The Twisted Wheel was a

nightclub A nightclub or dance club is a club that is open at night, usually for drinking, dancing and other entertainment. Nightclubs often have a Bar (establishment), bar and discotheque (usually simply known as disco) with a dance floor, laser lighti ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, England, open from 1963 to 1971. It was one of the first clubs to play the music that became known as

Northern soul Northern soul is a music and dance movement that emerged in Northern England and the Midlands in the early 1970s. It developed from the British Mod (subculture), mod scene, based on a particular style of African American music, Black American ...

History

The nightclub was founded by the brothers Jack, Phillip and Ivor Abadi as a

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

and

soul The soul is the purported Mind–body dualism, immaterial aspect or essence of a Outline of life forms, living being. It is typically believed to be Immortality, immortal and to exist apart from the material world. The three main theories that ...

live music coffee bar/dance club. The original location of the club was on Brazennose Street, between

Deansgate Deansgate is a main road (part of the A56) through Manchester City Centre, England. It runs roughly north–south in a near straight route through the western part of the city centre and is the longest road in the city centre at over one mil ...

and Albert Square. This was the

rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated within African American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predomina ...

mod venue, with Roger Eagle as DJ. The last all-nighter at the Brazennose St. venue was 11 September 1965 with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers (featuring

Eric Clapton Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English Rock music, rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s l ...

) headlining. The club, along with Roger Eagle as DJ, then re-located to 6

Whitworth Street Whitworth Street is a street in Manchester, England. It runs between London Road ( A6) and Oxford Street ( A34). West of Oxford Street it becomes Whitworth Street West, which then goes as far as Deansgate ( A56). It was opened in 1899 and is ...

opening on Saturday 18 September with The

Spencer Davis Group The Spencer Davis Group were a British blues and R&B influenced rock band formed in Birmingham in 1963 by Spencer Davis (guitar), brothers Steve Winwood (vocals, keyboards, and guitar) and Muff Winwood (bass guitar), and Pete York (drums). ...

(featuring

Steve Winwood Stephen Lawrence Winwood (born 12 May 1948) is an English musician and songwriter whose genres include blue-eyed soul, rhythm and blues, blues rock, and pop rock. Though primarily a guitarist, keyboard player, and vocalist prominent for his dis ...

) as headliners. This venue was the mostly soul-oriented club with resident Saturday "All Niter" DJ Bob Dee compiling and supervising the playlist and utilising the newly developed slip-cueing technique to cue in vinyl records. The Whitworth Street venue was a converted warehouse, with a coffee snack bar on the ground floor and a series of rooms in the cellar. These lower rooms housed the stage, a caged disc jockey area, and the main dance room. Back-lit iron wheels decorated the simple painted brick walls. Ivor Abadi ran the club without an alcohol licence, serving only soft drinks and snacks. There was another Twisted Wheel in

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...

under the same ownership. Prior to the opening of the Twisted Wheel, most UK nightclubs played modern popular music, Soul and R&B. The Twisted Wheel DJs and local entrepreneurs imported large quantities of records directly from the United States. Many of the records played at the Twisted Wheel were rare even in the US; some may only have been released in one city or state. At the time, in addition to records released by larger record companies, there was a huge number of soul releases by a wide variety of artists on a multiplicity of obscure, independent labels. All-night sessions were held each Saturday, from 11:00 pm through to Sunday 7:30 am. DJs played new records generally not played elsewhere. However, by 1969 more mainstream songs like Steam's "

Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" is a 1969 song written and recorded by Paul Leka, Gary DeCarlo and Dale Frashuer, attributed to a then-fictitious band Steam. It was released under the Mercury subsidiary label Fontana and became a number-one ...

" and Tony Joe White's " Polk Salad Annie" were added to the early session playlist. Allnight DJ, Brian "45" Philips introduced - Jerry Cook - "I Hurt on the Other Side"; Dobie Gray - " Out on the Floor"; The Artistics - "This Heart of Mine"; Leon Haywood - "Baby Reconsider", Earl Van Dyke - "6 by 6" and U.S releases on Ric-Tic, Brunswick, Okeh and other obscure labels. Each week at 2:00 am Soul artists performed live at the club.

Junior Walker Autry DeWalt Mixon Jr. (June 14, 1931 – November 23, 1995), known professionally as Junior Walker, was an American multi-instrumentalist (primarily saxophonist) and vocalist who recorded for Motown during the 1960s. He also performed as a sess ...

Edwin Starr Charles Edwin Hatcher (January 21, 1942 – April 2, 2003), known by his stage name Edwin Starr, was an American singer and songwriter. He is best remembered for his Norman Whitfield-produced Motown singles of the 1970s, most notably the num ...

, Oscar Toney Jr.,

Marv Johnson Marvin Earl Johnson (October 15, 1938 – May 16, 1993) was an American Rhythm and blues, R&B singer, songwriter and pianist. He was influential in the development of the Motown style of music, primarily for the song "Come to Me (Marv Johnson so ...

Mary Wells Mary Esther Wells (May 13, 1943 – July 26, 1992) was an American singer, who helped to define the emerging sound of Motown in the early 1960s. Along with the Supremes, the Miracles, the Temptations, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, and the F ...

Ike and Tina Turner Ike or IKE may refer to: People and fictional characters * Ike (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or nickname * Ike (surname), a list of people * Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969), Supreme Commander of ...

, Johnny Johnson and the Bandwagon, and Inez and Charlie Foxx were among the many musicians to squeeze onto the tiny stage. Soul fans travelled from all over the United Kingdom for the all-nighters; some by car, most by train, coach or bus. Singer

Chris Rea Christopher Anton Rea ( ; born 4 March 1951) is a British Rock music, rock and blues singer-songwriter and guitarist from Middlesbrough. Known for his distinctive voice and his slide guitar playing, Rea has recorded twenty-five studio albums, ...

on his album '' Deltics'' commemorates the club in the song "Twisted Wheel". Rea is said to have written this song because of his chagrin at being too young to go on the organised trips to the club's weekend all-nighters from his hometown of

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ), colloquially known as Boro, is a port town in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Lying to the south of the River Tees, Middlesbrough forms part of the Teesside Built up area, built-up area and the Tees Va ...

in the mid-1960s. The club gained the reputation of playing rare and uptempo soul. Following a visit to the Twisted Wheel in 1970, music journalist

Dave Godin David Edward Godin (21 June 1936 – 15 October 2004) was an English fan of American soul music. As a journalist and record shop owner, he made a major contribution internationally in spreading awareness and understanding of the genre, and by e ...

noted that the music played at the club, and in

northern England Northern England, or the North of England, refers to the northern part of England and mainly corresponds to the Historic counties of England, historic counties of Cheshire, Cumberland, County Durham, Durham, Lancashire, Northumberland, Westmo ...

in general, was quite different from the music played in London. His description "

" became the accepted term for this genre and

subculture A subculture is a group of people within a culture, cultural society that differentiates itself from the values of the conservative, standard or dominant culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures ...

. The club shut down in early 1971 because of a

bylaw A by-law (bye-law, by(e)law, by(e) law), is a set of rules or law established by an organization or community so as to regulate itself, as allowed or provided for by some higher authority. The higher authority, generally a legislature or some other ...

which prevented premises from staying open more than two hours into the following day. The closure of The Twisted Wheel gave the Golden Torch its opportunity to take the Northern soul crown for the next few years, until it too was shut down due to local council opposition. Today its legacy is eclipsed by that of the nearby Wigan Casino.

Later versions

The Twisted Wheel was reopened in the 1970s as a fully licensed and expanded venue by Pete Roberts. It enjoyed capacity attendance for its Sunday afternoon sessions, alongside which were all-nighters and Friday evening sessions. From 2002, nostalgia soul nights were held in the original Whitworth Street location on the final Friday of every month. These nights featured the original DJ playlists and many original members attended. Two "Goldmine" recordings, ''Twisted Wheel'' and ''Twisted Wheel Again'', feature songs from the original DJ playlists. The physical structure of the club was removed from the Manchester landscape in 2013 when it was demolished to make way for a hotel. This happened despite attempts to save the building on the grounds of the venue's cultural importance. The Twisted Wheel relocated to Night People, 105-107

Princess Street, Manchester Princess Street is one of the main streets in the city centre of Manchester, England. It begins at Cross Street and runs approximately eastwards across Mosley Street, Portland Street and Whitworth Street until the point where it continues as ...

. The club had two rooms with separate sound systems, one of which was solely dedicated to the legacy of the iconic Twisted Wheel, complete with original memorabilia and bare brick arches throughout, giving it the atmosphere that Whitworth St was known for. On 10 April 2022, the Twisted Wheel Club moved to the newly revamped Band on the Wall venue in Manchester's Northern Quarter. The Sunday afternoon / early evening sessions are held monthly. By October 2023, the Twisted Wheel Club / Basement 66 operates out of AREA on Manchester's Sackville Street.

References

External links

The Twisted Wheel - Soulbot
{{coord, 53.47734, N, 2.23279, W, source:placeopedia_type:landmark_region:GB-MAN, display=title Nightclubs in Manchester Culture in Manchester 1963 establishments in England History of Manchester Former buildings and structures in Manchester Demolished buildings and structures in Manchester Buildings and structures demolished in 2013 Northern soul