Manchester Sports Guild

Manchester Sports Guild (MSG) was a jazz and folk music venue in Manchester, England, that flourished from 1961 to 1973.^[1]

History

Manchester Sports Guild was a membership organisation founded in 1953 in Manchester, England, to promote amateur sports. L. C. Jenkins ("Jenks") was the founding General Secretary. It opened in April 1954. Shortly after moving into its first venue on Market Street, MSG, almost by accident, began promoting jazz. In 1961, MSG acquired its second venue at 8–10 Long Millgate, opposite Chetham's School of Music, near Manchester Cathedral, that became known as MSG's "Sports and Social Centre".^[2] The venue flourished until about 1973, when it was closed for imminent demolition, which didn't occur for a few years. The Long Millgate location was an old brick Victorian building with a bar on the ground floor, folk music upstairs, and jazz in its unadorned cellar.^[3] In 1962, shortly after opening the new venue, Jenks appointed Jack Swinnerton as Jazz Organiser. Henceforth, the MSG began booking internationally known jazz artists,^[4] performers who leaned more towards blues and traditional and swing idioms). The jazz cellar was also the centre of afterhours jam-sessions with American jazz artists who had, earlier in the evening, performed at other Manchester venues, particularly the Free Trade Hall.^[5]

In 1964, The Observer stated: "In the Manchester Sports Guild they have the best jazz centre in the country ... "^[6]

Frank Duffy ran the folk scene, upstairs. The Urbis building now occupies the site.

Selected performing artists

Jazz and blues (in the cellar)

• Alvin Alcorn (1912–2003)
• Henry "Red" Allen (1908–1967)
• Jimmy Archey (1902–1967)
• Acker Bilk (1929–2014)
• Ruby Braff (1927–2003)
• Sandy Brown (1929–1975)
• Buck Clayton (1911–1991)
• Bill Coleman (1904–1981)
• Wild Bill Davison (1906–1989)
• Vic Dickenson (1906–1984)
• Dutch Swing College Band
• Al Fairweather (1927–1993)
• Pops Foster (1892–1969)
• Bud Freeman (1906–1991)
• Edmond Hall (1901–1967)
• John Handy (born 1933)
• Earl "Fatha" Hines (1903–1983)
• George Lewis (1900–1968)
• Alan Littlejohn (1928–1996)
• Humphrey Lyttelton (1921–2008)
• Wingy Manone (1900–1982)
• Louis Nelson (1900–1990)
• New Jazz Orchestra (1963–1970)
• Albert Nicholas (1900–1973)
• Johnny Parker (1929–2010)
• Emanuel Paul (1904–1988)
• Pee Wee Russell (1906–1969)
• Kid Thomas (1897–1987)
• Bruce Turner (1922–1993)
• Joe Turner (1907–1990)
• Alex Welsh (1929–1982)
• Bob Wallis (1934–1991)
• Ben Webster (1909–1973)
• Dicky Wells (1907–1985)
• Teddy Wilson (1912–1986)

Folk, pop, and poets (upstairs)

• Clarence Ashley (1895–1967)
• Dominic Behan (1928–1989)
• Roy Budd (1947–1993)
• Tony Capstick (1944–2003)
• Martin Carthy (born 1941)
• John Cooper Clarke^[7] (born 1949)
• Art Garfunkel (born 1941)
• Paul Simon (born 13th October 1941)
• Mike Harding^[7] (born 1944)
• Rosie Hardman (born 1945)
• Bert Jansch (1943–2011)
• Magna Carta
• Bill Monroe (1911–1996)
• Christy Moore^[7] (born 1945)
• The Spinners
• Dave Swarbrick (1941–2016)
• Wally Whyton (1929–1997)

Selected discography

Jazz

Folk

MSG personnel

• John Pye, Executive Director
• Jack Swinnerton, Jazz Secretary
• L.C. Jenkins ("Jenks") (né Leslie Charles Jenkins; 1918–1986), General Secretary
• Bryn Pugh, MC in the folk room
• Frank Duffy, initial Folk Secretary
• John Dronsfield ("Drony"), Frank's successor

Notes and references

Notes

1. ^ Pee-Wee 1964 tour

References

1. ^ "The Manchester Sports Guild (M.S.G.)," by Jack Swinnerton, reproduced by kind permission of Jack Swinnerton & Just Jazz Magazine (2002)
   Part 1: "Beginnings ..."
   Part 2: "'Opening Night'"
   Part 3: "Tenth Anniversary"
   Part 4: "Red's Final Night ...and the Aftermath"
   Part 5: "Pee Wee Russell on Tour"
   Part 6: "George Lewis and the Promotional Society For New Orleans Music"
   Part 7: "Wild Bill Davison and others ..."
   Part 8: "Earl 'Fatha' Hines ... 57 Varieties"
   Part 9: "Nothing is Easy"
   Part 10: "Buck Clayton, Vic Dickenson, and Others"
   Part 11: "The End of the Story by Jack B. Swinnerton"
2. ^ "Sportsmen's Own Club: Jazz—and Bars," The Guardian, March 9, 1961, p. (accessible via Newspapers.com, subscription required)
3. ^ "Manchester is a City of Live Music and Good Times. That’s Why This Hurts so Much," by Carol Birch, The Guardian, May 29, 2017
4. ^ "Family Notes: Jack Barker Swinnerton" (obituary), by John Pye (ex-Chairman of MSG), The Swinnerton Saga, Journal of the Swinnerton Society, Vol. 13, No. 6, December 2008, p. 163)
5. ^ Collection of Articles about Red Allen and the Manchester Sports Guild, Rainer-Jazz – The Jazz Archive Site (site registered May 9, 2001, by Dr. Rainer Schneider, Buxtehude, Germany) (retrieved June 24, 2019)
   "Jazz Archive, Jazz Research, Jazz Photography and Jazz Records Site, Jazzforschung und Jazzfotos"
6. ^ "Briefing / Who & Why – Beating the Retreat?" The Observer, October 25, 1964, p. 23 (accessible via Newspapers.com, subscription required)
7. ^ Singing From the Floor: A History of British Folk Clubs, by Julian P. Bean, Faber & Faber (2014); OCLC 941532042
   "John Cooper Clarke," pps. 171–172
   "Christy Moore," pps. 172–173
   "Mike Harding," p. 257