Smokin Jo is still the only female DJ to have won DJ magazines DJ Of The Year award and she is the Author of You Don't Need A Dick to DJ.
 Contact andy.raeside@entityma.com

Jo has had a truly successful career and over her 35 years behind the decks she has played in pretty much every corner of the globe and in every major nightclub you could care to mention: Space (Ibiza and Miami),Fabric (London) Womb and Aghea (Tokyo), Panorama Bar (Berlin), Warung (Brazil), Cavo Paradiso (Mykonos), Pacha, Crobar and Vinyl (New York) and Cocoon (Frankfurt,) are just some of the venues she has played in recent years.

Most recently Jo has played for Glitterbox at Hi Ibiza, Glastonbury Festival for Block9, NYC Downlow and Greenpeace, Shindig Festival, Clockwork Orange in UK and Ibiza,Defected Croatia Festival, Pacha Ibiza, House of Trash, Feel It and Fabric. Previously Jo was headlining the Space Ibiza opening party and appeared in a documentary for Ministry of Sound The Annual Classic Tour as well as hosting and playing on one of their live tour dates before the orchestra hit the stage. Summer 2016 Jo was headlining the Ibiza Space opening party and playing at the Final ever closing party. Jo was resident DJ for 3 years at the uber cool Sexy Fish in Mayfair playing to the likes of Tom Cruise, Johnny Depp, Harrison Ford and the Beckham’s and also played at the prestigious Vogue Magazine 100 year event at Tramp in London.

At London Fashion week for the past five years Jo has produced the music and played live at Julien Macdonald’s stunning shows. Previously Jo and Skin from legendary rock band Skunk Anansie launched their own amazing new concept called “The Electric Tiger Cave”, where they played back2back while Skin sang over the tracks, last summer they took over Ibiza Rocks House at Pikes in Ibiza for a crazy run of parties. In the past Jo was booked by actor/DJ Idris Elba to play alongside him at his own club night. In the summer 2013 Jo hosted her own night at the infamous Pikes Hotel in Ibiza, booking DJ’s to play with her such as Mark Ronson and Dave Morales. Jo also produced the music and played at the aftershow for collaboration between designers Julien McDonald and Melissa Odabash for their swimwear show on the roof of the gorgeous ME Hotel in London. 


Jo's international credibility has led her to work alongside numerous iconic figures in the world of music, film and fashion. One of her career highlights was being flown into Prague by Daniel Craig to play at the wrap party for his first James Bond film,' Casino Royal'. She has opened for Grace Jones at one of her concerts, played at The Pet Shop Boys end of tour party, Skunk Anansie's album launch party, Jamiroqaui's South African tour parties, and at fashion shows and events for the likes of Alexander McQueen, Julian Macdonald, Melissa Odabash and Michiko Koshino. Jo was also asked to play for Naomi Campbell at her villa party in honour of the great Quincy Jones.



Where did it all begin?
Jo's story began in 1990 when after years of attending many of the early raves and illegal parties she noticed a distinct lack of female DJs. As a massive fan of this exciting new music that was sweeping the nation, Jo decided to buy some decks and started mixing. From those early days it was always the deeper side of things Jo preferred, soulful sounding tracks that take you on a journey, no matter what style she plays from Techno to House it has to have meaning and a bass line to kill. Taking her stage name from the boxer Smoking Joe Fraser, Jo felt it provided ambiguity over an obviously feminine name as at the time it was seen as a novelty to be a female DJ (how times change!) It’s thanks to women like Jo that these shifts in attitudes have taken place.

While working in the Jean Paul Gaultier shop in London's Soho, Jo made her first mix tapes and gave them to friends and customers to gauge their response. The reactions were better than expected and her first gigs quickly followed at fashion after-show parties. In 1991 Jo was given a chance to play at London’s legendary after-hours party Trade at Turnmills. Seizing the opportunity she smashed the club, blending her mixture of deep house and techno and as a result was given a residency that lasted three years. Trade was her stepping-stone into the big league. At that time Trade was the only after hours in London: all the promoters, DJ’s and industry people came down to party religiously each week so in no time at all Jo was being booked to play at club events like Puscha, Boys Own, Tribal Gathering, Back to Basics, Cream and Full Circle. These gigs were the basis for her winning DJ Magazine’s highly coveted DJ of the Year Award.

After winning the award Jo headed off to Ibiza to play at Space for the first time in 1993, when the island was still relatively untouched. During that period she played at Amnesia, Pacha, Ku (Privilege) as well as many infamous secret beach and villa parties. This was when Jo's career took off on a global scale, seeing her regularly traveling all over the world every weekend, as well as maintaining a hectic schedule of the UK's top clubs: her demand was such that she often played up to 5 gigs in one night.
Back in Ibiza, after 22 years DJ-ing Jo still holds her residency at Space for We Love. Thanks to her knowledge of the Ibiza scene, in 2002 and 2003 she was assigned to present a ‘Postcards from Ibiza’ report on Pete Tong's Essential Selection on Radio 1, giving weekly reports of all the latest club news and goings on there. In addition Jo was also asked to do an Essential Mix for Radio 1 as part of their 'Ibiza Heroes' series, which was broadcast on 20th September 2003.

Jo went on to mix the Terrace CD for the Space Album that was released on Azuli Records in 2003. This followed on from the other successful compilations she had under her belt such as ‘Defected Sessions 14’, ‘DEF Com 2’ and ‘SJ01’ released through Trust the DJ. At this time Jo was signed to Defected where she produced some successful releases for the label, including Yanu and Psycho Bitch, however Jo's demanding schedule meant that her productions at that time were few and far between. She also mixed a cover-mount CD for Muzik magazine in the summer of 2001 and more recently in 2006 she mixed the cover-mount CD for Mixmag, which was hugely popular and was re-released last year.

In the past Jo had been signed-up by Storm Model Agency in their Celebrity Section and was the face of a major billboard campaign for the Sega video game Mortal Combat. 2002 saw Jo become the centre point of Pioneer’s advertising campaign for their HDJ 1000 professional headphones. And on top of all this in 2002 Jo entered into the world of television and made her debut as a presenter for MTV: Dance in Ibiza as well as presenting for Radio One at Mardi Gras and Ibiza in 2002.


In 2004/5 Jo was rocking the planet as one half of the dance floor phenomenon that was NastyDirtySexMusic. The parties were ultra-underground, word-of-mouth affairs with the ethos heavily geared towards cutting edge music and not making profit. The success of the NDSM parties saw it become We Love... Sundays at Space’s newest resident that year, introducing the electro-house sound to an unsuspecting Ibiza crowd (not bad considering it started life as an illegal rave!) By late summer 2004 NDSM were weekly residents in The Red Box at Space; fast-forward to summer 2005 and NDSM were fully-fledged terrace regulars, a massive achievement in an incredibly small space of time. A full tour of Asia and Australia in the winter of 2004 also cemented NDSM's status, as did a double CD mix compilation, released through Ministry of Sound in June 2005. MOS also played host to NastyDirtySexMusic nights on a bi-monthly basis, which were among the busiest nights at the club for some time. After a whirlwind couple of years the guys decided to call time on the project on New Years Eve 2005.

Following on from NDSM, Jo promoted her own club night “Nude” with Terry Hart from Go!Zilla/Redlight. Nude held parties at warehouses in London’s East End and for two years hosted the terrace and discoteque at Space in Ibiza. The ethos of Nude was "anything goes", with outlandish freakish performers and cutting edge DJ's. These parties were the ultimate in debauchery and underground sounds, their top Guest DJ was  Moby. 

One thing’s for sure that with bags of energy and a wealth of experience to draw-on it seems Jo still has plenty up her sleeve for the months and years ahead!

Weekly Saturday radio show  
14.00 - 15.00 (UK)
on Music For Dreams
https://musicfordreams.dk/radio/

Sounds in Waves Radio Show
Bi Monthly First Saturday of the month 19.00 - 20.00 (GMT)
On Alto Radio
https://www.altoradio.live

Paradise Social Radio Show 22.00 - 00.00 (GMT)
Third Sat of the month 
On 1BTN - Brighton
https://1btn.fm

DJ/Chief Man at Paradise Productions DJ Agency
Promoter of Flash at Pikes Ibiza 
Paradise 45 with Cagedbaby
The Shack with Dan Williams


For DJ Bookings please contact
Paradiseproductionsinfo@gmail.com
Cover image by 'CJGODWIN'

Sean Johnston has been DJ'ing since his formative years in the frozen North. Acid House Veteran, Techno Survivor, Hardway Bros, Beard Scientist and Freelance Disco Consultant he has played at some of London's landmark clubs including The Promised Land, Sabre Sonic, Club UK, Final Frontier, Disco Bloodbath and was one of the founding residents at London Super Club Cable. He also plays regularly at Voyage Voyage in up and coming Berlin venue Salon Zur Wilden Renate.
His productions, alongside fellow Hardway Bros, Jake Davies and a mysterious South Londoner known only as Rico have graced Sabres of Paradise, Third Mind, Flashcomm and more recently Beard Science, Pointless Edits, Aniligital, History Clock, Astrolab and cult Norwegian act Mungolian Jetset's label Luna Flicks. 
 
Sean's DJ'ing style described by FACT Magazine as "Future Disco" is hard to pin down to one convenient genre, taking in house, disco, re-edits, techno and frankly anything else that takes his fancy. 
 
Alongside Andrew Weatherall he runs and DJ's at A Love From Outer Space, a cult monthly residency at The Drop in North London. The night's manifesto is to never knowingly exceed 122bpm and is home to a multitude of genres including ambient, balearica, dub, krautrock, post punk, proto house, un-disco and other curiosities from the pair's extensive record collections.

Bookings

http://www.spunoutagency.com/

Bookings: matt@thepool-london.com 
Promos: promo@gregwilson.co.uk 
DJ Dates: https://blog.gregwilson.co.uk/upcoming-dj-dates/
Greg began DJing in 1975 and is regarded as one of the most important figures on the UK dance scene. He enjoyed hugely popular residencies in the early eighties at Wigan Pier and Manchester’s majorly influential Legend, having originally started out in his hometown, New Brighton. A pioneer of mixing in the UK, he became the first ‘dance music’ specialist hired for a regular weekly session at Manchester’s now legendary Haçienda club in 1983. Greg was instrumental in breaking the new electronic, post-disco records coming out of New York, a sound he has dubbed ‘Electro-Funk’.

In 2003 he set up electrofunkroots, a website documenting this crucial era in the evolution of dance culture. After a two decade hiatus from the booth, he returned to DJing and soon welcomed bookings throughout Europe and, subsequently, worldwide.

Greg was the first DJ to mix live on British TV, putting together the first UK radio mixes of their type for Piccadilly 261 in Manchester and showing a certain Norman Cook (later Fatboy Slim) how to scratch.

Nominated by DJ Magazine for outstanding contribution, and also named amongst their top twenty remixers of all-time, Greg’s remix credits include Grace Jones, The XX, Groove Armada, Bryan Ferry, Confidence Man, Gilberto Gil and Simian Mobile Disco, whilst he’s edited tracks by A Guy Called Gerald, Talking Heads, O.M.D., Electronic, Imagination and Missy Elliot.

In January 2009 Greg’s reputation was further enhanced when his Essential Mix on BBC Radio 1 received almost universal acclaim and was selected as one of 10 classics that spanned the show’s near 17 year history.

Greg’s Blog, ‘Being A DJ’, was launched in June 2010 for observations on various aspects of club culture now an online touchstone for an ever-increasing amount of dance enthusiasts and aficionados.

In August 2010 he co-curated areas at the inaugural Vintage Festival at Goodwood, which was named ‘Best New Festival’ at the UK Festival Awards.

He has produced a series of documentary podcasts, Time Capsule, Random Influences and Early 80’s Floorfillers, as well as the long-running blog series, Living To Music.

Greg has given talks on music and DJ culture at a number events at venues The Tate Gallery in Liverpool and London's Southbank and Institute Of Contemporary Arts, whilst in 2013 he was invited onto a panel alongside legendary figures Nile Rodgers and Giorgio Moroder @ ADE in Amsterdam. 

In 2014 he unveiled the multi-media label Super Weird Substance, focusing on recording and live events. In 2015, the label released 8 vinyl singles, brought together in the 2 CD comp, 'Greg Wilson Presents Super Weird Substance'. September 2015 saw a memorable Festival No.6 Happening in Portmeirion and Greg rounded off the year with the Liverpool-based celebration of the 40th anniversary of his first club date in 1975 as well as being presented with DJ Magazine's Industry Icon award.

Greg launched his Credit To The Edit club collective at 2016's Festival No.6 and since then has taken it to Liverpool, Berlin, Brixton, Bethnal Green and finally back to Portmeirion for Festival No.6 2017.

2017 saw his label host the epic 14 Hour Super Weird Happening at Liverpool's Florrie, following a mixtape collaboration with Alan Moore, who also appeared at the Happening, whilst it also saw the digital release of The Super Weird Society's 'Gone With The Vibe', released the following year on the first Substance Select 12" vinyl alongside 'The Ghosts Of Watling Street', 'The Best Is Yet To Come' and 'Summer Came My Way'. 2018 also saw the release of Vol.3 in Greg's long-running Credit To The Edit compilation series.

After a handful of further releases, the label was put into hibernation with the onset of covid. Diversifying, ‘Greg Wilson’s Discotheque Archives’ was issued during 2020 lockdown as a limited run paperback, with more books, both Wilson’s own projects and by other authors, now planned.

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