the blokes that came to the sink from manchester were i believe pretty well known but not to me i'm afraid but i will find out exactly who they were and pm you there names, but regarding the two clubs they were both popular with the mods i believe long before the northern soul tag, the original wheel on brazennose st
i understand played a great deal of r&b same as the sink did , what i should have said was both clubs were popular with the people in to early r&b and soul ,but the wheel went on to play more american imports and what then became northern soul i think thats when they came to manchester as you put it,
i just found these two bits on the net folks might find interesting
Al's Soul Shack - The Venues - The Sink, Liverpool
soulman1949.com/sink/sink.html
www.modculture.co.uk/feature-sinking-back-into-the-past
regarding why northern soul didnt catch on in liverpool im not that sure but i think i might have the answer for the later years ....there has always been a large student population in liverpool in the late 70s the indie thing took off and was big with the student population infact it still is, also acid house and the likes , hence cream and cream fields , i think its the older genaration of soulies up and down the country that kept northern / rare soul alive , in liverpool there simply wasn't that many from the start but it would be definately wrong to say there wasn't any soul in liverpool
disclaimer ( i could be wrong and if so im not that bothered)