The Reno, Moss Side’s legendary late-night soul and funk club, was demolished in 1987. A year earlier, Manchester City Council had declared the building unsafe, sealing the fate of both The Reno and its sister venue, The Nile. By 1987, the iconic late-night drinking spot at the corner of Princess Road and Moss Lane East was gone — taking with it a piece of the city’s cultural soul.
An important yet often overlooked chapter in Manchester’s cultural history, The Reno was founded in 1962 by Phil Magbotiwan, a Nigerian who had made the city his home. It quickly became a vital social hub for Manchester’s mixed-race communities. In its early years, the club regularly hosted live music, including occasional performances by calypso legend Lord Kitchener, himself a Manchester resident. Its regulars came not only from Moss Side and neighbouring Hulme, but also from Wythenshawe, Ancoats, and other working-class districts across the city.
Photo © Linda Brogan\@excavatingthereno
At The Reno, people found a sanctuary — a refuge from the racial oppression and abuse that pervaded 1970s Manchester. One former regular recalled being turned away from city centre nightspots because of his large Afro, told it was a “fire hazard.” Meanwhile, corrupt police routinely harassed young Black and mixed-race men, abusing the stop-and-search “sus” laws to intimidate and control them.
A powerful reggae track of the era, ‘Dem a Sus (In the Moss)’ by local band Harlem Spirit, directly called out this discriminatory policing. The song became an anthem of resistance, often heard blasting from sound systems in nearby Alexandra Park. The notorious ‘sus’ laws fuelled the simmering tensions that would eventually erupt into uprisings across the UK in the early 1980s.
Photo © Linda Brogan\@excavatingthereno
At its peak between 1971 and 1981, the club attracted a vibrant mix of characters — from everyday regulars to flamboyantly dressed young women, streetwise kids showing off their dance moves, frustrated artists, and weed smokers, to Manchester City’s self-styled Kool Kats. In the gambling room, older patrons in sharp suits played cards and dominoes late into the night. The Reno was a world of its own, with its own rules — and even its own successful football team, Afroville.
“The closest description I can give is Goodfellas when they walk in, and you’re either in or out. Being our colour was an absolute badge of honour; you were definitely in. The Reno was our theatre.”
- Linda Brogan.
“Yes, it may have carried a bad reputation at times, but regulars remember it as ‘one big family.’ Respect had to be earned, and it was here that lifelong friendships and relationships were forged.”
Photo © Linda Brogan\@excavatingthereno
At its peak, The Reno was one of the country’s top destinations for soul and funk. Its legendary resident DJs, Persian and Coolie, were joined over the years by fellow selectors Hewan Clarke, Chris Jam, and Tomlin (of Jam MCs). Spinning until five or six in the morning, they kept the dance floor packed with the latest U.S. imports, fresh from the shelves of Manchester’s Spin Inn Records. Thanks to its unusually late hours, The Reno became the after-hours spot — a place where revellers would drift after other clubs closed, to keep the party going and share a smoke well into the early morning.
Photo © Linda Brogan\@excavatingthereno
Muhammad Ali famously visited The Reno in 1971, alongside a string of actors and sports figures of the era, including Ray Winstone, Clive Lloyd, and Alex Higgins. Factory Records boss Tony Wilson even held his stag do there — and later poached DJ Hewan Clarke for his new venture, The Haçienda. It was even rumoured that Bob Marley dropped in around the time of his 1972 performance at Stretford’s Hardrock.
Photo © Linda Brogan\@excavatingthereno
Linda Brogan, a multi-award-winning Jamaican-Irish playwright, was a regular at The Reno from 1976 to 1983. Years later, she conceived the idea of excavating the site of the former club, determined to tell her own story — and to capture the voices of the people who lived, loved, and danced there.
The project Excavating The Reno began in 2016, when Linda started interviewing former regulars and collecting their memoirs. After securing funding from Arts Council England — and partnering with Manchester City Council and Salford University’s Applied Archaeological Unit — Linda and a team of former Reno regulars embarked on “the dig.” Over a three-week period, they excavated the grassy wasteland where the club once stood, uncovering its buried history piece by piece.
Photo © Linda Brogan\@excavatingthereno
Alongside the physical artefacts uncovered during the excavation, Linda has been collecting and archiving memories, photographs, and stories from anyone connected to The Reno. A memorial wall also honours those from The Reno community who have passed away, ensuring their names and stories are not forgotten.
For a club that served as such an important focal point for Manchester’s mixed-race communities, the remarkable work of Linda and her team is vital in ensuring The Reno’s historical and cultural significance is documented and preserved for future generations.
Photo © Paul Wright / British Culture Archive.
You can find out more, get in touch and share your memories of The Reno via the ongoing project Excavating The Reno blog and website.
You can follow Linda Brogan and the project on social media
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