Smokin Jo - Special August Mix - Aug 2007

Biography of Smokin Jo

Jo's story began in 1991 when after attending a lot of the early raves and illegal parties she noticed a distinct lack of female DJs. So as a massive fan of this new music, Jo bought some decks and started mixing, it wasn't long before people took notice.

While working in the Gaultier shop in London's Soho, Jo made her first mix tapes and gave them to friends and customers to see their response. The reactions were better than expected. Her first gigs ensued, mainly at fashion after-show parties, which then escalated into her DJing for club events. Taking her stage name from the boxer Smoking Joe Fraser, Jo felt it provided ambiguity instead of an obviously feminine name as at the time it was seen as a novelty to be a female DJ how times change and its partly thanks to women like Jo that these shifts in attitudes have taken place.

Jo is certainly on fire at the moment with her hectic worldwide schedule of dj gigs, residency at We Love at Space on Sundays in Ibiza, mixing August covermount cd for Mixmag and her own club night Nude which she co-promotes with infamous London club promoter Terry Hart of Redlight, Go!Zilla and Drama. This summer Nude hosted the terrace at We Love..Space on Sundays with two amazing show stopping parties, flying in their resident dj's and core perfomers to entertain the Ibiza crowd Nude also put on another of their fantastic secret beach parties which was the talk of the Island.

Nude started in May 2005 at The Key, but moved to Ministry of Sound in Feb 06 where they hold bi-monthly events. Jo is always one to move with the times and as well as playing the sickest dirtiest deep house music her style has moved more into Techno/Minimal house as well, so with Nude Jo is promoting this music more and more, as well as booking bigger name dj's her residents are young up-coming dj's from the East End of Londons after hours scene. Nude is one for the club kids and fashionistas, theatrical and hedonistic you're as likely to find a group of freaks dressed to the nines as you are a serious music-heads. The aim with Nude is to bring back a bit of theatre to clubland, with the best underground music. Next year as well as getting back in the studio to produce more tracks Jo will release a comp for MoS Sessions series Smokin Jo presents Nude.

In 2004/5 Jo was rocking the planet as one half of the dance floor phenomenon that was NastyDirtySexMusic. The partys ethos was heavy on cutting edge music and low on profit making. It reigned supreme since its inception under a moonlit Ibizan beach in the summer of 2004; where they threw a free party for anyone that kept their ear to the ground long enough to know about it. The success of the NDSM parties saw it become We Love.. Sundays at Space newest resident last year, spinning Electro house to an unsuspecting Ibiza crowd not bad considering it started life as an illegal rave! By late summer 2004 NDSM were playing in The Red Box, fast forward to summer 2005 and NDSM were terrace regulars. A massive achievement in a small space of time.

A full tour of Asia and Australia in the winter of 2004 also cemented NDSM's status as did its mix compilation album; a double CD released by Ministry of Sound in June 2005 'NastyDirstySexMusic Sessions' was recorded live in front of a baying crowd. MOS also played host to NastyDirtySexMusic nights on a bi-monthly basis these were the busiest nights at Ministry for some time. NDSM also recorded a remix of Skins latest track˜Alone in my Room.NDSM came to an end on NYE 2005.

Where did it all begin? In the early nineties, Jo was given a chance to play at Londons legendary afterhours Trade night at Turnmills. She absolutely rocked the dance floor spinning a mixture of deep house and techno and was given a residency that lasted three years, this was her platform to winning such accolades as DJ magazines highly coveted DJ of the Year Award. Her undeniably fresh sound has carved her a niche in club land. Over the years she played everything from US house to electro, techno to minimal whatever she plays you can guarantee it's always new and exciting.

Her own production State of Mind was championed on Radio 1 and released on Distreackt Records. Other previously released tracks include The Psycho Bitch EP, the hugely successful collaboration with Pete Heller called Fishbone Sleepers and Yanu which was critically acclaimed by journalists and DJs alike. Danny Tenaglia and BBC Radio 1 Pete Tong are huge fans of her work, with regular radio and club play. In addition Jo has also remixed tracks and has twiddled the knobs on the 1993 biggie˜High by Hyper-Go-Go, Charlie Big Potato by Skunk Anansie and Make U Whole by Androncius to name but a few.

Jo also mixed the Terrace CD for the Space Album that was released on Azuli Records. This follows on from the other successful compilations Jo has under her belt ˜Defected Sessions 14 on Defected Records, ˜DEF Com 2 and the tough, tribal and deep and ,SJ01 released through Trust the DJ. Jo also mixed a cover mount CD for Muzik magazine in the summer of 2001.

Being the undisputed queen of Ibiza Jo was assigned to do her ˜postcards from Ibiza reports on Pete Tongs Essential Selection on Radio 1 in 2003 and 2002. As Jo has been going to Ibiza for 15 years, she was perfect for the role where she gave weekly reports of all the latest gossip, club news and goings on in Ibiza. 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.

In 2004 Jo signed up to the Heineken Thirst world tour which saw her play alongside other international superstar DJ's such as Pete Tong, Paul Oakenfold, Tiesto and Deep Dish. The tour reached hundreds of thousands of clubbers in 35 different countries in the Far East, Asia, Australasia, The Middle East, Europe, USA and Canada.

Jo's international credibility has led her to work alongside numerous celebrities, DJing at The Pet Shop Boys end of tour party, Grace Jones concert, Skunk Anansie's album launch party, Jamiroqaui's South African tour parties, as well as fashion events like Alexander McQueen, Michiko Koshinos and Julian Macdonald after-show parties. She has featured in Brett Easton-Ellis book Glammarama, (Author of American Psycho) and been voted No. 26 in Elle Magazines Hot 100. Her face has also graced magazines like Glamour, Company, Cosmopolitan, Esquire, FHM, Time Out, Moda, Mixmag, M8, DJ and IDJ as well as having features in The Sunday Times, The Independent and The Telegraph Magazine.

Jo was also signed on by Storm Model Agency in their Celebrity Section and was the face for a major billboard campaign for the Sega video game Mortal Combat. 2002 saw Jo become the face for Pioneer, whereby she entered into an advertising campaign for HDJ 1000 professional stereo headphones. In 2002 Jo entered into presenting and made her debut as a presenter for MTV: Dance in Ibiza as well as presenting for Radio One at the Mardi Gras and in Ibiza in 2002.