Memories by Pam Hudson
My big family of Rainbow Voices
Pam has been a tenor in Rainbow Voices for 8 years. “I’d never heard of them (Rainbow Voices) till I sang in the University Choir and met John who was in Rainbow Voices and eventually persuaded me to join. It’s a very good place, and does a lot of go...
The Victoria hotel
“You’d get a lot of the theatrical crowd in the Victoria (in Station Street near the Alexander theatre), and a lot of these pretentious queens but it was accepted because it was all a bit show business”....
The Nightingale Camp Hill 1969
“A tin shack (the original Nightingale), by the flyover on the Stratford Road. It opened at 10pm, only on a Saturday and Sunday. Then it moved to Aston, then Thorp St, then now, and got better with every move. You went there with the risk of gastroe...
Seedy Guys
"Guys in Bromsgrove Street was even seedier than the Nightingale so hot, all done in little caves and there were mostly boys, men, in various stages of undress. It was a place you’d hate to see in the daylight, but you used to go because it was somew...
Early life
Pam was born in 1943 in Kidderminster and adopted at three weeks. Her adoptive parents lived in Quinton. Her mother died when she was 7. She was a tomboy, very sporty, at secondary school she was school swimming champion, played hockey and badminton...
First Gay relationship 1962
Pam had her first gay relationship before leaving school. It was a surprise but not a shock, and wasn’t alien, it was quite a natural thing. Two weeks before she left school at Christmas 1962, it was the day of the sixth form dance, with the boys fro...
College: Well of Loneliness 1963
Pam went to the College of Remedial Gymnasts (now Physiotherapy), at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield, in January 1963 (aged 19). She was aware of other lesbian students; when she started two girls in her senior year were in a relationship; staff a...
You were butch, femme or sporty in the 1960s
“There were three categories: you were either butch, femme, or you were sporty, and I was sporty. You socialised with your own little set - as a member of a hockey team you played other hockey teams with gay women in and that was how you built up you...
Butch/Femme - 60s
“There was still a butch-femme divide amongst the sporty ones, the femme ones would have their plaits and the butch ones would have short hair and look quite tomboyish – I was quite tomboyish – but I don’t really believe in that. I believe in equalit...
mid 1960s, suits
“Butch-femme was still alive and well in the mid-sixties. Sybil was a classic butch who always dressed in a suit, shirt and tie and so did most of them. This was how you went out on a Saturday night, and their feminine partners were really quite girl...
The Vic
Pam refers to the Vic (Victoria Hotel) in Station Street, not far from the stage door of the Alex: “You’d get a lot of the theatrical crowd in there (the Vic in Station Street), and a lot of these pretentious queens but it was accepted because it was...
The Nightingale Camp Hill 1969
The only club, then, was the original Nightingale: “A tin shack (the original Nightingale), by the flyover on the Stratford Road. It opened at 10, only on a Saturday and Sunday. Then it moved to Aston, then Thorp St, then now, and got better with eve...
Guys 1960s
Then, Guys opened in Bromsgrove Street:“Even seedier than the Nightingale (Guys in Bromsgrove Street), so hot, all done in little caves and there were mostly boys, men, in various stages of undress. It was a place you’d hate to see in the daylight, b...
Grosvenor 1970s
Then Pam’s favourite place opened, the Grosvenor Hotel on the Hagley Road, very much more upmarket, John Walters owned it and two of his regular clients were Peter Harris who designed the muppets and Noelle Gordon as well. The Nightingale had moved t...
Gay life in West Bromwich 1960s
Pam moved to live above a pub – The Three Mile Oak in West Bromwich (no longer there) - with her first long term partner and two gay male friends. “We used to hold gay evenings on a Wednesday night in the upstairs bar (of the Three Mile ...
Lesbians in Sybil's back yard in Bilston 1960s
Sybil owned a tiny little Black Country pub in Moxley, near Bilston:“All the girls, especially the girls from the Black Country, would go to so they didn’t have to travel into Birmingham. It was all wait in the back yard till the police had gone, and...
Geographical ‘sets’ of women 1960s
The only other place, perhaps late sixties, was the Silver Web club in Wolverhampton, but Pam only ever went a couple of times. There was the Birmingham set, the Black Country set, and another set from Redditch, but they rarely all got together. “My...
Mixing with gay men 1960s
Mixing with gay men 1960s “I mixed with gay men more than most of them because we lived with two gay guys, but mostly there wasn’t a lot of intermixing. The men looked down on the girls quite a lot. ‘How could they have a homosexual relationship anyw...
Relationships
Pam and her first partner got together in ’69, later lived in Handsworth, and then bought a house in Stirchley and were together for 12 years. Pam had two more long term relationships after that, for eight years, and 14 years. Pam ...
Lesbian politics caused a lot of upheaval
Pam was aware of, but didn’t get involved in, the development of women's politics not because she didn’t believe in equality, or feminism, but she didn’t think the politics directly affected her, and they caused quite a lot of upheaval. “You were tr...
Women only disco at the Imperial
There was quite a divide between the political and non political lesbians, so Pam never went to the Old Mo or the Women’s Discos at the Star Club. She would go to “the rubbishy ones at The Imperial on a Wednesday evening, to chat someone up, not to g...
No women members at clubs 1970s
Basically all the gay venues, of which there weren’t many, were men. “You had to be signed in, you couldn’t get membership. We tried all through the sixties to get membership, and there was just no way. When the Nightingale moved to Thorp Street, wom...
Laurie Willams and the JUG
The first place that let women in right away was the Jug, because that was basically a women’s club to start with, it was one of Laurie Williams’. He was also connected with the Nightingale and the Grosvenor, in fact most of the clubs. “He (Laurie W...
Noelle Gordon
“Noelle Gordon was probably one of the most hated lesbians! Because she was famous, she thought she could have anybody she wanted, whether they were with anybody or not! She would turn up in her Rolls Royce, she really lorded it round the Troc and th...
1960s gay icons
“Dusty Springfield was the big gay icon. She had actually come out in the sixties on a radio programme. She didn’t use the word lesbian, but it was what she meant. She said she ‘would have a relationship with whoever, it depended on the person’ which...
Gay Bashing 1960s
Pam said “There was a lot of gay bashing but it was always the more feminine of the boys that were targets. People would have been frightened to death of these big butch women in suits anyway! They were quite aggressive.”...
Butch and femme
Pam said the butch/femme roles all changed with the introduction of jeans and tee shirts and unisex fashion. “People became less formal. What you did in the bedroom didn’t matter but she was no longer this feminine thing, but was dressed the same as ...
Gay Culture 1960s
“I wasn’t a great cinema or theatre-goer. My first connection was (the book) ‘Well of Loneliness’, which was banned, then a French film, ‘Bilitis’, which portrayed lesbians, then the classic film ‘The Killing of Sister George’, which I did see, which...
Information/Networking
“I think there was a form of gay switchboard, in Digbeth (it started in seventies). Prior to that we had a teacher I knew through hockey set up a home-produced monthly newsletter (can’t remember name) predominantly about lesbian activities. (She is s...
Being gay and a Christian
“I am a Christian. One of the reasons I became involved in church was singing in the choir. I’ve gone to church in Birmingham for years and it’s not a problem. I didn’t see a conflict in my beliefs because love is a God-given...
Being gay now
“Now you can go out and get a civil partnership, and it’s so much easier now for the kids who can be openly gay and people are there to back them up. People shouldn’t be frightened of being gay now.”...