The Left Wing Coffee Bar (Brazennose St)
The Left Wing Coffee Bar was at 30 Brazennose Street off Albert Square, Manchester 2 and opened in 1959 as a beatnik coffee bar, also as a kind of Mancunian existentialist hang-out, popular with Jazz freaks.
The club was close to Piccadilly Station, London Road, Manchester 1.
The M/C Left Wing Coffee Bar was opened by Joel Bennett (b. Sunday, October 14, 1923, Manchester, Lancashire, England d. Saturday, November 1, 2014, Manchester, Greater Manchester, England), Bob Sheldon (b. Issac Ezra Shamash, Thursday, September 13, 1923, Manchester, Lancashire, England d. Sunday, February 2, 2020) and Edmund Dell (b. Edmund Emanuel Dell, Sunday, August 21, 1921, Hackney, East London, England d. Thursday, October 31, 1999, London, England). Bennett, Sheldon and Dell were three of four directors of the club (1959 - 1963), in addition to the chief founder MP Harold Leaver (b. Norman Harold Leaver, Wednesday, January 14, 1914, Manchester, Lancashire, England d. Sunday, August 6, 1995, London, England), who in 1945 had become a Labour MP. In 1964 Sheldon for Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire and Dell for Birkenhead, Cheshire both became Labour MPs. Bennett became a Labour MP for Heywood and Royton on Wednesday, October 14, 1964 on his 41st birthday.
On Easter Saturday, April 16 to Sunday, April 19, 1960 The Left-Wing Coffee Bar reopened with The Jazzmakers with a new floor for dancing.
On Saturday, August 20 to Sunday, August 21, 1960 The Left-Wing Coffee Bar reopened with The Jazzmakers from 12pm to dawn.
John Rowlands who later played with The Blues Syndicate (John Mayall's Blues Syndicate), used to run all night Jazz sessions here. He would sometimes import a name from London like tenor sax player Don Rendell (1926 - 2015) who later had a quartet with alto sax player Graham Bond (1937 - 1974).
On Saturday, February 24 - Sunday, February 25, 1962 saw the grand reopening of The Left Wing Coffee Bar with The John Rowland Quintet and The Ken Roy Trio from12pm.
Advertised in The Manchester Evening News of Saturday, February 24, 1962 as
Jazz At The Left Wing. Great Re-opening Session. The New John Rowland Quartet Plus The Ken Roy Trio Saturday Midnight-Dawn Brazennose St Manchester.
The club later changed its name to The Twisted Wheel Club which opened on Friday, January 27, 1963 with The Karl Denver Trio, The Skyliners and Dean West and the Hellions.
Info courtesy John H Warburg May 2025
John would sometimes import a 'name' in from London but the only one that I can remember seeing there was tenor player Don Rendell, one of my favourites. Don later had a quintet with Graham Bond who at that time was playing alto. Graham of course went on to play Hammond Organ, finally meeting a sad end under the wheels of an underground train.
I can't be sure who played with John Rowlands but it might well have included the likes of Roy Hilton and Hughie Flint (McGuiness Flint).
To give you some idea of how long ago this was, I can remember coming in to town in the early hours of a Sunday Morning after a gig just to look in Looker's window (the car dealers on Deansgate) to see this revolutionary new car that had been unveiled at midnight that night. It was the Mini.
Brazennose Street being almost opposite Lookers, we probably went on to the Left Wing for a cup of coffee and a dose of jazz.
Pete Crooks - 30/5/09
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