Henry's Blueshouse was a regular live music night that ran in Birmingham, England from 1968-1970, promoted by Jim Simpson through his Big Bear Music company.

Origins

Champion Jack Dupree at Henry's Blueshouse

In the late 1960s, Jim Simpson was managing a number of local bands, including Bakerloo Blues Line, and decided to launch a weekly blues club as a platform for the band. Held on Tuesday nights the upstairs room of The Crown on Station Street in Birmingham city centre, Henry's became known as the first progressive music club in the UK outside of London. The club featured a range of touring British and Irish rock bands who would later go on to gain worldwide recognition, including Status Quo,

Thin Lizzy Thin Lizzy are an Irish hard rock band formed in Dublin in 1969. Their music reflects a wide range of influences, including blues, soul music, psychedelic rock and traditional Irish folk music, but is generally classified as hard rock or som ...

, Jethro Tull,

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and Judas Priest. In addition, future

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are ci ...

members Robert Plant and

John Bonham John Henry Bonham (31 May 1948 – 25 September 1980) was an English musician, best known as the drummer for the rock band Led Zeppelin. Esteemed for his speed, power, fast single-footed kick drumming, distinctive sound, and feel for groove ...

were regulars at Henry's Blueshouse, and would often get on stage to jam with the booked performers. Standing at the bar on Tuesday evenings one would often see well-known musicians come and go. Henry's Blueshouse hosted a number of notable American bluesmen, including

Champion Jack Dupree William Thomas "Champion Jack" Dupree (July 23, 1909 or July 4, 1910 – January 21, 1992) was an American blues and boogie-woogie pianist and singer. His nickname was derived from his early career as a boxer. Biography Dupree was a New Orleans ...

Lightnin' Slim Otis Verries Hicks, known as Lightnin' Slim (March 13, 1913 – July 27, 1974), was an American blues musician who played Louisiana blues and swamp blues for Excello Records. The blues critic ED Denson ranked him as one of the five great bl ...

, Arthur Big Boy Crudup and

Reverend Gary Davis Reverend Gary Davis, also Blind Gary Davis (born Gary D. Davis, April 30, 1896 – May 5, 1972), was a blues and gospel singer who was also proficient on the banjo, guitar and harmonica. Born in Laurens, South Carolina and blind since infan ...

Black Sabbath

One week, two members of the club,

Ozzy Osbourne John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne (born 3 December 1948) is an English singer, songwriter, and television personality. He rose to prominence during the 1970s as the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath, during which period he adop ...

and

Tony Iommi Anthony Frank Iommi () (born 19 February 1948) is a British musician. He co-founded the pioneering heavy metal band Black Sabbath, and was the band's guitarist, leader and primary composer and sole continuous member for nearly five decades. I ...

, approached Simpson to ask if they could have a support slot for their recently formed band, Earth, at a future gig in exchange for four Henry's t-shirts. After auditioning for Simpson at the venue, they were booked to open for visiting band

Ten Years After Ten Years After are a British rock group, most popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Between 1968 and 1973, the band had eight consecutive Top 40 albums on the UK Albums Chart. In addition, they had twelve albums enter the US ''Billboar ...

. Earth would go on to both perform regularly at Henry's Blueshouse and be managed by Simpson, changing their name to

Black Sabbath Black Sabbath were an English rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward (musician), Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. They are often cited as pioneers of heavy met ...

. The band would go on to acknowledge this period as a formative one in their career, with Osbourne commenting "we were made by Jim Simpson", using their sets at the club to play in much of the early material on their eponymous debut album, widely acknowledged by publications such as ''Metal Hammer'' as the first recording in the heavy metal genre.

Closure and rebirth

By 1970, Simpson found his time more and consumed by his work managing Black Sabbath and other bands, and Henry's Blueshouse came to an end. The pub continued to trade, with the upstairs gig room being used intermittently for both discos and live music, including early gigs by Birmingham punks GBH. However, in the summer of 2014 then-owners Admiral Taverns sold The Crown to Japanese property developers, who evicted the then-licensee, leaving the building boarded up and closed to the public. Jim Simpson continued to work in the live music business as a promoter and artist manager. In March 2019 Big Bear Music relaunched Henry's Blueshouse, this time hosted at The Bulls Head on Bishopsgate Street, approximately one mile from the original venue, where it continues to present live blues every Tuesday night.

References

External links

Henry's Blueshouse on Birmingham Music Archive

A partial list of bands that played Henry's Blueshouse

Information page for the current iteration of Henry's Blueshouse

Jim Simpson talks about the history of Henry's Blueshouse
{{coord, 52.47647, -1.89943, region:GB, display=title Music venues in Birmingham, West Midlands Black Sabbath