ad – Andre Palfrey-martin collection. Mojos photo source: http://www.merseybeatnostalgia.co.uk/html/the_mojos.html
Well here we are almost at the end of August – a month that has seen so much happening in the town and no less than on Hastings Pier, in the Happy Ballroom andBar, Saturday 22 August 1964. Topping the bill tonight – “The Merseybeat” sound of The Mojos and in support The Orbits, making a return to the town. Originally called The Nomads, they recorded a track for the ‘This Is Mersey Beat’ LP then discovered a London group had registered the name so changed it to The Mojos. In october 1963 Adrian Wilkinson left the group and was replaced by Nick Crouch, former Farons Flamingos lead guitarist. While they were appearing at the Star Club, Hamburg,[ Many people have asked – “what did it look like – so I have found a picture and added to the images ” they recorded what is now considered one of the classics of the ‘Mersey Sound’, ‘Everythings Alright’ which entered the UK top 10 charts. The next two releases were less distinguished and prompted Stu James to say “We made our name in Liverpool as Blues specialists but were persuaded to do all sorts of lightweight pop stuff. After our initial success, we just stumbled on in a fairly aimless way, the acclaim we got was for our live performances which remained loud and raucous” . In December 1964, Stu James and Nick Crouch split from the others and formed Stu James & the Mojos bringing in Lewis Collins on bass and Aynsley Dunbar on Drums, this line-up continued till 1966 when Nick left the music business and Lewis Collins entered into a successful acting career appearing in the hit TV series ‘The Professionals’
Friday night good times would have been started off with “Ready Steady Go – The Weekend Starts Here” from Kingway Studios London – with Cathy and Keith introducing amongst others – The Cherokees – “Seven Daffodils” Brenda Lee – “Is It True” P.J. Proby – “Hold Me” ,other guests included Helen Shapiro, Brenda Lee – “Is It True” ,Wayne Gibson and the Dynamic Sounds & Duffy Power. For the adventurous amongst us, we would have a mile further west and stopped at Marine Court the home of The Witch Doctor, where the line up over the next few days would have included :-The Habits & Mark 4 [Saturday] The Voodoos [Sunday] Bern Elliott and his Clan [Wednesday] Dave Champion and The Strangers [Friday] and advanced notification for Sunday 30th – Alexis Korner. It is not difficult to see that the battle lines were drawn between the Happy Ballroom & The Witch Doctor. Until next week’s edition of the History of The Happy Ballroom, enjoy the Bank Holiday Weekend – as moved to the end of August from the following year 1965. And don’t forget to catch Matthew Banisters’ Production of the Mods & Rockers Re-booted on BBC 1 South/South East – 7.30pm by Andre Martin
Glynis Phillips… Went to see Mojos on pier 1st band I ever saw.
Robert Searle… Don’t forget that’s the original Mojos on that record.
