirely focused on the London music scene and how they planned to break into it. To me at that age going to London would be like going to Mars and how on earth could a group of young Brummies not much older than me hope to succeed there?
Well, the dance was a huge success thanks largely to the incredible music we were treated to from this group calling themselves The Moody Blues. It took quite some time after this, as the group became world famous, for it to sink in how incredibly fortunate we had been to hire The Moody Blues for the exorbitant amount of £15.”
Moor Pool Hall
37 The Circle, Harborne,
Birmingham, B17 9DY
Registered Charity Number: 1148252
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