UNDERGROUND MUSIC FROM ACROSS THE GLOBE
JuJu is a bit of an old hand when it comes to House music. He first caught the Acid House bug in ’88, at the tender age of 14, listening to London pirate stations, such as Sunrise and CenterForce.
He attended his first club night in 1989 (when he was just 15) called ‘Confusion’, which was held at Shaftsbury’s nightclub, London. A few weeks down the line from his first visit to Confusion, he found himself in a random situation at the club, where he met the promoter Nicky Trax and ended up becoming part of the production crew, setting up club decor and backdrops (etc.) every week. In the same year (and the year previous at Bill Stickers), people like Arnold Jarvis (Take Some Time Out), Tony Humphries, Hippie Torales, DJ Disciple, Micky Oliver, Robert Owens, Ricky Montanari, Jimi Polo, Louie Vega, Derrick May, Frankie Bones and Adamski were all passing through Confusion’s doors, either performing live or DJ’ing. Besides this, Kid Batchelor (Bang The Party) was resident DJ, alongside E-Mix on the mic. Young up and coming artists like Ashley Beedle and Mark Moore were faces in the crowd and Ju would regularly rub shoulders with them and the likes of the Warriors Dance Records crew. It was an incredible time in London clubland history and this is where Julian gained his first experiences in House Music.
He bought his first turntables in 1990 when he was 16 and was soon playing out alongside names such as Kid Batchelor, Evil Eddie Richards, Derrick May, Dave Angel, Rhythm Doctor, Dave Piccioni, Bryan Gee, MC E-mix to name a few.
One of his first DJ bookings was at a night called ‘KYX’ (Shaftsbury’s), which was also promoted by Nicky Trax. It was the night that followed Confusion, after that had finished. There, he played alongside Kid Batchelor, Dave Piccioni and Derrick May. His later DJ outings included ‘In-Deep’ at the Ministry Of Sound multiple times, as well as other legendary London venues including Legends, Cafe de Paris, Vol Bonnes, Linford Film Studios, The Chunnel Club, The Gardening Club, The Emporium and The Colosseum (among others). He sometimes made guest appreances outside of London too, including ‘Minted’ at Que Club Birmingham, ‘Up Yer Ronson’ at Mirage Windsor, and a weekly residency at Club No.4 in Kingston for ‘Going GaGa’.
He travelled to Belfast in the early 90’s on a few occasions alongside E-Mix, Rhythm Doctor, Jumping Jack Frost, Darren Emerson, Danielle & Rochelle (Montana) and played alongside Belfast DJ legend, Glen Malloy, as well as travelling to Ibiza with London’s Flex FX in year 2000 where he (along with some other Flex DJ’s) appeared as a guest for two nights at Cafe Del Mar, playing alongside and taking over the decks from legendary sunset resident, DJ Bruno.
Ju has always loved being involved in pirate radio ever since the first time he appeared on Flex FM, way back in 1993. After Flex, he later went on to play on numerous other stations including Pure FM, Juice FM and Taste FM to name a few, with various one-off guest shows on many more stations including Don FM and Re-Load. Internet radio eventually followed, with regular shows on Future-Music, Genesis and Move Da House, and Ju was also invited on as a guest on The Radical PR “Anything Goes” show, on M.O.S. Radio.
Before moving to Norwich in 2002, Julian spent some time working in record distribution (between 1996 – 2000). He first worked at Essential (BMG), then Priority and then Greyhound, where he mainly did telephone pre-sales. He also did some delivery / collection duties, as well as being involved with some A&R. At Greyhound, his daily routine would be to drive the company van from Battersea to Heathrow (freight) every morning and collect all the new imports, fresh from the states, before returning to the office with a van full of records. From there, other staff would sort the shop orders and Ju would later deliver to record shops in London’s west end, such as Black Market and Unity etc. … It was any DJ’s dream job!
After he moved to Norwich, he soon held down regular radio shows on the only local pirate station at the time, ‘Style’ FM, as well as guest appearances on local “legal” station, Future Radio. He later held a weekly residency at Indulge, with various other guest appearances and private party bookings in the city.
Bringing things more up to date, Ju now spends a lot of time producing, and with the launch of his new ‘JuJu Muzik’ label in 2022, things are looking up! His debut release, “Press Reset”, features Chicago House legend, Harry Dennis, and it channels a deep underground spoken word groove. Catch it on Bandcamp: https://jujumuzik.bandcamp.com/album/press-reset
His radio home is now firmly placed at Point Blank DAB, where you can catch his fortnightly show, first and third Fridays of the month 4pm – 6pm (UK)
