Retford is a small town in north Nottinghamshire, a few miles from both Worksop in Notts and Gainsborough in Lincs, and give or take, 20 miles equidistant from Sheffield, Doncaster, Newark, Mansfield, Scunthorpe and Lincoln. Nottingham is about 30 miles away. In the mid 1960’s the population was about 15,000 rising to 18,000 by the census of 1971.

Just like everywhere else in post war Britain, a pop and rock explosion took place in Retford. Starting in the late 1950’s the Tornado’s Group became The Stormbeats who eventually became the X’Caliburs who with front man Paul Newman went on the release records in the mid sixties and toured locally and nationally for a decade or more.

During the Beat music explosion in 1964 a glut of local groups appeared. The Fugatives, The Cobra’s, The Legend, C.Q. 15, comedy rockers Nurke Wildebeeste and the Mutants, The Iva Jiva’s, Karl and the Soundcasters, The Blue Jays, The Vybratones and The Debonaires played gigs at the usual church halls, rugby and cricket clubs and the Retford Town Hall sometimes supporting bigger names when they appeared.

In 1967 the Broken Wheel club opened and Scunthorpe group The Dimples became the house band. The Broken Wheel, despite one or two closures lasted into the 1970’s providing a venue for pop, rock and soul groups to play. The club became a favourite for the soul loving community and its reputation as a Northern Soul club is still remembered today.

In the early 1970’s a new wave of progressive bands appeared with Grief’s Child leading the way. Fellow rock groups like Ribcage, Cerebral Tswett, Weeping Sac and Silmarillion kept a small scene going in Retford.

With the advent of punk the Retford Porterhouse became a gig venue hosting a wide variety of pub rock, punk rock and new wave groups into the 1980’s.

More coming on these groups and venues later …..

In the late sixties and early seventies a soul club called the Broken Wheel was the place to be. A book about this club is available on Amazon.

The book “Another Saturday Night”: The Broken Wheel, A Soul Club in Retford 1967-1971 by John Kirk is a recollection of this popular haunt for the youth of Retford in those days of the late sixties.

The club was a former warehouse and had live acts and DJs. The first owner was Lenny Hatton assisted by Mick Halliday, Big Ticker Walker and his brother Little Ticker. Scunthorpe group The Dimples became the house band. When DJ Ticker Walker moved to Belgium in 1968 he was replaced briefly by Worksop based Dinky Dawson before Dave Growns took over the reigns. Plenty of local acts played the club from Lincs, Yorkshire and Lancashire but a fair few national and American acts like Edwin Starr, The Alan Brown Set, Oscar Tony Jr, Junior Walker, JJ Jackson, The Bandwagon, Jimmy James and many more. Like many new clubs of the sixties there wasn’t an alcohol licence. They were turned down when applying again in 1971 but the music scene had also moved on ant The Wheel closed. 

With his book, John Kirk has preserved the history of this club before it lost forever and you get to feel what it was like to be soul fan in Retford. 

Here is the Soul Sauce forum page I found the info from.