Manchester Sports Guild
Manchester Sports Guild was a jazz and folk music venue in Manchester, England, that flourished from 1961 to 1973.
History
Manchester Sports Guild was a membership organisation founded in 1953 in Manchester, England, to promote amateur sports. L. C. Jenkins. 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.In 1964, The Observer stated: "In the Manchester Sports Guild they have the best jazz centre in the country
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
- Henry "Red" Allen
- Jimmy Archey
- Acker Bilk
- Ruby Braff
- Sandy Brown
- Buck Clayton
- Bill Coleman
- Wild Bill Davison
- Vic Dickenson
- Dutch Swing College Band
- Al Fairweather
- Pops Foster
- Bud Freeman
- Edmond Hall
- John Handy
- Earl "Fatha" Hines
- George Lewis
- Alan Littlejohn
- Humphrey Lyttelton
- Wingy Manone
- Louis Nelson
- New Jazz Orchestra
- Albert Nicholas
- Johnny Parker
- Emanuel Paul
- Pee Wee Russell
- Kid Thomas
- Bruce Turner
- Joe Turner
- Alex Welsh
- Bob Wallis
- Ben Webster
- Dicky Wells
- Teddy Wilson
Folk, pop, and poets (upstairs)
- Clarence Ashley
- Dominic Behan
- Roy Budd
- Tony Capstick
- Martin Carthy
- John Cooper Clarke
- Art Garfunkel
- Mike Harding
- Rosie Hardman
- Bert Jansch
- Magna Carta
- Bill Monroe
- Christy Moore
- The Spinners
- Dave Swarbrick
- Wally Whyton
MSG personnel
- John Pye, Executive Director
- Jack Swinnerton, Jazz Secretary
- L.C. Jenkins '', General Secretary
- Bryn Pugh, MC in the folk room
- Frank Duffy, initial Folk Secretary
- John Dronsfield, Frank's successor