JUDGE JULES

Carl Cox is often described as ‘The People’s DJ’, but the title could just as easily be used to describe Judge Jules. A crowd-pleaser first and foremost, Jules deals in monster dancefloor anthems, full stop – not for him the subtle vagaries of tech-house grooves. Already a massive draw for UK clubbers before he got his Radio 1 shows, Jules’ move to the Nation’s Favourite in 1997 only served to confirm his position amongst the top five UK spinners.

Born and raised in London, Julius O’Riordan attended comprehensive school in Crouch End, with Sonique amongst his classmates. He was a punk, then a new romantic whilst at school, before electro turned him on to dance music, and managed to get himself in a little trouble for shoplifting from HMV. At sixteen he moved to the exclusive University College public school where he began putting on underage parties in pubs and clubs with his schoolmate Rollo (later to become the mastermind behind Faithless and Felix’s massive hit, Don’t You Want Me). On leaving school he went to the prestigious London School of Economics to study for a degree in law.

He carried on promoting parties at university, hosting rare groove parties under the name of Family Function, collaborating with Norman Jay’s Shake & Fingerpop sound system and others like Soul II Soul - the likes of Brand New Heavies, Paul Weller and JK from Jamiroquai were amongst those who patronised their events. Jules’ legal know-how and posh accent often came in handy when securing venues and throwing the police off the scent. It was at this time that he acquired his ‘Judge’ tag, courtesy of Norman Jay, and began to DJ, joining then-pirate Kiss FM in 1987 and playing the London club circuit.

A visit to the legendary Paradise Garage club in New York first brought him into contact with house music and back in London he threw himself into the emerging acid house scene, promoting over twenty acid house parties himself between 1988 and 1990 and playing top of the bill at events like Sunrise, Back To The Future and Energy.

When Kiss went legal in 1990, Jules was given two primetime weekend slots which he occupied until he joined Radio 1 in 1997. His Kiss shows were syndicated to several regional stations which gave him an audience of a quarter of a million at his peak and he won three consecutive Kiss awards for Best Club DJ from 1991-94. At Radio 1 he was initially given two shows, although this has since been cut back to one, his current post-Tong Friday night slot.

Bolstered by his Kiss shows, Jules’ reputation grew throughout the nineties and by the time he joined Radio 1 he was already a confirmed crowd-pleaser. At one point he reacted against po-faced superstar DJs by playing the trumpet over his records, a practice he’s thankfully since dropped. His lack of willingness to take his job too seriously was also illustrated by the release of one of his first mix CDs, Dance Wars, where he appeared dressed as Judge Dredd on the sleeve art with his best friend and co-mixer John Kelly dressed as Luke Skywalker.

Jules’ recording career began during his rave days when he remixed, amongst others, The Stranglers and Big Audio Dynamite, although he admits that his involvement amounted to little more than telling the studio’s in-house engineer what to do. In 1991 he hooked up with Rollo again, with whom he gradually learnt to use a studio. Then he formed a partnership with drummer Michael Skins, beginning a second phase of remix work (including M People’s Excited, Reel 2 Real and Doop) and setting up the Tomohawk label.

In the mid-nineties Jules moved on to become Head of A&R at Manifesto Records, the sister label to Talkin Loud. He made his first signing on his first day in the job; Josh Wink’s Higher State Of Consciousness, which went on to sell 400,000 copies and remains the label’s biggest success to date. Jules is still an A&R consultant at the label today and so far the label has racked up over 35 Top Forty records.

More recently, Jules has formed a partnership with Paul Masterson, the producer behind Jomanda’s Synth & Strings chartbuster. Now a full-fledged ‘member’ of Jomanda, Jules and Paul have also formed Hi-Gate with vocalist Jina, which is signed to Positiva sub-label Incentive.

Aside from his DJing, A&R, radio and studio work, Jules has his fingers in a few more pies besides. He’s appeared on TV numerous times, both as a guest and a presenter- most notably on BPM and Kiss TV’s satellite show, Judge And The Jury. He is also a highly-paid endorser of corporate music download website Peoplesound.com. Jules says he owes much of his success to his brother and manager Sam who runs the Serious Management agency.

Aside from the ribbing he received for his trumpet antics, Jules has also come in for more serious criticism along the way. Early in his care