Tin Tins

This article is about the dance club. For the Belgian comics character, see The Adventures of Tintin. For the band, see The Ting Tings.

Tin Tins was an all-night dance club formerly located opposite Birmingham New Street station at 308 Small Brook Queensway in Birmingham, roughly on the site where the Debenhams store is located as part of the new Bullring Shopping Centre. It was an influential club in the Birmingham dance scene and was the predecessor of, and influence for, many now well-established clubs. It closed in 1997.

Culture

Tin Tins opened its doors as a gay club in the Spring of 1990, the brainchild of Brian Wigley and Martin Healey, who were also the owners of the drag cabaret bar Partners (now Glamorous). Tin Tins was successful in the early years as a gay club, particularly with a younger clientele, under the management of Stan Cherrington and Richard O'Donnell. The only other gay club in the city at the time was 'The Nightingale', which was more popular with an older, predominantly male customer base.

During its formative years, the venue staged appearances from music acts including Lonnie Gordon, Hazell Dean, Sharon Redd, the pre-famous pop group Take That, and several celebrity personalities, including "The Freak" from Prisoner Cell Block H and Lily Savage. The venue also hosted DJ Funky Dunc, a member of the Hi-NRG scene.

The early management departed to open M&M's, a nearby gay bar, and the Tin Tin's club then went on to further establish itself under its new team of Richard O'Donnell, David "Lotty" Nash and Phil Oldershaw who some years later went on to enjoy similar success with the "new" Nightingale Club.

The club owners then sold up to O'Donnell, who made the commercial decision to capitalize on the club having one of the only all night licenses in the city and launched an after hours club night called 'Hype'. This saw Tin Tins move away from its prominence as a 100% gay club and allowed 'straight' clubbers entrance provided they were attitude free. This approach meant that the majority of the gay crowd stayed on, making Tin Tins unusual as mixed gay/straight clubs were not commonplace in the early nineties.

Music

Uplifting house music was played upstairs and harder house in the new Hi-NRG style in the downstairs room where the DJ Tony De Vit played in the early days before moving on to his residency at Trade nightclub at Turnmills in London. Long-term Resident DJ Paul Andrews and DJs such as Simon Baker and Dave Simmons helped to shape the music policy of the club and in turn affected the scene as a whole.

Initially, the Tin Tins club would close at 2:00 am to then re-open as Hype from 2 to 6 am or sometimes 8 am. After a short time, the club simply remained open right through from 10 pm to ultimately 9 am with no break. The night and the club had a unique feel for its complete lack of prejudice. Black, white, gay or straight – all that mattered in Tin Tins was the music and the Tin Tins 'family' would dance all night to tunes that were being played in few other clubs in the country at that time.

Closure

The venue was demolished as part of the Bull Ring development.