you have been into music since your early teens and have DJed at and organised warehouse parties for years. You are now a top DJ, and own and A&R a successful dance label.
However, you now stand accused of destroying the very ethics around which dance music revolves. Your DJing has been criticised for your shoddy mixing, yet you charge high fees for playing big tunes for two hours. Your label relies on licensing huge tracks that have already been played to death. Many products, including fliers and mix-CDs bearing your name are adorned with sexist and degrading images of scantily-clad women. Judge Jules, you now have the forum to answer the charges made against you!
Jules admits that when acid house blew up that he was in the right place at the right time. A member of a small clique that were with house music from the beginning, he claims that luck did play an important role: I think anybody who is successful in any area of the entertainment industry who is honest with themselves and other people will have to admit that they were lucky to be in the right place at the right time. I wasn t trying to be trendy, it was just because it was something I loved. For someone like me with a qualification in law, it was a risky, foolhardy thing to do, but I m pleased with the way things have turned out. The money s nice, but that s not the reason that any of us started out in the first place.
For Judge Jules, the money is definitely nice: playing two to three gigs a night, running Manifesto and presenting radio shows for Kiss FM London and Manchester, means a lot of revenue for doing something he loves. An avid record collector since an early age (Jules has over 20,000 records in his collection), it also means that he doesn t have to pay for too many tunes: I m on the radio and although my show is only available in London and Manchester, it s known all over Europe. I get sent a vast amount of promos from abroad and every UK release bar none really. It s not that I m deliberately buying less, I m just getting sent more of the stuff I d buy anyway.
Surely the fact that he is receiving so many records every week makes it easy for him to consolidate his position as a top DJ? I sometimes feel sorry for DJs who are trying to forge ahead because there are so many releases. It must be so difficult to hear them all. I spend at least 15 hours a week listening to promos, but I get these sent to my door.
Despite gigging regularly and being rates as one of the UK s top DJs, Jules has been criticised for his (lack of) mixing skills. To this he responds suspiciously, asking first of all which magazine made the allegation, and then replying that his mixing is one of his strengths as a DJ. I can only point to the fact that I have an awful lot of people who are into what I do, he replies. I think if there was a problem there I d put my hand up and admit to it, and I d even go as far to say that I m one of the best in that field.
Although Jules earns between one to two thousand pounds per gig, he feels that his fees are justified due to the pulling power of his name and because of the records he plays. I don t have a problem with what I receive because at least 50% of the records in my box are one-offs, and no-one else has them. This means that I don t just turn up and play the same records that the other DJs played.
This mean that Jules has exclusive access to tunes that the normal DJ won t receive for months, and that he has a monopoly on certain tunes.
Manifesto, however, operate in a different way. Despite signing acts like our own Mister Spring (of whom Jules says: He s quite a character and some of the work he has done for us is excellent, but it s going to take a little bit longer for him to really take off and become Ireland s biggest dance star ), the label seems to specialise in licensing big tunes that have already been done to death. Wink s Higher State is a classic example, but replying to this charge Jules says: The reps who sold the records in the shops were coming back to us every though it was already released. Sometimes it might appear that a track comes out a long time after its original release, but when you put a record out on a major there is a hell of a lot of marketing to do.
The marketing involved in many of clubland s flyers and mix-CDs on which Judge Jules name appears can be dodgy to say the least. Pictures of semi-naked women seem to be the order of the day. Jules is quick to cast aspersions on this kind of artwork . I find it tacky and completely unnecessary. It cheapens the whole thing: you don t need women in G-strings to sell a mix-tape. Surely the name of the DJ should be strong enough. The problem is that you sign a deal and six months down the line the artwork gets done.
A record collector who doesn t buy that many records, a descendant of the underground who talks about marketing and commerciality and whose record label sells tunes that are already hits, a top name DJ who plays 50% exclusive promos for up to #2,000 a night but feels sorry for up-and-coming DJs. Sorry Judge, the jury s still out on your credentials.
Judge Jules appears at the Manifesto Records Christmas Party at System on December 19th.