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Memories Of The Mojo Club


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Tell us your memories of the Mojo Club ?

When did you go ?

What bands did you see ?

What was the layout of the club like ?

Did you know any of the regulars ?

What was the decor like ?

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Guest Atom Retro

There was also an artist who painted murals and artwork on the inside of the Mojo - does anyone have any pictures of these? The Mojo was painted every year, so it was ever changing.

We would be very interested to hear any stories of the Mojo, or indeed The Blue Moon, Black Cat Club or any other Sixties gigs (The Beatles, etc) that people may remember.

We have been researching the Mojo club for a few months, but there are a few holes in history and there doesn't appear to be an awful lot written or documented about the clubs - so we need help!

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Hi Retro,

I am one of the artists who painted murals in the Mojo Club , a club regular and a friend of Peter and Geoff's too. I have posted some of my photos of the club and paintings already on the main Mojo thread. But they dont seem to be visible at present now. I think there is some glitch which happened when the website changed servers. The site admin (Neil?) were going to check it out. I can redo them if needed

On the same thread I also posted info about the club, some of the bands and the club layout as well. So that should answer some of your questions. Let me know if there is anything else in particular you are wanting to know.

You mention researching the Mojo for some time, whats it all for?

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Guest Atom Retro

Hi PFN!

I thought I had read somewhere somebody saying they were the artist who painted the inside of the Mojo - I wasn't sure if it was here or a different forum.

Was the Mojo repainted each year? If so, did you repaint it each year or just the once? I've seen the pictures you posted for the inside of the Down Broadway club. Please do post the Mojo ones! I think I saw them when you posted them the first time but I would love to see them again.

We've been reserching Mojo (and the other Stringfellow Clubs) for a little while, firstly as a backgrounding for the T-shirts and merchandise we were making for Bullet and Colin Duffield, but then it also became a bit of a hobby. We have several poster t-shirts, and we like to put up a bit about the gig or the bands relationship with the Mojo club (or wherever they were playing), but there were a few we couldn't find out much about, and so we found this forum. Hopefully people here will be able to let us have a few interesting stories to fill the gaps.

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Hi Retro,

I have redone the Mojo photos now on the main thread, so you can check them out again. Yes the club walls were redone each year, but my involvment was only with the last murals, the flower power theme. There were three female art students involved as well, and between us we painted out the club.

I do have other photos but I am working on a book idea about Sheffield club murals and local pop art with Dave Manvell who helped to put out a book about the Mojo a couple of years ago. So I dont want to show all of them just yet, so watch this space!

However I probably could redo some of this 60s artwork if you think it would sell on t shirts!

There is a long, long list of who played at the Mojo, whether specific dates can be linked to them is another matter. I will get my thinking cap on!

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Didnt know which thread to put this in, so apologies if its in the wrong one.

My Uncle was close freinds with Peter Stringfellow, dont know if any one knows him, Richard Sharpe??

Peter was a frequent visitor to my Nans house on Empire road when they were younger. My mum tells me about Peter Stringfellow used to come round for cups of tea when she was a young girl.

My Uncle also used to part own 'Road House' motor cycle shop on Abbeydale road, near the two churches near the bottom of Chippinghouse Rd.

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Guest david growns

Hi everybody and hello from David of Art Dinky and Dave.

Just a few little notes from me about The Mojo. One of my earliest memories was dancing in a circle much in the style as seen in the prom scene in George Lucas`s "American Graffeeti. Most of the girls had bobbed hair styles and wore 2 piece suits and hush puppies. Shirley Ellis`s The Clapping Song springs to mind . You know "3 6 9 the goose drank wine " can you remember all the rest ?

We were 3 DJ`s from Rotherham and used to help out with this and that. I remember having to help this shy guy called Reg carry his battered piano up thru` the club to the stage . Changed bands and his name to Elton and did alright.

Then there was The Alan Bown Set who played lots of gigs at the Mojo . John the sax player went on to fame with Supertramp.

I recall the night The Ike and Tina Turner Revue played The Mojo. Before the gig we went down to the Wicker to collect a take away from a restaurant and I sat upstairs in Pete and Coral`s flat with Tina . She was quite down and having problems with Ike and was missing her young children who were still back in the states. Later she put on a fantastic show with nearly 20 of them crammed on to the small stage. It was incredibly hot and at the end Dinky and I helped to carry 2 of the Ikette`s back to the dressing rooms. One was P.P.Arnold and the other Cindy Birdsong who became one of The Supremes.

Ther was a late night when Charlie and Inez Foxx had been delayed and when they arrived there were only about 50 people still there. We all sat in a circle on the dance floor and they came down from the stage and performed in the middle.

There are many many more memories so I`ll go and find some old photo`s and try to scan them.

Do you remember the dancing competitions and the trip to READY STEADY GO . Well more of that later.

Regards to you all

DAVID

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Tell us your memories of the Mojo Club ?

When did you go ?

What bands did you see ?

What was the layout of the club like ?

Did you know any of the regulars ?

What was the decor like ?

[/qoute] My only claim to fame is that I once worked with Norma , Peter`s ex wife when she was a conductoress on the buses. I think that was around 1967.

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Hi David,

Good to hear from you. If you yet haven't, check out the rest of the Mojo links for some photos and info from me and others.

Clapping Song oh yeah! The rest of the verse you quoted is '...the monkey threw tobacco on the streetcar line, the line broke, the monkey got choked, and we all got together in a little row boat, clap hands.....' I think !!! Do you also remember Shirley Ellis's Do the Shingaling?

I've sent you an personal message, please drop me line. Myself and Dave Manvell keen to get in touch and swop Mojo info and photos.

Regards,

Paul Norton

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Guest stalborg

Hi everyone!

This is my first post since registering on the site (great site it is too!) just thought I'd mention that Peter Stringfellow is my dads cousin, so I hear lots of stories - though not all of them are printable lol - from the Mojo club days.

They were great friends as well as cousins and got up to allsorts together. Dad used to help out with any 'unsavoury' characters in the club apparently.

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Hello,

I've just registered today as a result of doing a search for the Mojo Club on Google and up popped this forum.

The question about the Mojo Club struck a chord with me as I was the rhythm guitarist for the band 'Who's Who? based in Sheffield in the sixties.

Our drummer, Malc Trippett knew Reuben Mooney who lived in the old Grand Hotel.

Malc knew that Mr Mooney owned the then Tower Ballroom and we wanted to know if we could use the ballroom for rehearsals as it was not being used at the time.

Mr Mooney said yes and that, if we wanted, we could even organise dances there, which we did.

It wasn't long before Pete Stringfellow heard of this and approached Mr Mooney and bought said ballroom!

So Who's Who? discovered the place but Pete bought it!!

The rest, as they say, is history.

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Guest Francine

Hi Retro,

I am one of the artists who painted murals in the Mojo Club , a club regular and a friend of Peter and Geoff's too. I have posted some of my photos of the club and paintings already on the main Mojo thread. But they dont seem to be visible at present now. I think there is some glitch which happened when the website changed servers. The site admin (Neil?) were going to check it out. I can redo them if needed

On the same thread I also posted info about the club, some of the bands and the club layout as well. So that should answer some of your questions. Let me know if there is anything else in particular you are wanting to know.

You mention researching the Mojo for some time, whats it all for?

Do you remember an art student named Paul Winter??

Francine

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Guest steppes

I lived in Barnsley. I went to the Mojo Club three times. One occasion I hold out as probably the best musical experience of my life. It was John Mayall's Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton on lead. This was an all-nighter. Clapton was my God at that time and I knelt in front of the stage at his feet. After the live music, my abiding memory is that every other record that was played was Shirley Ellis's "Clapping Song". The atmosphere was magical.

The other two of visits were to see THE WHO. They were both fantastic nights, but I was stone deaf for two days after each one.

Can anyone anser me this question? There was a music paper published in the area at that time, I think it was a Sheffield Star publication. For the life of me I can't remember what it was called.

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Guest Drumbeat62

Onather memory of the Mojo was of the kids arriving wearing the olive green combat jackets and a blanket roll over their shoulder, it was a sort of Donavon/dylan/hippy thing that preceded the flower power generation thing of the later 60s.

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Guest Drumbeat62

Can anyone anser me this question? There was a music paper published in the area at that time, I think it was a Sheffield Star publication. For the life of me I can't remember what it was called.

It was published by the 'Star Newspapers' and came out once a month, I believe it was something like 'Top Star'.

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It was published by the 'Star Newspapers' and came out once a month, I believe it was something like 'Top Star'.

I think it was "Top Star Special" DB

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Tell us your memories of the Mojo Club ?

When did you go ?

What bands did you see ?

What was the layout of the club like ?

Did you know any of the regulars ?

What was the decor like ?

I think it was some time in 1965 when we went along to the Mojo to see The Pretty Things.

The Doorman refused us entry as a couple of my mates "had longish hair" (a bit ironic considering the length of vocalist Phil Mays hair), the Doorman explaned, The Mojo has a ban on long hair to keep out a bad eliment.

We pointed the mates with" longish hair" in the direction of the pub just down Barnsley Road, the rest of us had a fab time at The Mojo!! dancing along to Tommy Tuckers High-Heel Sneakers comes to mind.

Oh to be 19 again

Southside

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Guest SuzyC

Hi everybody and hello from David of Art Dinky and Dave.

Just a few little notes from me about The Mojo. One of my earliest memories was dancing in a circle much in the style as seen in the prom scene in George Lucas`s "American Graffeeti. Most of the girls had bobbed hair styles and wore 2 piece suits and hush puppies. Shirley Ellis`s The Clapping Song springs to mind . You know "3 6 9 the goose drank wine " can you remember all the rest ?

We were 3 DJ`s from Rotherham and used to help out with this and that. I remember having to help this shy guy called Reg carry his battered piano up thru` the club to the stage . Changed bands and his name to Elton and did alright.

Then there was The Alan Bown Set who played lots of gigs at the Mojo . John the sax player went on to fame with Supertramp.

I recall the night The Ike and Tina Turner Revue played The Mojo. Before the gig we went down to the Wicker to collect a take away from a restaurant and I sat upstairs in Pete and Coral`s flat with Tina . She was quite down and having problems with Ike and was missing her young children who were still back in the states. Later she put on a fantastic show with nearly 20 of them crammed on to the small stage. It was incredibly hot and at the end Dinky and I helped to carry 2 of the Ikette`s back to the dressing rooms. One was P.P.Arnold and the other Cindy Birdsong who became one of The Supremes.

Ther was a late night when Charlie and Inez Foxx had been delayed and when they arrived there were only about 50 people still there. We all sat in a circle on the dance floor and they came down from the stage and performed in the middle.

There are many many more memories so I`ll go and find some old photo`s and try to scan them.

Do you remember the dancing competitions and the trip to READY STEADY GO . Well more of that later.

Regards to you all

DAVID

Hey David,

Alan Bown did a great album with Jimmy James and the Vagabonds, I still have it and listen to it with fond memories. Northern Soul true stuff....not Wigan but Sheffield!!

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Guest steve walker

Tell us your memories of the Mojo Club ?

When did you go ?

What bands did you see ?

What was the layout of the club like ?

Did you know any of the regulars ?

What was the decor like ?

Hi, Mojo People this is my first post on this forum, but it is not the first time I have visited it.

I first went to the Mojo as a fifteen year old in August ’65 to a record session as a guest of a mate’s older brother who was a member. It blew me away and there was nothing for it but to lie about my age and join. I would not call myself a regular, but I went as often as funds allowed. First band I saw was The Who (29 Aug ’65) and others followed

The Small Faces (Sun 21 Aug 1966)

Ike & Tina Turner (15 Oct 1966)

Zoot Money's Big Roll Band (30 Dec 1966)

Ben E King

Long John Baldry

Roy C

Edwin Starr

Chris Farlowe & the Thunderbirds

Alan Bown Set (Jan I 1967)

Jimi Hendrix Experience (8 Jan 1967)

Georgie Fame & the Blue Flames (21 Jan 1967)

Inez & Charlie Foxx (28 Jan 1967)

Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band (15 April 1967)

Stevie Wonder (8 Oct 1967)

I remember going to a Gangster Night, but I can’t remember when. It particularly stands out for me because the only way I could get any authentic looking gear was to borrow it from the old guys on our street. I borrowed the lot, pin stripe, double-breasted suit with waste coat and pocket watch, trilby hat, shirt and kipper tie, white kid gloves and black brogues.

The Ike & Tina Turner session was memorable for two reasons, first the gig itself, the atmosphere in the club was electric, second, we fell asleep on the train back to Chesterfield, woke up in Derby and didn’t get home until mid afternoon, dead on our feet, but still talking about the night.

Bought the book “Pop Art of the Mojo” recently and whilst reading it came across a name and face that I had not heard or seen for years, Paul Norton. I lived just down the hill from him in Chesterfield used to see him down town and at the Mojo.

I’ve been reading many articles on the ‘net about the Mojo but one thing I cannot find is the date of the first ever session in ’64 and the last ever session in ’67. Can anyone help?

Regards to all Steve Walker

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Guest lambo225

just found this site and trying to remember about the times and great friends I had at that time. i can remember first going to the Mojo in 64 and it had just opened and meeting Pete Jeff and later Paul.The scooters came a couple of years later and the whole 'mod' scene took off. Went to RSG but cannot remember who was on at that time!! help!!Good to hear from anyone who was part of that era.Mike Satur

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