Mothers (formerly the Carlton Ballroom) was a club in the Erdington district of Birmingham, England, during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Rory Gallagher's band Taste played regularly, The Who performed their rock opera Tommy there.

Traffic's debut took place at the club, and fledgling heavy metal bands like Deep Purple, Judas Priest (whose vocalist Rob Halford mentions Mothers in a song on his 2000 solo album Resurrection[3]) and Black Sabbath played some of their earliest gigs there.

[2] Some of the other well-known rock bands and artists to play Mothers include: Family, Fleetwood Mac, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Eclection, Edgar Broughton Band, Free, Roy Harper, Blodwyn Pig, Strawbs, Quintessence, Steppenwolf, the Deviants, Jethro Tull, Jon Hiseman's Colosseum, Skid Row (with Gary Moore), the Nice, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Elton John, King Crimson, Led Zeppelin, The Chicago Transit Authority, Moby Grape, Canned Heat (there is a reference to the club in the sleeve notes of their 1969 compilation Canned Heat Cookbook), Grateful Dead, Moody Blues and the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band.

[2] While returning home to London from a performance at Mothers[4] on 12 May 1969, Fairport Convention's van crashed on the M1 motorway, killing drummer Martin Lamble, 19, and Jeannie Franklyn, guitarist Richard Thompson's girlfriend.