RIP Peter Stringfellow

[St Petre]

9 hours ago, Janet Olsen said:

Suppose you were right in saying they were dance halls St Petre, but as someone who spent their teens years at the Mojo Club they were more than dance halls to us. Pete had so much charisma not to mention insight into the music scene back then. Where else could you have seen the bands,groups, solo artists that Pete & Geoff Stringfellow brought to the Mojo Club? They were brilliant years, open only about three years in total & here we are more than 50 years later still talking about the Mojo Club. It was something really special that really was a case of "You had to be there to understand it". All we were interested in back then was the music, the dancing & the fashion. I consider myself so lucky to have been a teen in the 60's living in Sheffield. Tin Star if you can get hold of any books about the Mojo club ,cast your eyes down the bands, groups, solo artists who played there. No matter how old you are now, I am sure you will be more than impressed to see who played there & what we paid to see them.  Fantastic times believe me.

 

Thank you, I was a Mojo regular and I believe there is a book about it somewhere.

3 hours ago, jackanne said:

I was a regular at Black Cat in 62 and every time i went there was a group on.

One thing I always remember about one evening at the Black Cat was coming back into town and getting off the bus at the top of Commercial Street and seeing newspaper sellers, not a usual sight at 10pm at night. It was a special edition as President Kennedy had been killed. Wayne Fontana and the Minbenders had been at the Black Cat that night, Nov. 22nd 1963.

[Janet Olsen]

The book  I was thinking about is called "Pop Art Of Sheffield's King Mojo & Beyond. It is by Peter Stringfellow, Dave Manvell & Paul Norton. They gave the proceeds of the book to the Sheffield Chldren's Hospital. It's mostly photos, posters etc & a very good list of the artists who played there.

 

[St Petre]

5 hours ago, Albert smith said:

Same here I would not have gone out of the door to listen to some one playing records.

 

Well Albert it was Pete playing records loud and kids dancing. That was around August 1962 and the quality of most local groups then was not great ('cept Vance), I didn't start going till early 63 and  Pete & had progressed a bit by then.

[dukeboy68]

On 07/06/2018 at 07:36, Calahonda said:

Another nail in Sheffield’s 1960’s coffin, good memories, but at least we can’t say that that he went quietly, he was a true character.

So true - loved his bigger- than-life attitude.  I used to travel over, '66 and '67 from Lincoln,  for the earlier discos so I didn't have to queue outside. Had a fabulous girlfriend (no names no pack drill...) I shared those times with. Times never to be repeated, I'm afraid - but the memories...!!!

[catmiss]

As 15 year olds me and my friend told our parents we were spending the night at each other’s house whilst we went to the Mojo. Spending freezing early mornings in Abbeyfield park waiting for a reasonable time to go home was all worth it. A few years later as student nurses we got free entrance to the Penthouse for 10 pence drinks nights. Happy days!

[Janet Olsen]

Yes it's as I said earlier in a post, you really had to be there to understand the Mojo Club.  In spite of what was reported about the place because it got nothing but bad publicity, it kept many teens out of trouble & off the  streets. I didn't see the council or any other critic offering anything to equal it for the younsters of Sheffield. Pete Stringfellow will always hold a special place in my heart I think he was  great. Many people may disagree, once again due to a lot of bad publicity & probab;ly a lot of those people didn't know him & I think a lot would envy him. Catmiss my girlfriend & I also used to do the same thing because it was all just too good to miss wan't it?

[catmiss]

It was, we were probably too young (I’d go mad if my granddaughter did anything like that) but boy did we enjoy it😀

[Janet Olsen]

So would I Catmiss & my granddaughter is the same age I was when we used to go to the Mojo, but times were also quite different then  to some extent don't you think?  But while we were at the club we were also safe really  not worried about our drinks (coke or coffee) being spiked. The drug issue wasn't anything like it is now & I don't know if you remember but Pete was very against any drug taking in or out of the club. Somehow there did not seem to be the dangers that there are now. Not saying it was 100 percent safe & yes we were too young, but I feel it was a hell of a lot safer than it would be today. We were mostly interested in the music, dancing & fashion wern't we?