Dirty Stop Out's Guide to 1970s Birmingham - collector's edition. Last few copies left!

 We’re down to the final few copies of the collector's edition of the 'Dirty Stop Out's Guide to 1970s Birmingham'.

·        Your own personal time machine back to 1970s Birmingham – includes venues like the Barbarella’s, Rum Runner, Mothers, Rebecca’s, the Barrel Organ, the Crown, Opposite Lock, the Tow Rope and many more.

·        Re-connect with your youth via scores of rare and unseen photos; hundreds of memories and eye-catching memorabilia.

·        Book researched for over a year – totally unique content, limited edition cover, exclusive interviews and many photos published for the very first time

·        Features the bands, the venues, the fans and people like you who were in the thick of the action. Who knows – you might even be in here!

More about the book: 

From Barbarella’s to Black Sabbath – ‘70s Birmingham unmasked like never before.

With industrial unrest on an unprecedented scale and the city enduring one of the worst IRA atrocities on mainland Britain, cultural life in ‘70s Birmingham could have taken a very dark turn.

But exactly the opposite happened. The city went on to produce some of the biggest names in popular music history and venues like Barbarella’s and Rebecca’s – owned and operated by ‘King of Clubs’ Eddie Fewtrell - dominated the night scene for the majority of the era.

The decade is chronicled like never before in the brand new ‘Dirty Stop Out’s Guide to 1970s Birmingham’ book which has been researched and written by local brothers Jim and Ron Simpson who have been at the very heart of the city’s music scene since the late 1960s.

Duran Duran, UB40, Dexys Midnight Runners and many more found initial success in the 1970s and feature in the story.

The book’s co-author Jim Simpson is arguably more qualified than most to write about the decade – he helped create success for one of the city’s biggest cultural exports of the era, Black Sabbath.

He was their first manager and took them to the top of the charts. He also managed other successful bands, found, toured and recorded American blues musicians and ran Henry's Blueshouse and the Big Bear record label.

The ‘Dirty Stop Out’s Guide to 1970s Birmingham’ – which is full of rare photos and memories from luminaires spanning Jasper Carrott to Tony Iommi – features venues like the legendary Mothers, once described by John Peel as the best club in the world.

See the authors chatting about the book here:

* We also give a donation to Dementia UK for every product sold to help support the charity's amazing work across the country.

What our readers say - here's a selection of some of our recent reviews: 

5 stars not enough – I’d give 10!

“Would give 10 stars if I could - I couldn’t stop smiling, bought back so many memories of all the different fashions and bands. The books are fantastic and I love all the photos of Birmingham during those fabulous years. Brilliant books, highly recommend, didn’t want them to end!”

Fantastic Trip Down Memory Lane

“Brilliant book and fantastic collection of photos. Keep going back to it again and again. Thanks so much for bringing my much-missed youth back to life.” 🙏🌷

Those were the days

“I loved this book! I adored the pictures of my old haunts. Very informative, it filled in gaps that I was too young to appreciate at the time. Those were the days. What a brilliant time we had, feel very privileged to have seen so many good bands locally so its good to see it in print. Even a picture of the pub where I worked a few evenings after the Saturday job in town!”

Takes me back

“What a fantastic book – it took me right back to Birmingham in the 1970s, the pubs and eateries – the fashions, music and nightclubs and discos we all used to go to.
Just the right combination of pictures and words – and the fact that it uses the memories of real people is brilliant. It’s well put together with fantastic themes running through the whole book.
I can thoroughly recommend ‘The Dirty Stop Outs’ Guide to 1970s Birmingham’ – it’s packed full of memories.”

Great book full of memories of my Birmingham