What’s the thinking behind the night and what are you playing?
It’s about having a 60s orientated night, not a mod club, or garage or soul. We play hits but we also try to play tracks people won’t know or different versions. From 1960 to 1970 there’s an awful lot of stuff; we don’t go to prog like the early Pink Floyd and the earlier stuff, pre-’63, the beat groups and that is a bit twee and twangy. We’re playing black r’n’b and British and American tunes from I suppose ’64 to ’68.
What’s the audience mix like?
We do get people who were kind of around at the time, certainly the late 60s. That’s the great thing about Mojo, you get 18-year olds right up to around 60-year olds. Most clubs in Brighton have much narrower appeal, it’s pretty unusual I suppose.
Is there an emphasis on the dressing up side of it?
Not really, we do get a lot of the mod guys down but we want it to be accessible. A lot of the ‘scene’ clubs can be a bit like, if you don’t fit, or have non-regulation turn-ups or something, you can’t get in. That’s not us.
You’re working with a lot of guest DJs at the moment.
We have one every month now, to breathe a bit of freshness into it. Like, northern soul isn’t really our thing so we’ll get someone in who plays that. That can be quite a closed scene, but we try to blend it all together.
So do you feel like you’re educating people to an extent?
The best thing for us is when someone comes up and says, “What was that?” That’s a real buzz. When someone who’s young and wants to get into this music, you can say there it is and show them, and send them on their way to e-Bay or wherever.
Presumably it’s difficult to get some of these tunes?
We spend a fortune at record dealers, here and abroad, e-Bay, swap-ups with people. There are other DJs around the country who can really put the price up on a hot record. Some people are paying stupid amounts of money, including me. But sometimes you have to if you’re desperate for a tune – you over-pay. Vinyl can go for between fifty pence and a thousand dollars – I bought one last week for three hundred quid. But you’ll also get bargains – I bought a garage track called Hipsville BC by The Sparkles for three quid, it’s currently going for about 150 to 170, so that’s a buzz as well.
Some DJs are very secretive about their tracks…
We don’t see the point, some people don’t like to share them out too much, putting beer mats over the labels, but we want people to know them.
Is there a ‘holy grail’ of rare records?
I’ve got a little book of ‘wants’ – I hear stuff on the web or podcasts and write them down. We like to discover new tracks nobody else has got to create our own sound so people go away saying “I heard this great tune last week in this club called Mojo”.
TOP 3 TUNES 2 GO GO
Little Willie John – I’m Shaking
An r’n’b stomper, a great blues-based number, very accessible.
The Cherry Slush – I Cannot Stop You
Bubblegum garage, it’s another popular track we’ve played a lot
Hangmen – What A Girl Can Do
A real garage pounder
Next Mojo 2 Go Go is at the Hanbury, Friday 28th and every fourth Friday. myspace.com/mojotogogo
Photo by James Kendall
