BIOGRAPHY
Jo's story began in 1991 when after attending alot of the early raves and illeagal 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, Aisa, 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.
