The Castaways, Birmingham, UK (restaurant) - Locating Tiki

A atomictonytiki Tiki Socialite Spain Joined: May 14, 2002 Posts: 1322	A atomictonytiki Posted posted on Sun, Sep 13, 2009 2:13 PM Name:The Castaways Type:restaurant Street:Bradford Street City:Birmingham State: Zip:5 country:UK Phone:021 622 2421 Status:defunct Description: A defunct theatre restaurant and night club, which aside from hosting many top entertainers, in the rooms upstairs the cast of Crossroads held their rehearsals. I've quoted a fantastic post by basilh which gives some great information on this almost unknown Britiki venue. On 2009-03-10 10:44, basilh wrote: OK Zeta, firstly many thanks to you for the comments. Now secondly, the pictures were taken at the "Castaways" Night Club in Birmingham United Kingdom. This picture of the Castaways main room was taken from the stage end, and if you can imagine, the balconies extending to the side of the stage and at the end of the balconies 2 LARGE 40 foot palm trees with the bottoms on the back of the stage extension. Well :- One evening whilst Mat was singing his finale ‘Born Free’, Dave Allen (Who was appearing just ‘round the corner at the “Talk of the Town”) had hatched a cunning plot and slid down from the balcony on one of the palm trees (Accompanied by a suitable glissando from me) landing directly behind Matt just as he was going to hit the last note. The fun had only begun.. They huddled together for a couple of seconds planning the next move, Dave jumped up on the beautiful white grand piano (Much to the consternation of the club owner John Reeve) and the launched into a sketch they regularly do together at pantomimes. The Nelson-Hardy routine. Maybe you’ve seen it but just in case you haven’t, I’ll describe it. Dave says “Captain, Captain, I see Forty Fousand Froggie French Frigates off the starboard bow” Nelson (Mat) replies “ Hardy, my good man, Fetch me my Red Velvet Jacket” Hardy “Why do you want your Red Velvet Jacket ?” Nelson “So the men won’t see the blood if I’m shot” Hardy runs off and come back with said jacket. Hardy “Captain, Captain, I see Forty Fousand Froggie French Frigates off the port bow” Nelson “ Hardy, my good man, fetch me my Brown Corduroy Trousers” Mat and Dave were very close friends and often appeared on TV on the same show, being complimentary to each other, Dave as a superb comedian and Mat as “Mat” We played 6 night a week starting at 8:00 pm and finishing at 2:00am. Before each show at the casino/reception and then moving upstairs to the main ballroom to play after the show. Back downstairs to greet the second show audience and then upstairs to finish the night. Over the 4 years we were resident at the Castaways we got to meet some of the nicest people in the business, none more ‘down to earth than Mat Monro’ he never forgot that he was once just a London ‘Bus driver. Some of the other artists that we met at the castaways included :- Tom Jones Engelbert Humperdink Mat Monro Liberace P.J. Proby Sarah Vaughan & Billy Eckstine Cleo Laine & Johnny Dankworth Mr. Acker Bilk and his Paramont Jazz Band Val Doonican The Bachelors Rosemary Squires Judith Durham Lynn Rogers Sandy Shore Cilla Black Diana Dors Dave Allen Max Bygraves Tommy Trinder The Dallas Boys Jack Hammer Susan Maughan Morton Fraser Harmonica Gang Earl and Vaughan Los Zafiros Jean-Jacques Jordane Malcolm Mitchell Bob Monkhouse The Bonzo Dog doo-Dah Band The Maori Castaways Mark Wynter Eve Boswell Clinton Ford & The Manhattan Brothers Cy Grant The Barron Knights Ken Goodwin The Jones Boys The Other Brothers The Chants Duke Hazlett Mikki and Griff Craig Douglas Ronnie Carrol Dennis Lotis Kathy Kirby The Temperance Seven ..................................................... The Group at the Castaways The newspaper adverts for the shows can be found here :- http://www.waikiki-islanders.com/assets/cuttings/ `![](http://www.waikiki-islanders.com/assets/cuttings/untitled-073.jpg) ![](http://www.waikiki-islanders.com/assets/cuttings/untitled-079.jpg) ![](http://www.waikiki-islanders.com/assets/cuttings/untitled-080.jpg) ![](http://www.waikiki-islanders.com/assets/cuttings/untitled-081.jpg)` Just looking at the clippings I notice that Liberace is 4gns including 'Dinner' and the Waikiki Islanders for Christmas lunch was 4gns And we didn't have 'Brother George' to feed.. !! 4gns (Guineas = 21 shillings or £1.1s 0d) in 1964 would be at least£50 now !!. I know why the Liberace show was sold out, but on Christmas Day we had a full house also.. The only reason it's not still going is that someone absconded with half a million of the profits and let the company go bust.. such a pity we would be just eligible for a nice retirement pension now !!

Name:The Castaways
Type:restaurant
Street:Bradford Street
City:Birmingham
State:
Zip:5
country:UK
Phone:021 622 2421
Status:defunct

Description:

A defunct theatre restaurant and night club, which aside from hosting many top entertainers, in the rooms upstairs the cast of Crossroads held their rehearsals.

I've quoted a fantastic post by basilh which gives some great information on this almost unknown Britiki venue.

On 2009-03-10 10:44, basilh wrote:
OK Zeta, firstly many thanks to you for the comments. Now secondly, the pictures were taken at the "Castaways" Night Club in Birmingham United Kingdom.

This picture of the Castaways main room was taken from the stage end, and if you can imagine, the balconies extending to the side of the stage and at the end of the balconies 2 LARGE 40 foot palm trees with the bottoms on the back of the stage extension.
Well :-
One evening whilst Mat was singing his finale ‘Born Free’, Dave Allen (Who was appearing just ‘round the corner at the “Talk of the Town”) had hatched a cunning plot and slid down from the balcony on one of the palm trees (Accompanied by a suitable glissando from me) landing directly behind Matt just as he was going to hit the last note.
The fun had only begun..
They huddled together for a couple of seconds planning the next move, Dave jumped up on the beautiful white grand piano (Much to the consternation of the club owner John Reeve) and the launched into a sketch they regularly do together at pantomimes. The Nelson-Hardy routine.
Maybe you’ve seen it but just in case you haven’t, I’ll describe it.
Dave says “Captain, Captain, I see Forty Fousand Froggie French Frigates off the starboard bow”
Nelson (Mat) replies “ Hardy, my good man, Fetch me my Red Velvet Jacket”
Hardy “Why do you want your Red Velvet Jacket ?”
Nelson “So the men won’t see the blood if I’m shot”
Hardy runs off and come back with said jacket.
Hardy “Captain, Captain, I see Forty Fousand Froggie French Frigates off the port bow”
Nelson “ Hardy, my good man, fetch me my Brown Corduroy Trousers”
Mat and Dave were very close friends and often appeared on TV on the same show, being complimentary to each other, Dave as a superb comedian and Mat as “Mat”

We played 6 night a week starting at 8:00 pm and finishing at 2:00am. Before each show at the casino/reception and then moving upstairs to the main ballroom to play after the show. Back downstairs to greet the second show audience and then upstairs to finish the night.
Over the 4 years we were resident at the Castaways we got to meet some of the nicest people in the business, none more ‘down to earth than Mat Monro’ he never forgot that he was once just a London ‘Bus driver.
Some of the other artists that we met at the castaways included :-
Tom Jones
Engelbert Humperdink
Mat Monro
Liberace
P.J. Proby
Sarah Vaughan & Billy Eckstine
Cleo Laine & Johnny Dankworth
Mr. Acker Bilk and his Paramont Jazz Band
Val Doonican
The Bachelors
Rosemary Squires
Judith Durham
Lynn Rogers
Sandy Shore
Cilla Black
Diana Dors
Dave Allen
Max Bygraves
Tommy Trinder
The Dallas Boys
Jack Hammer
Susan Maughan
Morton Fraser Harmonica Gang
Earl and Vaughan
Los Zafiros
Jean-Jacques Jordane
Malcolm Mitchell
Bob Monkhouse
The Bonzo Dog doo-Dah Band
The Maori Castaways
Mark Wynter
Eve Boswell
Clinton Ford & The Manhattan Brothers
Cy Grant
The Barron Knights
Ken Goodwin
The Jones Boys
The Other Brothers
The Chants
Duke Hazlett
Mikki and Griff
Craig Douglas
Ronnie Carrol
Dennis Lotis
Kathy Kirby
The Temperance Seven
.....................................................
The Group at the Castaways

The newspaper adverts for the shows can be found here :- http://www.waikiki-islanders.com/assets/cuttings/
  ![](http://www.waikiki-islanders.com/assets/cuttings/untitled-073.jpg)  

  ![](http://www.waikiki-islanders.com/assets/cuttings/untitled-079.jpg)  

  ![](http://www.waikiki-islanders.com/assets/cuttings/untitled-080.jpg)  

  ![](http://www.waikiki-islanders.com/assets/cuttings/untitled-081.jpg)  
Just looking at the clippings I notice that Liberace is 4gns including 'Dinner'
and the Waikiki Islanders for Christmas lunch was 4gns
And we didn't have 'Brother George' to feed.. !!

4gns (Guineas = 21 shillings or £1.1s 0d) in 1964 would be at least£50 now !!.
I know why the Liberace show was sold out, but on Christmas Day we had a full house also..

The only reason it's not still going is that someone absconded with half a million of the profits and let the company go bust.. such a pity we would be just eligible for a nice retirement pension now !!