Roger Eagle

UK disc-jockey and concert promoter in Manchester & Liverpool. "This was the first time there was ever a place that played almost 100% pure black music, that was the point. And it was danceable and became a sweat. I mean I had to keep people dancing for seven hours, with a break for the band. Seven hours is a long time. The bands played for 3/4 of an hour, they came on about midnight. I played Little Richard, I played good black rock 'n' roll. I've still got the same records I used to play down there…But in the early days at the Wheel it was rhythm and blues, which was basically rock 'n' roll anyway, it just depends which shade of it you took. I wouldn't have played a Bill Haley record there or an Elvis record, no I wouldn't play that! But black rock 'n' roll certainly was played. You see the Wheel was originally a rhythm & blues club and there were blues singers, famous blues singers, great legendary names who played at the wheel." Roger Eagle commenting on the opening of the "Twisted Wheel" nightclub, Whitworth Street, Manchester circa 1963. Taken from the book "Sit Down! Listen To This!" by Bill Sykes