Judge Jules (born as Julius O'Riordan
on 26 October 1966 in London, United Kingdom) is a British
dance music DJ famously known for his DJing prowess and popular
radio show which achieved global success. Between 1997 and
2006 he didn't finish outside the top 20 in DJ Mag's "Top
100 DJ's" poll. In the 2007 poll he finished 21st.
Jules is well known for his witty one liners and eloquent
speaking between tunes on his radio show. He is renowned for
his gaudy dress sense, particularly his loud and garish shirts
and t-shirts, which he predominantly wears whilst playing
sets.
Personal Life
Jules was educated at Highgate Wood
Secondary School, before going onto University College School
and the London School of Economics (LSE), where he studied
law. During his time at university, Jules started hosting
small parties where he was the DJ. Unsurprisingly due to his
field of study, the stage name of "Judge Jules"
was born. He graduated from LSE with lower second class honours.
He has lived in North London for the majority of his life,
now settled in the Highgate area with his wife Amanda, their
son Jake and daughter Phoebe. He met Amanda around 1992 and
they married in March 1998 in Camden with much of it covered
in the British press. Their son Jake was born in June 1999
and daughter Phoebe was born in September 2004.
DJing Career & Radio Shows
Judge Jules began DJing professionally back in 1987. He
was quickly hired by the then-pirate radio station Kiss FM.
He has been on Radio 1 since October 1997. When he first arrived,
his show went out between 17:00 and 19:00 on Saturday evenings,
ahead of Danny Rampling's show. In 2003, after the departure
of Seb Fontaine from the station, his show was moved to between
19:00 and 21:00 on Saturday nights, ahead of Tim Westwood.
The show was widely advertised as "The Weekend Warm-Up".
The show kept this slot until September 2007.
During those four years, he played a mixture and more commercial
and underground tracks. The first segment of the show were
taken by the Cut-Up Boys, who did a ten-minute mix featuring
several dance tracks and acappellas playing simultaneously.
The rest of the first hour was generally taken up by house
music and the second hour featured trance music, although
if they were broadcasting the show outside the studio, the
music might vary. The show gave rise to one of Judge Jules's
catchphrases, "Building your appetite for a Saturday
night", a phrase which he can no longer use as his show
now goes out on Friday evenings.
In September 2007, the show was moved to 01:00 to 03:00 every
Saturday morning. Because of Jules' DJ commitments on Friday
evenings, his show was now pre-recorded instead of being broadcast
live. From September 2008, the show was moved forward by 2
hours to 23:00 to 01:00 every Friday evening. The reason for
the move was the departure of Dave Pearce, whose Dance Anthems
show was moved to BBC 6 Music. His show attracts a wide audience
from around the world due to Radio 1's online internet connections
and the Sirius Satellite Radio network out in the U.S. and
Canada. Through the radio show, he is responsible for launching
many popular trance tunes and acts in the UK, and is a pioneer
for commercial contemporary dance music. Many people send
their unreleased tracks to him. According to his own website,
he receives between 250-300 promos per week. His Radio 1 show
is produced by independent production company Somethin' Else.
He also has an internationally-syndicated radio show called
"The Global Warm Up" (also produced by Somethin'
Else www.somethinelse.com) which can be heard across the USA,
Russia, Europe and the Middle East.
Jules produces his own music - his wife has appeared on a
few of these. She provided vocals for the group Angelic, which
was a grouping between Judge Jules and Darren Tate. They had
two hits, "It's My Turn" in 2000 and "Can't
Keep Me Silent" in 2001. In 2005, she appeared once more
on the track "Without Love", which was by Judge
Jules himself. This track was eventually released, with remixes,
on the Maelstrom Records label in 2007. Jules has also released
two albums via this label, "Proven Worldwide" in
2006 and "Bring The Noise" in 2009. Elsewhere, he
has collaborated several times with Paul Masterson under the
Hi-Gate name.
Jules is a lifelong and passionate follower of football.
He supports Arsenal FC and was asked to remix the Premier
League's official anthem in 2005.
In January 2010 Jules played a Royal National Institute for
the Deaf promotional event for M&C Saatchi, where researcher
Mike Green attended. Unfortunately, he missed the last tube
and had to get the night bus home.
Work As a Journalist
Jules was a contributor to the UK-based black music magazine
Soul Underground between 1988-1990. He contributed both as
'Judge Jules' and as 'The Dark Knight', using the anonymity
of this identity to provide 'inside information' on the music
scene.
Judgement Sundays
Judge Jules has a regular club night in Ibiza at the club
Eden called Judgement Sundays, advertised as "San Antonio's
busiest night". The night runs for the entire summer
season, starting in June and running through mid September,
and as well as DJing at this night he also promotes it. Due
to the work involved, Jules has a second home in Ibiza; he
used to own a share in the restaurant Kazbah on the island
but has since sold his interest in this.
TV Appearances
Judge Jules at 'The Gallery'. Turnmills - Friday 22 September
2006.Judge Jules has also made a couple of TV appearances.
Firstly the BBC's Top Gear show, in the 1990s, road testing
In-Car Entertainment (ICE) systems. He gave a short interview
on Channel 4's The 11 O'Clock Show (11 April 2000) and featured
on the Richard and Judy Show in 2003 with his counterpart
Paul Masterson and singer/DJ Boy George promoting their Hi-Gate
album, on which Boy George made a cameo singing contribution.
Judge Jules also appeared on the BBC's Top Of The Pops show
(2000) with Paul Masterson, to perform the single "Pitchin'",
off their album Hi-Gate. Judge Jules also appeared in a UK
series called Superstar DJs and a series called Ibiza Uncovered.
He had his own short series "Spin Cities" on Play
UK.
Charity Work
In 2009 Judge Jules started supporting the UK charity Breakthrough
Breast Cancer joining the Breakthrough Running Club as the
club dj, offering his best tracks to train to.
