 | We attended the Club on Saturday afternoon (Mixed) Saturday night (Couples only) and Sunday (Mixed) – Getting there: (Car is easiest, it’s located in Darlaston and the entrance is around the back and easy to miss) If your coming by train, you need to go to Birmingham then take a train to Walsall, and then a cab there is £5 (Google Aimgo’s Cabs, they will give you the best price and do most of the runs for the club) If the onsite accommodation is fully booked, there is a Premier Inn not far up the road from the club.
Chams has always been one of the busiest and oldest clubs in the country and its one of the few that’s open 7 days a week. It’s a towel wearing club, consequently, its not for everyone and will always appeal to people who prefer that kind of club where everyone dresses down (Ladies can wear sexy outfits) Although we are more of the dressing up crowd, we do like to come here once in a while and have never had a bad night.
We won’t go through the full layout of the venue again, buts its spread over three levels, has a good mixture of social and playing areas, including lockable rooms, and various other facilities. Staff here work very hard and are extremely friendly and helpful, so if you need their help with anything, don’t be afraid to ask. The bar is BYOB and there is a huge selection of soft drinks and some cheap and cheerful food is available which isn’t bad by any means (We were there two days and ate a fair bit of it)
We will focus on what’s changed since our last visit starting with the roof decking area. Upstairs outside there is a heated decking area for smokers, but now added to this is an expanded roof terrace for parties, which also gives access to the onsite accommodation which we utilised (£40 per night) The Terrace is an excellent addition and is packed on Bank Holiday weekends when the sun dares to put in an appearance. The accommodation can vary in size and type. Ours was one of the rooms adjoining the roof terrace garden which is ideal for easy access to the club, but not great for light sleepers as you can easily hear everything in the room next door or outside (Not a massive issue, we did go to bed when the club closed) other rooms are located down a passage way from here inside the club. Our friends had room 5 which was almost twice the size of ours and included a sofa and the sound proofing on those inside is much better. All the rooms have an en-suite wet room, TV (Don’t spend ages looking for the remote, the buttons are along the top) tea and coffee and include a ‘bacon butty’ (or other) delivered to your door in the morning. We thought on balance the rooms inside are probably better but they do all vary in size themselves. We had a few niggles with ours, but nothing that the staff couldn’t fix once we let them know.
On Saturday afternoon the club was pretty relaxed and the single men present were very well behaved and there was a good mix of couples and singles, so at no point did we feel we were being followed pillar to post and we had a play, always nice. In the evening by 9pm there was probably around 40 couples or so and a couple of single ladies. Again the atmosphere was good, but our evening was made mildly annoying by some guy who had brought a woman down to the club without explaining to her where he was taking her, although she was understandably annoyed she was extremely rude to us and then we had him suggesting we should play with them later when she was drunk enough!!!??. ‘We don’t think your partner is up for that’ was our response. He then proceeded to try and change her mind for the rest of the evening, but it was clear early on that she wanted to leave, and remained, unchanged, in the bar area. We also need to add when she had left, he did not and was still in the club alone. Other members told us this man is a regular and known for doing this, frankly we think he should be banned. (This is not a gripe against the club, it’s very busy on a Saturday and hard for them to spot everything but certainly plenty of regulars will know who we are talking about) We are sure if we had reported him, it would have been acted upon immediately but Mrs Party did not wish to get involved with them any further, so we left it unsaid. Some people said to us Saturday had become cliquey, but we didn’t find that, and observing everyone did seem to mix and socialise with few if any couples looking left on their own. There was also a good mix of ages too.
Although Chams is extremely friendly and a good club for first timers, you are walking into a social area immediately upon arrival where everyone is wearing a towel, so bare that in mind. For some of course this is the appeal of the place. Sunday afternoon/evening by contrast was very quiet (Saturday afternoon was busier) We’ve been to Chams before on a Sunday, but never seen it as quiet as this and regulars did remark it was well below the normal par of attendance, with perhaps 10 couples and 10 singles at a guess. We think, as has been said, this is the sign of the current financial climate we are living in as much as anything. Everyone was still very friendly, and again no problems with any single men who were all capable of a conversation and approachable, credit to them, just a shame by then we could barely stand up as we had been to Birmingham Bazaar Bazaar during the day.
The owners of Chams are always updating bits and pieces and its amazing how much it’s changed every time we come back and they do their best to cater for a wide selection of people. The downsides were one of the Jacuzzi’s wasn’t working (boiler broke on Saturday morning) and the one that was seemed to come on and off at the most random of intervals and had the ability to make the loudest sucking noises known to man. We also wondered if the Sauna and Steam rooms could be a little less hot, because you cannot stay in there for more than a few seconds without coming out which would explain why even on the Saturday they always seem to be empty. The Cinema room also had no movie on all weekend (It didn’t stop us from using it though, making a good dark room instead!)
Chams has always known to play to its strengths, its unpretentious, welcomes people of all shapes and sizes and ages and its BBW nights are extremely popular and most importantly its re-invested money back into the venue. We know it’s not for those who like dressing up and the clubbing atmosphere but clearly that’s not a priority for those who come here and the venue is also good value for money, while not our personal number one choice, for many it will be and it would always be in our top 5 list for clubs in the UK. If you’ve never been you need to go yourself to decide if it’s for you.
Date: 22 May 2012
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