The boyish, blonde, handsome and ever-so-slightly cheeky Jonjo Jury is one of the friendliest DJs you are ever likely to meet. A regular at London clubs like Trash, Durrr and Fabric, as well as smaller more intimate parties in London’s east end, the infamous George & Dragon and the Dalston Superstore for instance, he has been playing an eclectic mix of music to a discerning crowd for a few years now.

Running his own parties in various venues across London, there is one thing that they always have in common, an inherent sense of fun; and they always end with an inherent sense of debauchery. As we are flying him over to New York for our FALL EVB party, we thought it would be a good opportunity to have a chat introduce him to you - you’re unlikely to forget him!

Portrait of Jonjo shot for EVB by Cassia Tabatini

William Oliver: So you’ve been around in London for quite a while. When did you first move there?

Jonjo Jury: I’m actually a local London boy. It was a pretty exciting place to grow up. From an early age I would go and walk round the British Museum and just be staring up at these amazing treasures, and as soon as I could get in I moved from The British Museum to the club scene! Yeah, just having it all on your doorstep at that age is pretty amazing really.

WO: When you were growing up did you get out of London at all or were you pretty much there all the time?

JJ: Well, holidays were in Torremelinos [Spain] with my grandparents, but not other parts of the UK. My boyfriend and I have been together for ten years, he’s from Leeds, and it has taken me that long to chill out when we go to the countryside. I’m getting more into it now, but it used to scare me so much. In the country at night I’d be like “are you kidding me?” I’d expect people to come out of their houses with burning sticks.
WO: So how did the DJing start? I guess being around on the nightclub scene in London from that young it’s bound to happen.

JJ: I have always been interested in music; my Mum and my Stepdad are really into music. It was quite odd to ever have silence in the house; even now I find it hard not to have something on all the time.

Friends were always saying I had a really eclectic music taste and then a mate of mine, Richard, told me he was opening a new pub, the George & Dragon in Shoreditch, and asked me to come and DJ. I told him I wasn’t a DJ and he said that was half the point.

It was amazing fun. We ended up doing a Sunday night there when at that time there really wasn’t anywhere else doing that. In the summer of 2001 it all just kicked off, everyone was going there and we had people dancing on the tables, doing pills and, well… ha, anyway it all started there, I also ended up doing the guest list and picking at Trash, which I hated actually, and eventually started playing at the club -  just a couple of gigs at first, then more regularly.

WO: Why do you hate doing the door?

JJ: I just think it’s mortifying. Picking someone because they have the right look to come into a bar. It’s now changed a lot though, you can just go into TopShop and buy a look, so there aren’t really any tribes in that sense I guess anymore. At the time clubs wanted a certain type of person in I guess. Ultimately, it’s good for business to have good-looking people in your club.

WO: And what happened to Trash?

JJ: Well as we went on Erol, the promoter/DJ decided he had been running it for long enough - ten years without ever missing one night. He decided to bow out to do other projects and we carried on, eventually turning it into Durrr. We had a lot of really great acts come out of Durrr and Trash. We had Metronomy, We Have Band, Friendly Fires, These New Puritans, The Klaxons, all early on in their careers. And now I’m DJing pretty much full time. I lose track of where I have been this year, and it has been great.

WO: So what sort of stuff were you into as a kid?

JJ: I was really into pop! The first single I bought was Sonia, much to my family’s embarrassment. My Stepdad says that I had a major thing for Toni Basil. When she would come on and play ‘Hey Mickey’ I would literally try and climb inside the TV. I must have been about three or four then - and obviously Madonna. Ha, I came out quite early, at 13, you’d never guess would you?

WO: OK, so really young then?

JJ: Yeah I guess I have always just known. My mum still has pictures I drew when I was younger of friends of mine with love hearts round them and stuff, so she had always known.

WO: Ah bless! So were you out at school.

JJ: I never really had much hassle actually as I was kind of friends with all the different groups of people and always have been. I guess it was actually more of a big thing when I started getting into Nirvana and Courtney Love. I had been hanging out with quite a lot of white working class boys, all Reebok Classic’s and Polo shirts, so when I got into indie more I started to get called a poof, it wasn’t their scene at all.
WO: We love that British working class boy style here at EVB! So what are you doing with yourself at the moment?

JJ: I am now doing my own gigs at London clubs like Fabric and Matter and promoting my party Hot Boy Dancing Spot. I was always kind of the gay DJ at Durrr and Trash. I would see this group of young gay kids who were around and it was nice to play some really great music and have those kids about. I wanted to continue that somewhere. Hot Boy Dancing Spot is just really about having a gay club that caters for all the normal young gay kids that want to go out and listen to good music. The club has really taken.

I was recently asked to do a party for Elmgreen and Dragset at the Victoria Miro gallery as part of a concept piece. Then we also flew over to Venice for the Biennale and played their closing party.  That was definitely the best moment of my year… so far. The party was at the old airport and we DJ’d on the runway to over 2000 people. They even had a speedboat jetting across the water and picking people up.

WO: OK, so what have you got coming up?

JJ: Well I’m going over to Milan next month to do a party and then obviously New York to play at the EVB party, and also at a party at Artists Space. I’m really looking forward to it actually, especially as I know you guys have the cutest go-go boys.

WO: Yeah, what’s that about? Why don’t you have go-go boys there in London?

JJ: Yeah, I know. It’s strange. I think that for some reason New York does it and it works, but here it just wouldn’t. The boys are just really hot for some reason when they’re doing it over there. Anyway… I’m really looking forward to seeing what Richard and Weston have got up their sleeves.

WO: And we’re looking forward to experiencing what’s in your box! Here’s a small taster of what you can expect from The Lovely Jonjo Jury on September 24.

EVB Hot Boy Mix - The Lovely Jonjo [ download ]