Judge Jules to leave Radio 1.


lyndon

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Yeah getting out the vinyl for a farewell mix of all his favourites!! :)

That'd be class. His own favourites too, no suggestions, no asking for tweets, just his favourite slabs of vinyl and two hours straight through. Maybe even recounting his favourite live gigs from down the years, playing a clip or two.

Jules being the ultimate professional he is though, I'm sure he'll not look for anything as self-indulgent as that, unless R1 tell him too or something. I'd say it'll be genuinely hard for him, when the final show comes around.

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I think the problem there is that Jules said in his diary about 12-18 months ago that he'd got rid of most of his vinyl. He stated that he'd converted some of his old favourites to MP3 - but I suspect the ones that he's converted are the classics that he still regularly plays now - Kristine Blond - Love Shy, Lost Witness - Happiness Happening, Green Martian Industry, etc. I suspect the really dated and/or lesser known tunes are long gone.

I do think he'll finish off with a special show though playing some of his favourites throughout his Radio 1 career - or he may even play snippets from previous shows, such as some of the outside broadcasts, etc.

There are also rumours that he's being given an Essential Mix as a "goodbye" too - so hopefully that is the case, and he'll play a set of some of his favourite "trademark" tunes. I'd love to hear him dig out something like Altitude - Excession, The Clergy - Saints & Sinners, Citizen Caned - The Journey, JamX & De Leon - Can U Dig It & DJ Elite - That Fuct Camera. All tunes that you could refer to as "Jules tunes".

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Ah, now you say that, I think I remember him saying that. I suppose the sheer physical scale of over a decades' worth of vinyl, given the amount he would've garnered, must've been enormous. Did he say what he did with them? Sold to a collector or something or just give them away? I'm sure for a man of Jules stature it wouldn't be hard to round up the required vinyl for a night, although I suspect the same as you, he'll play the fresher sounding mp3 versions he has instead, rather than having a root through to see if there's anything less obvious he'd forgotten. Imagine having a flick through those old tunes though? Heaven.

The essential mix will be a very nice touch if it happens (providing those jingles and those tunes aren't there :lol: ). Imagine a banging BXR/Bonzai set from start to finish. We can but dream I suppose.

I think he'll genuinely lose a lot of the enthusiasm he has for the scene, once he stops R1. The fact he's been studying law again, shows he wasn't just thinking of milking it till the work dried up, then retiring. He's obviously given it some thought. I'd assume he'll have to massively cut down on gigs if he starts law seriously again.

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i'd imagine he's still got most the big tracks that he's played from the outside broadcasts such as creamfields, gatecrasher summer sound system, ibiza etc. maybe it's the odd bootleg that he probably played once and then got rid of, plus some commercial stuff that went big and got annoying. stuff like airwave's save me, green martian's industry, frank trax nebuchan, push strange world, rba no alternative etc he's hopefully kept. i'm sure that the last show will be a retrospective and possibly emotional one.

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Did he say what he did with them?

He did - but I can't remember what he said in his diary now.

I think he'll genuinely lose a lot of the enthusiasm he has for the scene, once he stops R1.

Possibly - but it also means he'll get less promos - so he'll have to search harder for tunes rather than picking the best of the freebies he's sent each week. It also means that Tristan D isn't likely to be needed, so therefore, Jules will be listening to EVERY tune he recieves himself, rather than the dodgy stuff that has been filtered through. It also means he'll have less, if any, media interviews to deal with, no critics following his every move to pick fault, or no expections from crowds - so it may mean that when he does DJ, we see a 'refreshed' Jules doing his own thing.

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That's a good point, Briggsy, I'd never thought of it like that, could be very positive for him musically. May get rid of a few 'yes men' too, now they can't count on Radio1 airplay/ support/ piggy-backing, and they'll no longer feel the need tell him each and every thing he does is brilliant because some of the personal gain will have gone out of it for them . He may go back to his roots a bit.

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this is sad news indeed, but as most have already said, its been a while coming, even i said it last year that his time was coming to an end.

What worries me, is Tong will be next, but who on earth do they replace him with? There is no one who immediately springs to mind except Dave Spoon (His in new dj's we trust shows were excellent and vastly underrated). Radio 1 needs to keep house dj's at least, if they are phasing out trance djs. If Tong goes, i can safely say i will no longer be listening to Radio 1 at all.

But anyway, Jules...what a legend. Calvin Harris recently tweeted about this, and it summed it up perfectly. He said "if it werent for Judge Jules old friday + Saturday night shows, I would never have got into dance music". So true, and its something i think that resonates with all of us. We all remember Jules from 98-2001 being his best years. On his day, there was no one that could touch him. I've had many a good night out listening to Jules, and the radio shows, timeless!

Radio 1 are a strange bunch, they seem to think they know what people want, but do they? I'm very surprised that Skream & Benga are the replacements. Dubstep to me, is urban music, so why are they not on 1Xtra? This is what annoys me, they have a dedicated "black music" station, so why not keep it all uniform?

I think to say farewell, i'd like Jules to play his personal favourites, mixed in with some banter about his memories from certain times etc.

Jules, thanks for opening my ears to house music, and getting me into it all. Thanks for the memories and those 1999-2000 radio shows, they were truly epic.

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Dubstep to me, is urban music, so why are they not on 1Xtra? This is what annoys me, they have a dedicated "black music" station, so why not keep it all uniform?

They share the output mate - for example, when Westwood is on, he can be heard on both 1xtra and Radio 1 at the same time. Cost cutting I guess - why pay two presenters during the 'graveyard slots', when they can put one presenter on two stations.

They'll more than likely do the same with the Dubstep show now :(

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Surely Tongy will be allowed to decide when he leaves?

The guy has done more for specialist music on R1 than virtually anyone else (John Peel excluded along with a select few others).

Annie Mac cannot hold a candle to him - her show kind of opitimises why we feel so disinterested with R1's playlist - i.e. it's utter bollocks.

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It's sad. It's a shame. But had to come at some point. I actually like that he wants to focus on a different career while he's still young enough, to me (selfishly) it preserves the best ; better than to be cabaret another 20 years down the line (IMO - thinks back to a load of fogies chanting the lyrics to 'youth gone wild' at Rock City...oh dear... :redface: ) .

We were the lucky ones - we were there. We recognise his value to a special kind of music so am in agreement with previous posters........might even start listening again in case he starts pulling it out the bag with some forgotten classics......

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Surely Tongy will be allowed to decide when he leaves?

I don't think anything can be taken for granted with Radio 1 now. It wasn't that long ago that we all thought that Tong, Pearce and Jules all had 'safe' seats and were fairly valuable to Radio 1.

2 of the 3 have gone/are going - and Tong has had his show time reduced - therefore, I think Radio 1 have proven that they're not afraid to make changes to popular shows and presenters.

Personally, I think Tong has only survived just to keep a little bit of stability to the schedule. I'll give it 12 months before he's gone too.

The sad thing is, Tong and Pearce have good, natural radio voices and sounded equally at home on the radio as they do playing club sets. Jules has never sounded like a 'natural' radio presenter (he's admited it himself in the past too) - but he did have a very big personality, good sense of humour and incredible musical knowledge to make up for it. All three of them are very much the last traditional British radio/club personalities. Everyone knows who they are and respects what they've done even if their music wasn't their cup of tea - and thats rare these days. Its to easy for someone to say "he's crap" these days, just because they don't like their style of music.

Unfortunately, the new presenters will simply be club DJs-turned-presenters. They'll lack the radio personality that Tong, Jules and Pearce have. This is why, in my opinion, Eddie Halliwell never really settled in. He was a great club DJ - but just lacked the charisma, personality and ability on the radio. He never really seemed comfortable on the radio - and the same could happen to the new guys.

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Yeah, despite Jules not being the DJ that he once was, and not my cup of tea at all for the past 3 years - overall, he's still my favourite DJ of all time.

One of his main criticisms over the past few years has been his mixing and lack of set flow - but 10-12 years ago, that's where Jules stood out from the rest. He'd think nothing of doing a really long, 2-3 minute mix that sounded absolutely genius. He'd also not be afraid of pulling off 'risky' mixes - you know the ones, mixes where you'd never expect two tunes to go together. Mixes that other DJs simply wouldn't even dare to attempt - yet Jules would pull it off with ease and make it sound amazing. He's also one of the very few DJs that, throughout his career, has never been afraid to play a variety of genres in one set - he'd often play his old pacey Euro-House sound, Trance, Tech-Trance and Techno all in one set - yet make the set flow perfectly with none of the genres sounding out of place.

Jules was very unique in his DJ'ing style. If you turned up to a club not knowing who was on the line-up, you'd instantly know Jules was playing without even seeing him simply through hearing the tunes that were playing - the sound that us Jules fans referred to as "The Jules Sound". Generally, fast-paced, 'fun', bouncy tunes of various genres that you could associate with him. He also wasn't afraid of his critics - if Jules felt that a tune was good, he played it - whether it was a more 'underground' Techno tune, a top 10 chart hit, or one of "those" bizarre tunes that he occasionally played throughout his career. Whether every DJ was playing it, or whether he was the only DJ in the world playing it. Whether it was signed to a massive label, or signed to a minor label that nobody had heard of. Whether a tune had had huge chart success or whether nobody had ever heard of it - Jules didn't care! He'd play them all.

Thats why there will never be another Jules. Everything is far too serious these days. DJs have to have 'a sound'. DJs have to be a brand. DJs won't touch anything if its entered the charts. DJs won't touch anything if it could be regarded as "cheesy". Every DJ is playing the same tunes, and everyone knows what they are. None of that bothered Jules. Even today, 10-12 years on, there are still unidentified tunes from Jules's tracklistings because he was the only DJ playing them, and nobody knew what they were, or where they came from. That doesn't happen with DJs any more.

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Annie Mac cannot hold a candle to him - her show kind of opitimises why we feel so disinterested with R1's playlist - i.e. it's utter bollocks.

very well put.

Everyone knows who they are and respects what they've done even if their music wasn't their cup of tea - and thats rare these days. Its to easy for someone to say "he's crap" these days, just because they don't like their style of music.

seems to me that the people who say that or seem to don't understand how the music scene was back when jules was at his best, they were never around to experience it because most of them are barely out of school. it's the likes of them what radio 1 are basing their decisions on. but i really can't see them sticking to dubstep or whatever new stuff they follow like a lot of 30+ year olds who are still following trance somewhat nowdays.

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Yes, well said Briggsy :thumbsup: . Unlike some of you on here l still enjoy going to his gigs as you never know what to expect (what tunes he will play) and to be honest l have always liked the fact that he plays various genres, so for me l never find him boring. Admittedly his sets don't always flow like they use to but when l go out l'm there to enjoy myself so if he makes a few mistakes it doesn't spoil the night for me. I listen to his show every week and will miss his cheerful voice and the music. At least for now he says he will continue to dj but once he gets stuck into his new job he will probably have no choice but to cut back.

I'm planning on going to see him @ Slinky, Bournemouth on 4th February and hopefully he will continue to play @ MOS after he has left R1 in April I guess we will just have to wait and see, l don't suppose he knows himself how it will all pan out.

Big respect to Jules, he's a great presenter and a genuinely nice guy so hopefully he will make a success of his new career and also continue to do a few gigs for as long as he wants. All that travelling can't be good for him so from a health point of view leaving R1 and doing less gigs might be for the best.

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It'll be interesting to see whether Jules can keep the DJ'ing going for another 5 years. Matt Hardwick also became a lawyer about 15 months ago, and tried to combine that role alongside being a DJ too - but, ultimately, had to quit DJ'ing. One of the reasons Matt gave was simply that the law firm felt that the DJ'ing/clubbing industry didn't portray a very good image for a lawyer.

With no disrespect to Matt Hardwick, but Jules is, for obvious reasons, going to attract far more media/public attention - and that could be publicity that the law firm don't want their name associated with.

Unless i'm mistaken, I'm also fairly sure that Jules is joining the saw law firm that Matt Hardwick is with (if so, their works Christmas parties are going to be the best in the UK for sure!).

I guess the main difference between them is that, I suspect, Jules will be advising new entertainment companies of laws and regulations they need to follow - and things like that, rather than representing individuals. Whereas, from the little i've read, I think that Matt Hardwick is more to do with 'general law' and dealing with the public.

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More from the man himself (EDIT: regarding JudgeJulesArchive.co.uk, firstly):

Thanks for your mail, and cheers for keeping the site updated and so informative over the years. Having recordings of my shows over the years will be an incredible memento going forward. Although I'll be moving over to becoming an entertainment lawyer not long after quitting my R1 show next April, my Djing, Ibiza and my international 'Global Warm Up' radio show will all continue as normal.

...for five years or so as we know from Noff's snippet above. Not sure when exactly in April his last R1 show will be...

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Is that about here mate? That's class, if so. It's actually really brilliant to think that the man who gave us all this music for this great site, is able to take something back from it himself. As I said in another thread, I hope he's able to lose himself for a while to his timeless music once in a while, just as we do here. Lesser men could've been really arsey about the site, or just ignored it. It's testament to him as a person really.

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