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The King Mojo Club


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'There used to be a club down on [London's]Wardour Street called the Discotheque and I took it to Sheffield, this idea of playing records and no groups. What? So I did a little Tuesday night in my King Mojo club and charged one shilling to get in. And I advertised all the records I was going to play in the local paper. Within three months it was the biggest night of the year. Wow!'

Stringfellow, it transpires, is markedly less willing to discuss his taste in music than what he's achieved. Asked to name his favourite song he opts eventually for the Beatles' 'magical' 'Please Please Me', 'which they played for me at my club in February 1963'. So impressed was he that he formed a group, the Lizards ('Don't have to explain that one, do I? Beatles, Lizards'), convinced that he too was equipped to be a star.

'I just wanted that microphone,' he reflects. 'Tried to make a record, couldn't sing, only when I'm drunk. Don't know about keys or notes, know nothing to this day. I could've been an iconic rock star otherwise.'

Peter Stringfellow
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PINK FLOYD LIVE AT THE MOJO

7th May 1967 - Peter Stringfellows, King Mojo Club, Tollbar, Sheffield, Yorkshire, England

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One of my fav (well my only) Stevie Wonder story is when a young soul promoter called Peter Stringfella (yes that mulleted permi-tanned lotharia) had booked him in the 60s.

At the time PS was actually living in an improvised flatlet in his own nightspot up norf somewhere which he shared with his long suffereing lass.

Anyhows, there is a buzz on the main door and some shifty looking black american doods cruise in and announce that SW has arrived early and wants to check the venue out for the ensuing show.

In he arrives with draped camel coat and shades doing that head wobble thing and whispers in one of the entourages ear.

‘The man in then turns to PS and announces ‘Mr Wonder needs to take a dump in a nice clean John!’

PS realises the only decent loo is in his own quarters and rushes upstairs to prepare for the great royal flush. He amazingly finds his lass butt naked in a big bubble bath and she refuses to budge, and of course the loo is adjacent to the tub.

PS then has an erueka moment and says ‘Just keep mute and don’t move’ He then leads SW (who is blessed but lacks sight) into the royal throne room.

Job Done or so it seems, after nigh on 35 minutes SW re-appears with a beaming smile and says ‘I like this place’ He ushers him back downstairs and eventually confronts his seething lass sitting with fingers covering nose in a flat cold bubble bath who is red with rage and says one thing ‘He sings whilst he shits and he stinks real bad’.

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JIMI HENDRIX LIVE AT THE MOJO CLUB

JIMI PLAYS SHEFFIELD (8 JANUARY 1967)

by Graham Oliver

This Jimi Plays… feature is one with a difference: it allows us a rare and fascinating insight into the finances of one of Jimi’s earliest UK club performances. After a performance by myself and some friends during the ‘Jimi Hendrix Memorial Concert’ at the National Centre for Popular Music on Monday 18 September 2000 in Sheffield, I interviewed Dave Manvell for UniVibes. Dave attended the Jimi Hendrix Experience concert [60 minutes] at the Mojo Club in the Tollbar, Sheffield, Yorkshire, on Sunday 8 January 1967.

Graham Oliver: What are your reasons for attending tonight’s concert?

Dave Manvell: I came tonight as I thought it would be a good way to remember Jimi Hendrix since it was the 30th anniversary of his death… Also, I was hoping to be able to talk to you afterwards and show you a piece of unique Hendrix memorabilia Peter Stringfellow has loaned to me.

These are the account cards Peter’s mum made out for the night the Jimi Hendrix Experience played the Mojo Club in Sheffield.

As you can see, there was an audience of 416 people, and it cost 5 shillings for members and 6 shillings for non-members. Peter told me that he paid the JHE 50 pounds for the night.

GO: What do you remember of that night at the Mojo Club?

DM: The gig is something that will stay with me forever – a night of rock history. Of course we have to thank Peter Stringfellow as he was very forward-looking and booked Jimi Hendrix to play at the Mojo Club.

But it was touch and go whether the Jimi Hendrix Experience would play that evening in Sheffield as the night before the band had been involved in a drug bust at the Twisted Wheel venue in Manchester. Noel Redding was hung by his coat on some railings by the police, apparently breaking two of his ribs; the officers concerned were later dismissed for this. I met Noel Redding a couple of years ago and he still vividly remembers that night….

GO: How did the Mojo Club gig in Sheffield go?

DM: Even before the gig started there were problems as the Sheffield police had been tipped off about the night before in Manchester. Peter Stringfellow told me an amusing story about this.

The police in Sheffield at that time didn’t quite know what to do when they received the tip-off from Manchester, so they sent in the fire brigade to check upon things! As Peter related it to me, two burly firemen came into the Mojo Club to see Jimi and said to him, “Come on blackie, where are the drugs?” To which Jimi replied, “No drugs in here, man!”

They looked around and could not find anything, so Peter told them to apologise to Jimi, which they did. Jimi replied, “Hey, cool, man” from behind a large spliff he had just lit up….

GO: Did you get a chance to talk to Jimi that night?

DM: Yes, but only a few words. While he was playing I stood on the floor beside him, the stage being only 12 to 18 inches high. When he took a break, he stepped off the stage and asked me the way to the toilets, so I told him to follow me.

As we stood together, he asked me if he could get some “stuff.” I told him to hang around at the club as this was the usual place to buy. Of course it was all very innocent in those days – usually uppers and downers, which had been taken from grannies’ pill bottles.

GO: Can you tell me anything about the guitars Jimi used that night, and what songs he played?

DM: As I remember it, Jimi had two Stratocasters: a sunburst and a blue one.

They played “Purple Haze,” which Jimi said they were going to record (they did so three days later, on 11 January 1967). They also performed “Wild Thing” – Jimi talked about incorporating the British National Anthem into it to suit the occasion.

Jimi also played something he called his version of the Blitz. It had wailing sirens and explosions all generated by his guitar and amps [possibly “Third Stone From The Sun”].

And he did all the usual things, like playing behind his back, playing with his teeth, attacking the amps with his guitar, and bouncing the guitar on the stage. I recall him changing to the blue Strat for the destructive bit.

Musically, it was a real turning point in my life. I remember going back home after the gig and being unable to sleep from all the excitement at the show, I wrote the following poem:

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THE SMALL FACES LIVE AT THE MOJO CLUB

They were kicked out of their first out-of-town gig -- a workingmen's club in Sheffield -- after only three songs.

Despondent, they literally walked into the mod-oriented Mojo Club nearby, offered to perform for free and played a blistering set that had the locals screaming for more and started a strong buzz.

And another account:

While playing an afternoon gig at the Starlight Rooms in Oxford Street they came to the attention of a young Elkie Brooks, who alerted club owner Maurice King, who became their manager.

His first move was to book them at a Sheffield working men's club. The gig was a real disaster, but, in one of the fairytale moments that seemed to characterise their early careers, they crossed the road to find the Mojo, the local Mod club, where the band played for nothing but brought the house down.

The band drove back to London with renewed morale.

The incident is recalled by Steve Marriott (actual band member)

In Sheffield they kicked us out after the first couple of songs. While we were playing all these old members shouted out.

I remember this one old girl. I said "I'd like to do a number by James Brown" and this old woman -- to me she seemed old, she must have been around forty -- started screaming. She loved it! She was hip, so we kind of played to her, the only one in the audience who know what we were doing. And the guy just slung us off after about three numbers. Paid us off and told us to wee wee off.

We also played at the Esquire club, a trendy blues club. We played the next night at the Mojo -- the biggest club we'd played -- 'cos they put us up for the night. It was a great club, it really was. A very appreciative crowd. Very much a Mod club. I think we only did the one gig there until we had a hit record, then it was all over.

It wasn't very long after, just a matter of months, that we hit. We were their band -- it was like they discovered us, so they went crazy when we went back. They used to go flipping berserk whenever we played there -- we used to play two sets a night for a couple of nights. It was a special place for us, because of the crowd and because they did give us a break when no one else was willing to do so.

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Meanwhile Maurice King saw great potential in the Small Faces and went out of his way to get them gigs. King dropped an almighty large when acquiring their first gig though, when he booked the boys into a working men's club in the land of the cloth cap, Sheffield. The club was full of hard-drinking coal miners and middle-aged teddy boys waiting to be entertained by what they thought was a a cabaret circuit group singing oldies and a selection of "safe" chart material. Just what were these softy southerners playing at, sporting sculptured bouffant-styled haircuts, wearing window pane check button-down shirts, white Sta-press trousers, tonic trousers, Italian turquoise hand-made shoes and candy striped three button jackets with the waif-like teenage lead singer belting out the blues like an elderly black soul brother who had just found his way out of the Mississippi Delta?

Needless to say, the band went down about as well as a pork chop at a barmitzvha and after steaming through Jimmy Reed's Baby What You Want Me Do they had the plugs pulled out on them halfway through their faithful version of James Brown's Please Please Please. Undeterred, the boys stumbled across a club called the Mojo where the local species of mod hung out. When they arrived at the Mojo, they found that the place was packed with young hipsters dancing the night away in an amphetamine-induced heaven. Two brothers ran the club and Steve and Ronnie asked them if they could play there. The brothers gave the boys the go-ahead and the whole place went crazy.

Steve Marriott recalled the night they left the working men's club and found the Mojo: "Our stuff wasn't right for them. We were paid off after three numbers. We walked through the streets feeling utterly brought down. Then we came to the entrance of a club that looked bright and with it. We could see lots of young people going in. On the spur of the moment we went in and told the owners we would play for nothing. They agreed. We played for all we were worth, taking courage from the fact that the audience were mainly teenagers. All mods in fact. Well we went a bomb. The audience raved like mad and kep yelling for more. Although we told the owner we didn't want anything, he gave us a fiver each towards our expenses. So we went back to London happy. Or at least we started happy. What took the edge off things was that we ran out of petrol on the way back and had to wait for the filling station to open."

Kenney Jones on Sheffield: "One of our first fans was an old lady of sixty who knew all the James Brown numbers we were playing and kept asking for more. She knew 'em all."

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Big names at the King Mojo Club

Did you know that Burngreave has seen its share of stardom perform at the King Mojo Club back in the 60’s? For just three years, from 1964 to 1967 the club on Pitsmoor Road became a thriving scene of modern music and a place where an amazing array of famous names performed.

Many Burngreave locals know the story of how Peter Stringfellow, London night club owner, started his career in this neighbourhood. To find out more about the club and hear about the bands that played there, I went to meet Ted and Leroy Walcott and Joseph Brown at a house on Burngreave Road. Joseph started off:

“We were just teenagers at a time when teenagers were first discovering their freedom! And we loved music so we started going to the club every week, from the day it opened to the day it closed. It was just up the road and it was quite something! People used to come from all over – Lincoln, even London! And everyone came for the music. There was just a coffee bar – no alcohol sold there. When it started it cost two shillings and sixpence to get in! The décor wasn’t much – all black paint inside but the music was fantastic!”

The club was based in an ordinary house that had formerly been Dey’s School of Dancing. The ballroom had a sprung floor (“Great for the twist!” said Leroy, “as it was covered in that slippery white stuff dancers put on their shoes!”) When asked what bands they had seen there, all three reeled off a list of names that blows the mind: Ike and Tina Turner, Stevie Wonder, The Who (“They were a loud lot!”), Rod Stewart, Jimmy Cliff, Elton John, Joe Cocker, John Mayall’s Blues Breakers, Geno Washington, Jimi Hendrix…and so many more. In fact it was forty years ago this January that Jimi Hendrix played in the Mojo!

A lot of the British bands were up and coming at the time, not yet famous,” said Ted,

“although there were famous names too, mostly the American bands that were already established. That place really took off as a club!”

“And it was the start of our musical career too,” said Leroy. “We had just formed a band in ‘66 called The Pitiful Souls and asked Pete if we could practice at the Mojo. He agreed and one day, when we still only knew six songs, he heard us and said, “Right, you’re on for an all nighter!” That set us off on a musical career that took us touring in Europe, the Middle East and Japan. We did that for fifteen years and two of our band members settled in Japan, marrying there.”

For the Mojo, however, the end was in sight. Complaints from neighbours of noise and drug taking resulted in the club being closed down in 1967. Peter Stringfellow and his brother Geoff started up a new club in the city centre but it lacked the atmosphere of the Mojo and so they moved on to Leeds and then London. The house became a bingo club and was finally demolished in the 80’s, its place now occupied by a block of modern housing. But the memory still lives on of how the Mojo brought excitement to the music scene of Pitsmoor and the whole of Sheffield. It’s hard to imagine some of the really great names in the music world playing here…but they really did!

A big thank you to Ted, Leroy and Joseph for talking to me about the Mojo Club!

by Nikky Wilson.

If you want to read more about the Mojo and the bands that played there, try ‘Memories of Sheffield’s King Mojo Club’ by Dave Manvell and John Firminger: there’s a copy in Burngreave Library.

Burngreave Voices: Our Stories Celebrated is a Sheffield Galleries and Museums Trust project in partnership with Sheffield Libraries and Information Service, supported by Burngreave New Deal for Communities.

Source - The Burngreave Messenger - http://www.burngreavemessenger.org

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BANDS WHO PLAYED LIVE AT THE MOJO

Pink Floyd

Stevie Wonder

Georgie Fame

Geno Washington

Alan Bown Set

Graham Bond

Zoot Money

John Lee Hooker

Rod Stewart

Shotgun Express

The Graham Bond Organization (drummer was Ginger Baker)

The Vibrations

Ike and Tina Turner

Chris Farlowe

The Who

Spencer Davies

the Small Faces

Jimi Hendrix

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Hi There,

Where to start with the fantastic Mojo club!! Opened 1964 and (forcibly) closed in 1967. Played Soul, Blue Beat, Rock, Ska, Rock, West Coast. Psychedelic rock, Blues - and a bit of classical! Did so much for the Sheffield (and northern) music scene. people would travel hours to get there. There were some club members from London.

But out of all the types of music good played there, soul was always a club fave and much of what we danced to (before The Torch Club in Stoke and The Wigan Casino) became later known as Northern soul. The club, the crowd, the music, the live bands, the people I got to know, the good times, the atmosphere were all about the best I have ever known in any club I have ever been to. At the time in the north of England it was one of very few places to go to and be able to hear and dance to such sounds. The Dungeon on Nottingham, and the Twisted Wheel in Manchester were perhaps the two nearest and longest running clubs during the Mojo's time. Peter Stringfellow was the main DJ really knew his music and bought much of it in London in the beginning. He had too, this was a time when even Motown when it first appeared had to ordered on import.

The club interior started off with a dark African Voodoo sort of decor, but got repainted each year it was open. The next decor included murals of a large 1920s gangster car, a target with some guys getting shot under the title 'Al Capones Guns Don't Argue', and a war scene with the title 'What Did You Do in the War Daddy'. The next decor was Pop art style with Superman and the words 'Wham' and 'Kapow' on the walls. The last decor was a colourful and visual blast of Psychedelic and mystical east indian painting, which I helped to paint. Peter talked me into it, as I was artistic but had never attempted to paint a mural before. I found it easier than I had imagined and it was the beginning of a new sideline for me of painting clubs around the area over period of several years. I worked at C&A Modes in Sheffield at the time and even ended up doing some amazing paintings on the walls of the store.

I am working with Dave Manvell, one of the co authors of the recent Mojo book, on another book about Pop Art in the Sheffield clubs which will feature my work among others. If anyone out there has any info or photos which could be included in the book please get in touch.

Anyway, some bands you have missed off the list who played at the Mojo

The Move (smashed TVs up onstage with an axe)

Eric Burdon & the Animals (not long back from the USA - had an American lighting manager and incredible light show)

Wilson Pickett

Edwin Starr (his first gig in this country)

Inez and Charlie Foxx

The Nice (Keith Emmerson stuck a great knife in the keyboard of his Hammond Organ)

A very few of the club's favourite tracks:-

1964

Needle in a Haystack - Velvelettes

Al Capone - Prince Buster

Can I Get a Witness - Marvin Gaye

Can You Jerk Like Me - The Contours

Everybody Needs Somebody - Solomon Burke

Dancing in the Streets - Martha Reeves and the Vandellas

1965

Shake and Fingerpop - Jnr Walker and the Allstars

The Duck - Jackie Lee

Everthing is Gonna be Alright - Willie Mitchell

Let the Good Times Roll - Bunny Sigler

Midnight Mover - Wilson Pickett

My Girl - Otis Redding

1966

Philly Dog - Mar-keys

Get Your Backfield in Motion - Poindexter Brothers

Alvins Boogaloo - Alvin Cash

I Spy for the FBI - Jamo Thomas

Function at theJunction - Shorty Long

Knock on Wood - Eddie Floyd

1967

Turn on your Lovelight - Oscar Toney Jnr

I Got a Feeling - Jimmy Cliff

I Take What I Want - James & Bobby Purify

Everlasting Love - Robert Knight

60 Minutes of my Love - Homer Banks

Sittin' in the Park - Billy Stewart

Last record played on the last night The Mojo was open was I'm Gonna Miss You by The Artistics.

More Mojo memories to come, and some photos too. Any old Mojo members out there who remember me?

Paul Norton

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Absolutely brilliant post

Just a quick question because I just can't get my head around this

Bands like Pink Floyd played there, bands that you would naturally relate to huge stadium gigs.

But the Mojo just looks the size of a house ?

Just how big was it and what was the size of the area that these bands played in ?

It's hard to imagine Pink Floyd or Jimi Hendrix playing in a living room..

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The Mojo does indeed look like a house from the outside. The ground floor rooms of the house were used as club offices to the left and dressing rooms to the right. The rear of the house led into the club area near the toilets. The first floor was a flat where Peter, his wife Coral and a very large Pyrean mountain dog called Fune lived.

The actual club area at the Mojo was behind the house really. The entrance was reached by walking down the side of the house from a car park situated area to the left and in front of the house. At the club entrance was a small cash booth, then a corridor ran to the left and turned right into the main club area ahead. It was a fairly large room, enough for several hundred at a push. It had a sprung wooden dance floor (it had at one time been a dance hall). As you came in, the main stage and DJ area was to the left at one end, doors at the other end leading to the toilets. A coffee snack bar area was behind a screen to the left of the stage, and a coat/handbag bar to the right as you went into the main dance area.

But in those days groups hardly ever played in large venues or footfall grounds etc. there werent many large gigs to play, nor as compared to today, did the groups have several vans full of equipment. Sure there was the likes of the Albert Hall in London and other places, and nearer to home the Sheffield City Hall, some ballrooms, some cinemas with stages, workingmens clubs etc. But this was only 1964, two years in from the music and youth culture explosion which emanated nationally like a tidal wave from the success of the Beatles, and many (possible) gig places either hadn't caught on or weren't even built - yet; least of all thinking of putting on a 'pop music concert in a stadium.

Back then, many live gigs were in, what appear now to be, very small venues. At the Mojo, the stage was only about 2 feet high, and I was close enough, if I wanted, to touch 'Little' Stevie Wonder and Tina Turner and others while they sang on it, no security cordon, no security fencing. The live groups at the Mojo, like many small clubs, even had to walk right through the crowd from the dressing rooms at the back to get on stage. You can imagine what I feel like now when I get a £30-50 stadium ticket and am so far back I can only see the group properly on a large diamond screen! It makes me very nostalgic for the old days I can tell you.

Paul Norton

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Ha ha !!!

Brilliant !

I wasnt' aware of any of that - especially about the club being at the back. I was imagining a house party with Pink Floyd stood over in the corner playing away !!

God - if only there was a time machine so you could travel back and walk in whilst Stevie Wonder was playing etc.

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http://www.sheffieldhistory.co.uk/forums/uploads/monthly_06_2007/post-42-1182255065.jpghttp://www.sheffieldhistory.co.uk/forums/uploads/monthly_06_2007/post-42-1182255040.jpg

http://www.sheffieldhistory.co.uk/forums/uploads/monthly_06_2007/post-42-1182255002.jpghttp://www.sheffieldhistory.co.uk/forums/uploads/monthly_06_2007/post-42-1182254965.jpg

The Mojo photos are one of myself and a friend called Kath in the Mojo car park, one of the Buddha paintings I painted in early 1967, one of The Nice onstage with Keith Emmerson attacking his Hammond organ, and an earlier shot of Peter on stage possibly in 1966.

Paul Norton

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http://www.sheffieldhistory.co.uk/forums/uploads/monthly_06_2007/post-42-1182255356.jpghttp://www.sheffieldhistory.co.uk/forums/uploads/monthly_06_2007/post-42-1182255284.jpg

http://www.sheffieldhistory.co.uk/forums/uploads/monthly_06_2007/post-42-1182255226.jpghttp://www.sheffieldhistory.co.uk/forums/uploads/monthly_06_2007/post-42-1182255201.jpg

More Mojo pics.

Eric Burdon on stage, the back of the stage has a white sheet over it for their light show projections.

General view of dance floor, one late evening in 1965. Gangster murals can be seen at the back. One of the in club fashions for a while was the 1920's.

The main stage area as repainted in early 1967.

The last one is a killer. Peter on the decks during the very last night of the Mojo in 1967. The guy in shot is probably crying, I know I was.

Love and Peace

Paul Norton

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As an ex Mojo clubber, I realise I may be prejudiced here, but the Mojo was forcibly closed as in the 'man' (Sheffield City Council and the Police) wanted it closed, so that was that. By 1967 new government legislation was brought in, which I think meant that all premises which needed licences (Liquor, gambling, entertainment etc) had to apply each year. This meant of course that anyone who didnt want someone to get a licence could complain, leading to possible refusal of license. Around the time I think a bunch of places were closed in Sheffield the same way, but the authorities guns were definately out for the Stringfellows.

The Police and the Council quickly started calling Burngreave a 'Residential area' and also trawled local people who lived near the club ( the ones who didnt go there of course) who were happy to officially complain about everything from noise, drugs, clubbers wearing underwear in the street, contraceptives left in their gardens and even one guy who was a budgie breeder and said his birds couldnt breed because of all the club noise!

Sadly there was a bit of drugs around, (and I mean a bit) mainly speed, and they werent bought into the club by the Sheffield crowd, but I dont think anyone was ever caught holding inside or outside the club either. The 'underwear' was the fashionable empire line style chiffon dresses worn by some of the girls, the contraceptive thing we reckon was just made up. Anyway the main reason folks went to the club for was to dance - the sex hopefully came later.

So the place was closed as soon as they could. No taking into consideration about something harmless for kids to do, get them off the streets etc. It was featured in the local papers, radio and TV, and even in the national music press, and the club got a lot of support. The Stringfellows put on some 'Save The Mojo' gigs at the City Hall Ballroom and at Leeds to raise funds for an appeal in court. They had their appeal and their day in court and surprise, surprise, it made no difference, the Mojo stayed closed.

The silly thing was that it wasnt that long before Peter and Geoff applied for, and got, another club licence. This time for the Down Broadway in the centre of Sheffield on the High Street. Bistro during the day and a club at night. It was OK, even good at times, but it wasnt the Mojo. I don't think anywhere else could ever have been a replacement.

Paul Norton

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Thanks Paul

Am I right in thinking that the Down Broadway was downstairs, through a door in the alleyway to the right of where the Old Blue Bell was (now cavells) ?

And am I right that it didn't have a drinks licence ?

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Yes Down Broadway was in a basement area accessed through a door and a flight of steps down. It was next to a shoe shop and the pub you mentioned.

No drinks licence. Just food.

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Ah - I just remembered that it was a shoe shop - I forgot that - it's now a bakery/bread/sandwich place

I remember Brian from The Old Blue Bell telling me about the old nightclub under his pub but didn't take much notice at the time..

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Guest Atom Retro

THE KING MOJO CLUB

LOCATION

555 Pitsmoor Road, Sheffield 3

INFORMATION

In 1966/67 Sophia Loren made a part of one of her italian films in sheffield and extras were recruited from the mojo club

PICTURES

club card

POSTERS

LINKS

Buy the posters - http://www.modculture.co.uk/posters/

...Just an update, the Posters are actually sold by Bullet, you can buy them on the internet via thier eBay shop here: http://stores.ebay.co.uk/BULLET-SHOWROOM_ROCK-AND-POP-MEMORABILIA_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfsubZ4QQftidZ2QQtZkm ://http://stores.ebay.co.uk/BULLET-SHO...QQftidZ2QQtZkm ://http://stores.ebay.co.uk/BULLET-SHO...QQftidZ2QQtZkm ://http://stores.ebay.co.uk/BULLET-SHO...QQftidZ2QQtZkm

Or those of you lucky enough to live in Sheffield should head on down to the Bullet Showroom. Their website is: http://bullet.org.uk/

The posters are a one-off reprint, printed via the methods the artist Colin Duffield used to print the original sixties posters. Once they are gone, they won't be reprinted so don't miss out!

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Bonjour from Brussels,

really nice to read all the stories about the King Mojo Club (really looking forward to read the book, just ordered a copy). If you are interested about more original mod stories , feel free to check out our website JACK THAT CAT WAS CLEAN http://jackthatcatwasclean.blogspot.com

Does anybody remember a certain Steve DIXON , he wrote an article about the Club in the early 80s for a UK magazine, sorry but i only have a french translation of the article .

keep up the good work

Thierry

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Hi There,

Where to start with the fantastic Mojo club!! Opened 1964 and (forcibly) closed in 1967. Played Soul, Blue Beat, Rock, Ska, Rock, West Coast. Psychedelic rock, Blues - and a bit of classical! Did so much for the Sheffield (and northern) music scene. people would travel hours to get there. There were some club members from London.

But out of all the types of music good played there, soul was always a club fave and much of what we danced to (before The Torch Club in Stoke and The Wigan Casino) became later known as Northern soul. The club, the crowd, the music, the live bands, the people I got to know, the good times, the atmosphere were all about the best I have ever known in any club I have ever been to. At the time in the north of England it was one of very few places to go to and be able to hear and dance to such sounds. The Dungeon on Nottingham, and the Twisted Wheel in Manchester were perhaps the two nearest and longest running clubs during the Mojo's time. Peter Stringfellow was the main DJ really knew his music and bought much of it in London in the beginning. He had too, this was a time when even Motown when it first appeared had to ordered on import.

The club interior started off with a dark African Voodoo sort of decor, but got repainted each year it was open. The next decor included murals of a large 1920s gangster car, a target with some guys getting shot under the title 'Al Capones Guns Don't Argue', and a war scene with the title 'What Did You Do in the War Daddy'. The next decor was Pop art style with Superman and the words 'Wham' and 'Kapow' on the walls. The last decor was a colourful and visual blast of Psychedelic and mystical east indian painting, which I helped to paint. Peter talked me into it, as I was artistic but had never attempted to paint a mural before. I found it easier than I had imagined and it was the beginning of a new sideline for me of painting clubs around the area over period of several years. I worked at C&A Modes in Sheffield at the time and even ended up doing some amazing paintings on the walls of the store.

I am working with Dave Manvell, one of the co authors of the recent Mojo book, on another book about Pop Art in the Sheffield clubs which will feature my work among others. If anyone out there has any info or photos which could be included in the book please get in touch.

Anyway, some bands you have missed off the list who played at the Mojo

The Move (smashed TVs up onstage with an axe)

Eric Burdon & the Animals (not long back from the USA - had an American lighting manager and incredible light show)

Wilson Pickett

Edwin Starr (his first gig in this country)

Inez and Charlie Foxx

The Nice (Keith Emmerson stuck a great knife in the keyboard of his Hammond Organ)

A very few of the club's favourite tracks:-

1964

Needle in a Haystack - Velvelettes

Al Capone - Prince Buster

Can I Get a Witness - Marvin Gaye

Can You Jerk Like Me - The Contours

Everybody Needs Somebody - Solomon Burke

Dancing in the Streets - Martha Reeves and the Vandellas

1965

Shake and Fingerpop - Jnr Walker and the Allstars

The Duck - Jackie Lee

Everthing is Gonna be Alright - Willie Mitchell

Let the Good Times Roll - Bunny Sigler

Midnight Mover - Wilson Pickett

My Girl - Otis Redding

1966

Philly Dog - Mar-keys

Get Your Backfield in Motion - Poindexter Brothers

Alvins Boogaloo - Alvin Cash

I Spy for the FBI - Jamo Thomas

Function at theJunction - Shorty Long

Knock on Wood - Eddie Floyd

1967

Turn on your Lovelight - Oscar Toney Jnr

I Got a Feeling - Jimmy Cliff

I Take What I Want - James & Bobby Purify

Everlasting Love - Robert Knight

60 Minutes of my Love - Homer Banks

Sittin' in the Park - Billy Stewart

Last record played on the last night The Mojo was open was I'm Gonna Miss You by The Artistics.

More Mojo memories to come, and some photos too. Any old Mojo members out there who remember me?

Paul Norton

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