The Twisted Wheel: The birthplace of northern soul and why it shut down
To the outside world, the northern soul scene can often be quite bizarre.
It was, after all, a scene built upon the idea of thousands of young people in the north of England becoming obsessed with endlessly obscure American soul singles recorded years prior. And, to make matters stranger, many of those singles now fetch many thousands of pounds on the secondhand market.
How did these kids find out about these forgotten records? Why is the scene still thriving today? And where did it all begin? In answer to the latter, northern soul’s birthplace was The Twisted Wheel in Manchester.
It was back in 1963, long before the northern soul scene had taken root, that Manchester’s nightlife was first introduced to The Twisted Wheel, a club founded by a trio of brothers, Jack, Phillip and Ivor Abadi. From the very start of the venue’s history, it was focused on playing American soul and blues music. Although in the early days, it was predominantly focused on live music, rather than DJs spinning other people’s records.
Pretty quickly, the venue on Brazennose Street (an area which has now been ‘redeveloped’ into flats and offices) grew a reputation for its all-nighters.
All-nighters are the bread and butter of the northern soul scene, capturing the power and energy of the movement through hundreds of sweaty, amphetamine-fueled youths dancing furiously to the beating rhythm of soul. Although the exact origins of the soul all-nighter are endlessly disputed, The Twisted Wheel was among the first venues to popularise the events during the early 1960s, appealing to the blossoming mod scene in Manchester.
After establishing itself on Brazennose Street, the venue relocated to Whitworth Street in 1965, finding a new home in a converted warehouse, which was almost tailor-made for speed-fueled all-night dances. It was in that new location that the Twisted Wheel became a defining venue for any soul and R&B fans to flock to.
Over the years, the likes of Edwin Starr, Mary Wells, Eric Clapton, Junior Walker, and Ike and Tina Turner all performed at the Twisted Wheel, and it was also essential in organising the very first UK tour of rock and roll pioneer Screamin’ Jay Hawkins.
Perhaps most importantly, though, the DJs at The Twisted Wheel introduced audiences to northern soul classics, like Dobie Gray’s ‘Out on the Floor’ or Leon Haywood’s ‘Baby Reconsider’, along with a deluge of more obscure cult classics which are still played on the circuit today. As Manchester reached the tail-end of the 1960s, The Twisted Wheel was the most iconic nightclub in the north of England, and people would flock from far and wide to hear these obscure, defiant, and infectious soul floor-fillers.
At the same time that The Twisted Wheel was hosting weekly all-nighters every Saturday, the local council and police were becoming increasingly concerned with the volume of young people taking illegal drugs and staying up all night. As time went on, there was more and more of a police presence in and around the venue, and local authority figures were increasingly trying to find a way of shutting the club down for good. Eventually, they figured it out.
The Twisted Wheel closed its doors in 1971, thanks to an obscure bylaw which prevented venues from staying open longer than two hours into the following day, so, if the club opened at 19:30 on a Saturday, it would be forced to shut at 02:00 on Sunday morning, thus making its famous all-nighters technically illegal.
Following its closure, the hub of northern soul all-nighters moved to The Golden Torch in Stoke, but the police and local council soon started paying attention to that venue, too. In 1973, the local council refused to renew the venue’s license, and the club was forced to close down. The overwhelming police presence then moved to Wigan Casino, which too was closed down in 1981 after the council refused to renew the club’s lease.
Although all of these iconic venues met with depressing ends, their legacies live on through various reunion nights and northern soul all-nighters, which still take place across the nation today.
