Mojo: disco barber

Everybody has a story. Meet the children’s entertainer, Mojo, who uses his spare time to offer a Goove Groom & Grub haircutting service for people who are homeless around Islington and Stratford. Interview by Nicola Baird. Photos by Kimi Gill.

Mojo is grooving under Finsbury Park bridge, just by the tube entrance. His motorbike makes a house for the speakers belting out Saturday Night by Whitfield. It’s a busy spot with buses stopping and starting as the traffic backs up at the lights by the Arsenal shop. On the chewing-gum spotted pavement a stream of people walk past with trolleys, Lidl bags and school backpacks. Most turn to look at Mojo who is getting on down to Staying Aliveby the Bee Gees. But the dance routine isn’t why he’s there. Mojo – who works as a children’s entertainer during the weekend – uses his down time to cut the hair of anyone who is homeless or has not got the money to afford a barber.

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It’s Tuesday and Mojo’s already spent the morning at Angel station where he cut four people’s hair using his assortment of barber clippers. Around lunch time he arrived at Finsbury Park and two people were quick to get their hair tidied up but then there’s a lull. And that’s when Mojo persuades Islington Faces to do a dance (which he videos for the @groovegroomgrub Instagram page) and then agrees to a quick interview.

On comes September by Earth Wind & Fire and Mojo, with his cornrows and love of disco, just seems to be making this corner of Finsbury Park the place to be. Often people come over and join the dancing. Sometimes they bring him a hot drink. Most take a cautious look at his signs left on the pavement offering “free haircuts” or a chance to have your beard shaved. For anyone who is living on the street the Groove Groom & Grub service offers a very special moment of self-care. If people are hungry Mojo also gives them a Tesco’s meal deal. All this is done without any funding. As he writes on his A4 flyers, he’s an “independent provider”.

So how did it start? “Last year I was helping my friend by doing barbering at Stratfield, near where I live. But I didn’t like the set up because they wouldn’t let me dance or sing,” explains Mojo. That’s when he decided he’d cut hair and beards on the streets. The formula cheers everyone up – whether you glimpse him from the bus or sit down and request a Number 2 trim or get rid of that beard. You’ll find Mojo on:

• Tuesday at Angel from 12-2.30pm and Finsbury Park from 3-5pm
• Wednesday 6-10.30pm at Stratford mall
• Thursday he’s sometimes at Hackney

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Places Mojo likes around Islington

“When I lived at Yonge Park my neighbour got me working at Albion Kids entertainment. Eventually, I was the longest servicing member. The days were very long but I remember that I worked for £22.70p a day.”

“I helped set up the St Paul’s Shrubbery Festival in N1. I must have gone to it for 17 years.”

“I use all the same songs at Groove Groom & Grub as I do for Mojobits. I love jazz and disco. Sade is my favourite. When I worked at Leigh Road (with disabled children) I’d sometimes see her Mercedes. But I never stalked her!”

“When I was working as an assistant for Melvin (who was paraplegic) we went to see Hank Wangford at the George Robey pub. Melvin was so into it! Hard to believe a hotel’s being built there.”

Mojo became a dad after meeting Angela at Kingsway Princeton college. Now that their daughters Storm and Lyn-dae are 30 and 27 he has a mischievous plan to run a guess-my-age contest if he retires. It will be hard to nail the number because as he points out: “I never tell anyone my age and I’m still wearing the clothes I had when I started – leather trousers and a waistcoat.”

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Tough start
“When I was two months old, I was in a children’s home,” says Mojo who later changed his name by deed poll. As a young child he was reunited with his family but “after a fight with my elder brother my mum kicked me out. I was 10. It was snowing. I slept in a phone box near Lloyds Bank on Church Street. I ended up back in care until I was 18,” he says. This wasn’t an easy time: he’d skip out of lessons at Upton House school in Haringey to hang in the Homerton Adventure Playground, though he’s proud that he also was made a prefect – because it gave him rights to use the lift.

By 16 he was living in an independent unit on Yonge Park Road with a view from his back window of the old Rainbow theatre (now UCKG). “I took a photo of a rainbow over the Rainbow,” he says happily pointing towards the old venue. It’s here where he began his kids’ entertainment career which has seen him running family parties for two generations and charity compeering. This irrepressible spirit is clearly what makes Mojo a formidable party entertainer – and such fun to be with even if you are down on your luck.

That one shocking night of homelessness as a child, combined with knowing hunger – he once asked his Mum for a fiver when he had nothing, and she’d only give it to him as a loan to pay back – is what motivates Mojo to help people who have nothing.

As Valerie by Amy Winehouse comes on Mojo, who is super fit, is transported back to the disco he went to at Homerton. “I wore stretch trousers and white winklepickers, and I was the only person on the dance floor: I loved it.”

Even under the noisy Finsbury Park bridge disco-addicted Mojo can make this world seem a better place. So, if you know anyone homeless that would like a beard or head trim definitely let them know about Groove Groom & Grub. Or if a family party is more your thing, then maybe hand it over to Mojo.

• Contact Mojo via Instagram @groovegroomgrub (which has a fab selection of videos Mojo makes with people whose hair he is cutting, and passers-by) or email groovegroomgrub@gmail.com

Over to you
If you’d like to nominate someone to be interviewed who grew up, lives or works in Islington, or suggest yourself, please let me know, via nicolabaird dot green at gmail dot com. If you enjoyed this post you might like to look at the A-Z  index, or search by interviewee’s roles or Meet Islingtonians to find friends, neighbours and inspiration. Thanks for stopping by. Nicola