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The (King) Mojo Club in Sheffield was where I first got to experience the excitement of watching numerous live soul acts. Whether it was UK based outfits that played the Sunday night sessions (Jimmy J
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An earlier attempt I made at writing about the Mojo (this dates from the mid 80's) ..... Although it is not more than 30 years since the club closed down, the memories of the King Mojo Club in Sh
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If only I had a time machine!
The (King) Mojo Club in Sheffield was where I first got to experience the excitement of watching numerous live soul acts. Whether it was UK based outfits that played the Sunday night sessions (Jimmy James & Vags, Geno Washington & RJB, Alan Bown, Jimi Hendrix, Sonny Childe & TNT, Chris Farlowe, Jimmy Cliffe & Breakdown Sound, etc.) or the American based acts that played the Saturday 'niters' or Sunday 'dayers' (Stevie Wonder, Garnet Mimms, Spellbinders, Alvin Cash & Crawlers, Roy C, Jnr Walker, Edwin Starr, Inez & Charlie Foxx, Ike & Tina Turner, Rufus Thomas, Wilson Pickett, Ben E King, Isley Bros, etc). In addition to all the live acts there were all the great new sounds on record that the place introduced me to (either directly or indirectly). The place was so influential in Yorkshire, that a new dance performed @ the Mojo would have spread out to clubs in Doncaster, Hull, Goole, Grimsby, Lincoln, Worksop & beyond within days. The same went for all the new records that Pete Stringfellow would spin. If Brenton Wood's “Gimme Little Sign” was played on import at the niter, club DJ's across the county would be chasing a copy by the Tuesday.
Top sounds @ the Mojo in 1967 were the Brenton Wood cut already mentioned, the Artistics “I'm Gonna Miss You”, Homer Banks “60 Minutes of Your love” & “A Lot Of Love”, Bud Harper “Mr. Soul”, Major Lance “The Beat”, Chubby Checker “Discotheque”, Inez & Charlie Foxx “Tightrope”, Wilson P's “Midnight Hour”, Eddie Floyd's “Knock On Wood”, Darrell Banks “Open The Door”, Phil Upchurch “Can't Sit Down”, Impressions “You've Been Cheatin”, COD's “Michael”, Rex Garvin's “Sock It To Em JB”, Lee Dorsey's “Ride Your Pony”, Fontella Bass “Rescue Me”, loads from Willie Mitchell, “The In Crowd”, “Never Like This Before”, “Billy's Bag”, “Harlem Shuffle” and many more. The list above doesn't even include any of the many Motown tracks that were anthems, as these are just too numerous to mention. The odd ska track was also still played; Prince Buster, the Folk Brothers & Roland Alphonso. But it wasn't only 45's that Pete played. Tracks such as Stevie Wonder's “Love A GoGo” and Billy Stewart's “Exodus” were up there amongst the top legendary tracks played on a regular basis. In addition to all the normal activities of an everyday niteclub, the Mojo always went further. Pete allowed local acts to record tracks at the club for inclusion on Sheffield University charity rag records, sold mostly locally for a week or two in a particular year (in 67 the likes of Joe Cocker & local black act the Pityful Souls featured on the Rag EP).
In the middle of each week, Pete would disappear off to London to run the dance floor action on TV show RSG. Here, he would obtain all the new 45's (UK & US) plus make new contacts re: booking live acts. One of Jimi Hendrix's 1st live UK gigs (outside London) was at the Mojo. If you wanted to go down and be on RSG, then you only had to ask him & tickets for the show would be produced. A barrel stood at the end of the (low) stage area and the more adventurous good dancers would climb on top of this and dance. The stage was at the very back of the building, while the dressing room/s was at the very front. There was no other way to get on and off the stage other than to walk through the entire length of the club (across the dance floor). So, if the artists were really giving a great show, Stringers would encourage everyone to squash up even tighter at the front & he'd tell the act that they couldn't leave the stage until the crowd let them (when we'd had enough). Many a time, we'd get extended encores until the singer would just about collapse on stage. Little Stevie Wonder had a real torrid time as being blind, he had no real idea what was going on as he was escorted on & off stage.
The usual practice, ahead of the Mojo niters, was for lots of soulies to gather in Dony late afternoon / evening at a coffee bar at the bottom of Lazarus Court (off East Lathe Gate). When a crowd from Scunny, Goole, Hull had teamed up with locals, we'd eventually head off to Sheffield, mob handed. Unfortunately the Mojo club was housed in a converted house in the middle of a residential area. Locals didn't take kindly to all these strangely clad teenagers turning up at nearly midnight every Saturday night. Milk bottles would disappear off door steps on Sunday mornings and so the club had very unhappy neighbors. The drug squad would raid the place on a regular basis but no one would ever be found with drugs on them. The place was even raided on a Sunday evening & Jimi Hendrix was questioned as to whether he had an illegal drugs. As Jimi calmly smoked a joint, he told officers that, no, he had never done drugs. But the council finally got it's way and a license was refused in early October 1967. As booze wasn't on sale in the club, it had never needed a license but then the Government fetched in legislation to make all night clubs obtain a license & so Pete attempted to gain favour. The allniters were ended, with Geno Washington being the live attraction at the last one (15th April 67). Members drifted off to attend clubs in Nottingham, Leicester, Hull, Tadcaster, Goole, Bridlington, Grimsby, Lincoln and the like.
An allniter was even set up in Scunthorpe (@ the Workshop ?) on Friday 23rd June but this was canceled at the last minute as someone got cold feet. But Pete S couldn't resist catering for the old crowd, so he started Sunday alldayers. Sunday 16th July saw the (fake) Drifters play to a capacity house and just about all the old crowd returned (the Hull lot even arranging a coach to ensure they could get home at the end of the night). But the club was doomed and so Pete, seeing nothing was going to change the council's mind, briefly reinstated niters. An alldayer featuring the Fabulous Temptations featured at the Mojo on Sunday 3rd September, but on Saturday 23rd September the Drifters (Invitations) were the star attraction at a niter. It was home to Dony for a wash, drink & a bite(?) then back to the Mojo for a dayer starring Garnet Mimms. Jimmy Cliffe & the Shakedown Sound starred @ the following Saturday niter session. However the last ever session at the club took place on Sunday 8th October with Stevie Wonder holding sway for the dayer audience. The club was packed but by now all the local mini-mods had cottoned on to what was happening and you couldn't move for 14 / 15 year olds. Stringfellow quickly moved on, arranging big soul festivals at Sheffield City Halls & in Leeds. Other post-Mojo venues he got involved with included Castleford's Crystal Bowl but he was soon back in Sheffield with his own Down Broadway and the Penthouse Club (where niters / dayers were staged in the 80's). Pete was no longer happy in Sheffield, so moved on via Leeds, Manchester, London , Miami, LA then back to London with the Hippodrome & Stringfellows Clubs.
The crowd also moved on (finally), with some heading down to the Nite Owl each weekend but this club suffered a similar fate on December 4th. So, by default, the majority of us ended up going to the Wheel and there we got to see more great soul acts perform. But some of the old crowd now started drifting away, they found steady girlfriends, got fed up with catching Saturday trains to distant cities or trying to scrounge lifts in cars heading off to niters. So, I lost touch with many good friends, lots of whom I would never see again.
The main stays of the Mojo crowd that I hung with were this lot ….........
DONCASTER: Paul Wombwell, Monica Smith, Tom Sleight, Jack Telford, John Sullivan, Foz, Frank Nixon, Hutch, Melv Curry, Paul Tag, Kev, Steve Massey, 'Sugar' Kane, Higgo, Sev, Kendrick, Al Chappell, Al Taylor, Willowboat, Cliff Sirs, Audrie, Sandie, Eleane & a few more.
SCUNTHORPE: Steve K, Fred Benson, Mick Graham, Bob King, Steve P, Pip, Penny, Pete, Pete, Ben
CONISBORO: Chris Farrell
PETERBORO: Toots, Gunner, John
LINCOLN: Gordon Raft, Johnny Street,
HULL: Jill Everingham RIP), Mike Bird, Steve Jennison, Pat Mercer (RIP), Steve Mercer, Rupert, Paul Quinn, Phil Smith, Ipswich (actually from Ipswich but hung with Hull mob), Nick, Dunc, Tom, Denise, Val, Liz, Graham Bolton, Rikki Dobbs (DJ @ Gondola).
GOOLE: Jean, Charlie Pettigan,
NOTTINGHAM: Eric, Dave, George, Kenny Sharpe, Click, Sue, Sue
YORK: Veronica, Dee
SHEFFIELD: Ben, Rimo, Stew,
LEICESTER: Banger, Sheila,
ASHFORD: Pete, Chris
WOLVES: Sinbad
NORTHAMPTON Mick Murphy
KIDDERMINSTER: Mick, John
WALSALL: Brian
BARNSLEY AREA: names lost in mists of time but was really friendly with 2 girls from village outside of town
WORKSOP: Mick ?? grumpy lad from Shireoaks who later hung out with Pete Ward's crowd.
Lots of the names don't give you much to go on but back then it was just … Eric from Notts is in, he's with Kenny Sharpe !!
Almost all of the above went to the Mojo but as we started heading off in 67 to Leicester & Manchester, a few names above will be folks we met at the Nite Owl, Wheel who then started hanging with us in various locations.
Are any of the above on here or known to folk on here ???
I know Scunny's Fred Benson is on here … AND … Mike Bird from Hull (but now living in Sth France); his younger brother is on here – Martyn
Tom Sleight (Dony) - I'm still in touch with & we're off to a soul b'day party in Worksop in two weeks time.
Cliff Sirs is now back in Dony & I used to see Audrie at Dony do's or Cleggy Weekender until about 10 years ago. Think Chris Farrell's on here too.
Charlie Pettigan (Goole) was last heard of living in Reading (7/8 yrs back).
Edited by Roburt