Tin Tin's

Between 1990 and 1997, Tin Tin's was a legendary all night dance club formerly located opposite Birmingham New Street Station at 308 Smallbrook Queensway in Birmingham on the site where Debenhams now stands as part of the new Bullring Shopping Centre. It's importance in the history of Birmingham clubbing should not be underestimated. Like Manchester's 'Hacienda' it was a ground breaking, pioneering and influential club in the Birmingham dance scene and was the predecessor of many now well established clubs.

Tin Tin's opened its doors as a gay club in the Spring of 1990 and was successful in the early months as a gay club (the only other gay club in the city at the time was 'The Nightingale') - even securing PA's from the pre-famous Take That! After around 18 months, as with most clubs, people started to drift away and it was at around this time that the club changed hands. The new owner, Richard, made the most of the club having one of the only all night licenses in the city and after a few months of ownership 'Hype' started. This saw Tin Tins slowly move away from its prominence as a 100% gay club and more toward a very mixed, eclectic crowd of completely attitude free clubbers where the emphasis was the atmosphere and the tunes.

Hype was the night that made Tin Tin's such an unforgetable place for all who went to it. Originally, the Tin Tins club would close at 2am to then re-open as Hype from 2am to 6am. After a short time, the club simply remained open right through from 10pm to ultimately 9am with no break. The night and the club had a unique feel and was a ground breaker in terms of the complete lack of prejudice it had. Black, white, gay or straight - all that mattered in Tin Tin's was the music and the Tin Tin's family could dance all night to tunes that where being played in very few other clubs in the country at that time. Uplifting house upstairs and harder house in the downstairs room where the famous and sadly missed DJ Tony De Vit played in the early days before moving on to his residency at Trade in London

Its legendary status amongst those of us that were priveledged enough to have experienced the phenomenon, was guaranteed when it was abruptly shut down following a Police raid in January 1997. Sadly a clubber had died outside the club the previous weekend and this gave the Police good cause to tear the place apart. It was rumoured that a significant quantity of 'E' was found in the clubs safe and there was no coming back for a club that changed the face of clubbing in Birmingham and certainly left an unfillable void in many clubbers lives when it closed.

Tin Tin's could never be replicated though people have tried to capture its magic over the years. The club provided a unique mix of the tired and tatty two floor venue which worked perfectly as Tin Tins, (originally an Indian restaurant which had very little spent on it to turn it in to a club), the diverse group of people that went there, some ground breaking tunes, some very good dance enhancers and just being 'of its time' all contributed to make this club a legend to all who went to it.