Jo's story began in 1991 when after 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…
While working in the 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 and in no time at all at club events. 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.
In the early nineties, 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 a mixture of deep
house and techno and as a result was given a residency that
lasted three years. The gig was the basis for her winning
such accolades as DJ Magazine’s highly coveted DJ of
the Year Award (she is still the only female DJ to have ever
won this award).
Jo has been spinning in Ibiza since 1993 playing at Amnesia,
Privilege, Space as well as infamous secret beach and villa
parties. 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 playing in Space’s The
Red Box; 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.
Jo was 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 in Ibiza in 2002. Jo was also
assigned to do a ‘postcards from Ibiza’ report
on Pete Tongs Essential Selection on Radio 1 in 2002 and 2003.
As Jo has been frequenting Ibiza for 15 years, she was perfectly
placed to give weekly reports of all the latest club news
and goings on there. In addition Jo was asked to do an Essential
Mix for Radio 1 as part of their 'Ibiza Heroes' series, which
was broadcast on 20th September 2003.
Jo mixed the Terrace CD for the Space Album that was released
on Azuli Records in 2003. This followed on from the other
successful compilations Jo had under her belt such as ‘Defected
Sessions 14’, ‘DEF Com 2’ and ‘SJ01’
released through Trust the DJ. Jo also mixed a cover-mount
CD for Muzik magazine in the summer of 2001 and in 2006 she
mixed the cover-mount CD for Mixmag which was hugely popular.
Jo's international credibility has led her to work alongside
numerous iconic figures in the world of music and fashion.
She has DJ’d at The Pet Shop Boys end of tour party,
a Grace Jones concert, Skunk Anansie's album launch party,
Jamiroqaui's South African tour parties, as well as at fashion
events for the likes of Alexander McQueen, Michiko Koshinos
and Julian Macdonald.
More recently, Jo has focused on the production front and
has been making serious waves through her moniker TRNSSTR
(Transistor) alongside Pete Gleadall. After the success of
their first single ‘Sausage Dog’ which was premiered
at the WMC with remixes from Davide Squillace and Plasmik,
‘As You Like It’ followed which received glowing
praise and support from the likes of Danny Tenaglia, Luciano
and Anja Schneider. ‘Shuffle Scuffle’ and ‘Wild
Sound’ are recent releases, and 2008 also saw Jo and
Pete go live with their set pulling out all the stops, jammed
packed full of visuals, effects and of course, exceptional
technical and vocal talent.
One thing’s for sure in 2009, with bags of energy and
a wealth of experience to draw upon, it seems Jo still has
plenty up her sleeve for the months and years ahead!
