Among the other Birmingham venues to play house and techno music through the night was Tin Tins, which opened on Smallbrook Queensway in 1990, in a former Indian restaurant called The Pride of India.
Originally established to expand the range of gay nightlife in the city, Tin Tins attracted acts included two appearances by a then-unknown Take That. The DJ of the time remembers seeing the boy band stuffing socks down their cycling shorts when he went into their dressing room to tell them they they were due on stage in a few minutes.
The club gradually broadened its clientele and became an all-night dance club – including a weekly after-hours night called Hype – but closed in 1997 after a police drugs raid. The building was demolished in 1999 and the site is now occupied by Debenhams in the new Bullring shopping centre.
In 1992, with house music established as the mainstream club sound, the nights Wobble and C.R.E.A.M. were launched in the city. Soon after came the Marco Polo Bar, which opened its doors at 7am and gave the clubbers somewhere to continue partying after sunrise.
The idea of glamorous clubbing arrived in 1993 with Miss Moneypenny’s, a theme night in Bonds nightclub. In 2001, Miss Moneypenny’s left Bonds and held events at other clubs including Subway City and then found a new home in Liberty’s on the Hagley Road in 2002.
