For anyone that knows their dance music history, or indeed for anyone that’s studying the topic closely - Judge Jules is a name that quite rightly would feature consistently in the timeline of dance music’s evolution. Some may well remember his earlier days promoting warehouse parties with another outstanding contributor to the scene Norman Jay. Others, for his work on Kiss or of late Radio One and whilst we're here and in the event that you didn't already know - it was indeed Norman who gave him the 'Judge' title whilst a young Jules studied a degree in Law in his youth.

His passion for house music and a vested love for dance music took him as far as New York to buy his records where he watched in awe as this incredible scene developed before him and as house, acid, and the rave scene on the whole developed – Jules as a DJ developed with it; playing at a multitude of much loved events during the rave scene explosion which then led to a flair for production starting with ‘I’m Glad You Came’ which he remixed for Bas’ Noirs.

His calling as a Radio DJ, for which he still this day takes pride of place upon each and every week for BBC Radio One; would begin upon the insanely popular Kiss FM in 1987 when the station was still pirate, leading onto becoming one of the stations primary artists when the station become certified and legal in 1990. During this time he worked with Rollo on a number or remixes for the Positiva label amongst others before his appointment as A&R Manager at Manifesto in 2004 which led onto to him signing and in some cases producing and remixing over twenty five top 40 chart smashes, not to mention numerous main room dancefloor slammers at clubs all over the UK.

From the heights of being the driving force to some of club lands biggest anthems Jules then progressed to the ownership and management along with brother Sam of the Serious Artist Management stable which saw the family outfit managing the diaries of some pioneering artists of their field including Sonique, Norman Jay, Graham Gold, JFK and many more.

However it was in 1997, now at the very top of his game that Jules would begin his spell upon Radio One’s at the time revised schedule. The Beeb had sat up and taken notice of dance music’s feverishly expansive popularity and built upon it and taking a prime time slot twice a week on Friday’s and Saturday’s – Judge Jules’ hit show became one of the stations most popular broadcasts and despite now only featuring once a week, still remains as such to this very day.

Not only had Jules now established himself in every possible area of dance music’s industrial empire including varied interviews on television, in magazines, newspapers and such like, but he would consistently week in, week out feature atop the bill of many a respected dance music promotion. Not just in the UK, but all over the World inclusive of Ministry, Gatecrasher, Cream and just about every other major player in the game that you can think of, not forgetting his own his own successful event Judgement Sundays in Ibiza where he also resides during the season’s peak period.

Now, with artist albums, remixes, compilations, single releases, over two decades of broadcasting experience and even more so as a natural born entertainer upon the eponymous wheels of steel to his credit, I think it’s safe to apply the term legend to any article or conversation that features Jules within it.

Today, as part of a campaign to promote Jules headlining performance at an all new Raw Filth event taking place on the 4th September at Club Mango in Reading, I caught up with Jules to chat about current events, in his ever busy day to day regime.

Jules, firstly thank you for taking the time at the height of the Ibiza ‘peak’ season, it’s great to have you chat with us about current affairs. Speaking of which, presently you’re enjoying aforementioned height of the season and as Judgment Sundays celebrates its 10th year, despite economic recession gripping wallets Worldwide - give us your report on how the season has been for you both as promoter and artist?

Well talking about Ibiza this season, nobody really knew what to expect because not only is the Euro incredibly strong against the pound, which has an impact on everybody’s spending power, but of course the recession has forced people to think saving, saving, saving and it doesn’t really matter who you are, when you go down to the supermarket whenever you’re in a kind of situation where you spend your money; inevitably you’re thinking about extracting the best bargain.

Judgement Sundays is a kind of premium priced night we haven’t had to really reduce, well we haven’t had to reduce prices at all and it’s been absolutely rammed. But it has to be said that despite the fact that Ibiza has the same amount of tourists or roughly the same amount, they’re being very careful about where they spend their money so the big nights such as ourselves, David Guetta at Pacha, Cream at Amnesia, Tiesto at Privilege - are all doing very well, but the secondary nights are suffering quite badly as people reign in their finances and only go to the bigger more successful nights, that they had pre-planned to go to before they even arrived on the island.

Looking at matters at home here in the UK - Radio One continues to be a leader in pushing new music and your weekly Friday night show in turn still reflects that as you represent the dance contingent. Both back in the beginning and even now each and every weekend, what inspires your choices in both what you play on the show and what you take to the club? What defines a good track for you personally?

When it comes to defining a good track, it’s partly down to having road tested things in the clubs and I’m lucky enough to DJ in the clubs probably more than most. In the summer I probably DJ five times a week and very often more than five gigs a week and throughout the rest of the year it’s between three and five gigs a week and that’s the ultimate kind of litmus paper really - the dance floor.

Of course you also listen to stuff at home and it’s difficult sometimes when music seems like a bit of a conveyor belt, there’s 3, 4 or even 500 new tracks a week to hone them down to those things that really do stand the test of time and define you as a DJ and it’s all about a bit of time consuming spade work. It’s very hard to define in words what it is about any given track that I love personally, I suppose there’s percussion and drums and having a bit of groove – even though my predominant area is trance and would be a very significant factor; sort of over quantized and not very funky and undertoned trance isn’t really what does anything for me.

As a well established producer yourself, you’ve enjoyed an established recording career with both you and your wife Amanda also working together on numerous occasions, we hear rumours that Amanda’s recording with you again? Is that so and if so, what projects do you have forthcoming both personally and with your Wife’s angelic tones?

Well when it comes to production I recently released an album ‘Bring The Noise’ and it was my third artist album each of which have taken roughly two years to put together.

Without any particular timetable one just makes tracks in the studio, road tests them and when you’ve got enough tunes that appear to work to constitute an album then you look to see if there are any holes which, would cause that album to maybe not stand together sort of collectively as a collection of tracks and you then try and fill those holes with particular genres of extra musical compositions if you like.

So, I’m fairly up to speed on my own stuff really and we’ve been focussing on Amanda, my wife’s re-visit to studio land. We’ve done remixes of ‘It’s My Turn’ but we’re predominantly focussing on new material. There’s a track called 'Time' which we’ve done with a producer called Paul Webster and we’re speaking to loads of other producers. There’s a guy called Roger Shah from Germany who’s a very prolific, as he describes it - Balearic - trance maker and we’ve done a new tune with him, so as soon as the Summer’s over, we’re going to continue full speed ahead in the studio as well.

Discussing your work as a DJ, you’ve been entertaining the masses for a number of years. There are many breakthrough artists that consistently ask, what’s the secret to a continued, sustained DJ career such as you’ve maintained?

Well longevity as a DJ I suppose comes down to a lot of things, but the fundamental factor is really enjoying it. I’ve seen other DJ’s come and go throughout my career and watched them in the tail end of what they do and just felt that they weren’t really enjoying it as much as they did when they started. Whilst I’d be a liar if I suggested that every single gig 100% of them were as good as one another, one does do the odd thing that isn’t as good as the others.

If I was enthusiastic in 90% of them as when I first started then it really goes to demonstrate that I’m just so into it. I don’t think you’ll fool anybody when it comes to passion behind the decks; you’ve either got it or you haven’t and when that passion does begin to wane then it’s certainly time to hang up the proverbial headphones. So I put longevity down to just… to really loving it and actually feeling the music as well. If you don’t feel the music then there’s absolutely no point

You’ll be back in the UK, in Reading on September 4th to support Raw Filth at Club Mango by headlining at the venue. As a successful promoter yourself what advice would you give to Simon and his team in pushing a new brand into the ever changing world of dance music and nightlife?

It’s very difficult to talk about club promotion when the night that bears my name is based in Ibiza, which is a fairly unique market - but I guess a lot of it’s about making sure you’re mates turn up and if you’ve got a big enough gang of mates who aren’t totally trying to lig off you, then their infectiousness and their atmosphere and the fun their having will ultimately rub off onto other people.

I think most of the better club nights, certainly in the UK started as a bunch of mates as the nucleus and kind of grew organically from there and that would be my recommendation. I mean we all know how to indulge in viral promotion through your Facebooks and your My Spaces and all that sort of stuff but you’ve really got to have a gang of mates having a great time as the core of what you do and everything else really can potentially grow from there as long as they remain and the extra crowd grows outwards from there.

Judge Jules thank you for your time.

You can catch Judge Jules headlining Raw Filth on the 4th September at Club Mango in Reading, further details of which can be obtained by heading over to rawfilth.co.uk.

If you want to keep up with what’s happening in Jules’s World, simply sign up to judgejules.net whereby you can find everything from personal messages from Jules himself, to downloadable mixes, track listings, an MP3 store, Q&A’s, podcasts, message boards, photo galleries, information on Judgement Sundays and much, much more!

Whilst you’re there – don’t forget to vote for him in the DJ Mag Top 100!

Words: Jon-Brown
Pictures Courtesy Of Laura at Integrity AM, Charlie Raven (billynasty) - ravenworks.co.uk and ANDY-SB