THE TWISTED WHEEL

THE TWISTED WHEEL CLUB MANCHESTER

The place that originated Northern Soul!
Affectionately called the 'Wheel' is the only original Soul Club still operating in Manchester, and now this legendary club that launched the Northern Soul genre may be about to close. DJ Pete Roberts and operator of the current manifestation of the Club in its original setting in the city said 'that the city council where allowing it to be demolished to make way for a new hotel'. Its the only remaining icon of Blues and Soul venues from the 1960's and must be worth saving for future generations... maybe a music museum?

The following article and external links tells the full 'Wheel' story: http://soulbot.com/?s=twisted+wheel

Picture shows a membership card.

The Twisted Wheel known affectionately as the 'WHEEL' goes down in history as the place that generated the genre known today as Northern Soul.

There were in fact two Twisted Wheel locations:

The first Twisted Wheel was in the old premises of a late 50's beatnik coffee house that had a large cellar beneath. It was called the Left Wing Club; lots of goatee bearded blokes with duffel coats and Jazz playing on a record player.
The location was on an alley corner in Brazennose Street off Manchester's Albert Square, where the City's Town Hall stands.
Two brothers Jack & Ivor Abadi took over the premises in late 1962 and opened up the underground cellar in 63', put in some cartwheels and bicycle wheels into the walls with back lights and covering the DJ area. They put in two stages and opened it as a club for teenagers; mostly because they had no alcoholic drinks license. It opened for business with a local group called the Karl Denver Trio headlining on Saturday 27th of January 1963. (A full listing of all live performers at the Twisted Wheel can be found on the Manchester Soul Website.)

Soon the 'Wheel' was attracting lots of teenagers and young adults and many were gravitating to the new youth movement in England - The MODS. The club soon became THE MOD club in the city and its clientele followed the unwritten rules of Mod culture with rapidly changing styles and 'IN' crowd signals only known to 'members' within this stylish sub-culture. The way you back combed your hair, the way you buttoned your jacket, the shoes you wore, etc it was an endless stream of such things in late 63' & 64' when it fizzled out in London: its birthplace (Scene Club Ham Yard), but in Manchester it evolved into MODS who kept the smart suited style and adopted Soul music and some other related musical influence, evolving into SOUL MODS.

The 'Wheel' went through several distinct periods and styles, first pop, reflecting the U.K. pop music, the Beatles, were huge. The local groups The Hollies, Herman's Hermits, Wayne Fontana and others appeared as live acts. The music was often songs from the USA, early Soul, R&B and Blues. There was a Blues boom in England in 1964 and Alexis Korner became the Clubs resident band. Others appearing were the Spencer Davis Group, Zoot Money and Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames. The music played by the clubs DJ's was Blues, Soul, R&B, Surf, Some Jazz (Jimmy Smith).

Roger Eagle the clubs music mentor arrived in late 63 and by 64' he was encouraging Stateside Blues artists to appear live at the club. Sonny Boy Williamson appeared at Christmas (Boxing Day) in 1963. All the English groups including the Beatles and of course the Rolling Stones were doing versions of Stateside material, Georgie Fame had a complete repertoire of songs from Soul artists, Jamaican Ska, and Jazz.

One of the most frequent favourites was:

Mr EDWIN STARR - he did'nt really need a microphone!
Most UTUBE Videos seem to believe that Edwin's early records were by Motown but NO they were made in another Detroit Recording Studio - GOLDEN WORLD: Edwin's early records were released on the POLYDOR label in the U.K. Years later Motown bought out Golden World and re-released Edwin's great early productions onto the MOTOWN Label.

The MANCHESTER WHEELERS
The insider story of the Manchester Soul Mods, their music, and their drugs and their clubs: The Twisted Wheel. A tale about a Soul music deejay that lost his girl and almost lost his mind. The story of the Manchester Wheelers is not about a bicycling club, its all about American Soul music in a Northern English town in the sixties; a gritty Northern Quadrophenia that charts the Genesis of what has now become the phenomenon of 'Northern Soul'.

And it all began in MANCHESTER.

Extract:

"A group joined behind us from Blackpool; they too were singing, all of them singing, and really soulfully: 'People Get Ready,. for the train to Jordan.' They were clicking fingers, chewing gum, (we called it 'Spoggy') twirling around, just dancing and blocked up in the queue, singing that great Impressions' song. As we got closer we could hear the thumping sound from below, inside the club. 'Neighbour, neighbour Don't worry how I treat my wife' sung by Jimmy Hughes. Then 'Determination' by the Contours. Louder, louder and LOUDER as we got nearer. Looking at the Fire Station across the street, someone was shouting 'Fire, Fire', like 'Liar, Liar, Town crier' putting their own lyrics to the Castaways' tune.
With excitement mounting we reached the door. The Adabi Brothers, the owners of the Wheel were both at the door, looking at our round Wheel membership cards and taking
our twenty five shilling pre-paid tickets; we often came down mid-week to get them. We passed the door anticipating going down the steps, down into the Wheel. We had one hand holding the other elbow moving our arms from side to side, the thumb in our mouths, playing a dummy Saxophone, imitating Junior Walker. Daft we were. Blocked we were. Pill Heads we were, exactly as Roger Eagle the original Wheel DJ described us.
Ivor on the door rolled his eyes at us impatiently as we constantly and agitatedly moved from leg to leg sideways, swinging our shoulders dancing on the spot, waiting for his new-style ticket scrutiny. Anyway, these were real tickets not like the fakes we had used for the Drifters several months or so ago. It was our mate Roland who did the printing of the fakes. He did it to get some extra funds, but did some free extras for us too. Everyone helped each other out, we were all the best of pals. Manchester Soul Mods stuck together."
The ONE & ONLY Book about the ORIGINAL SOUL MODS at the Twisted Wheel:

Another book about the 'Wheel' is CENtral 1179 (the clubs telephone number) by Keith Rylatt, Phil Scott.