Smokin Jo is one of the most talented Dj's to emerge from the British dance music scene for the last ten years. Jo's undeniably cutting edge sound has carved her a niche in clubland.

Jo  has played in pretty much every corner of the globe and in every major nightclub you could care to mention. Womb in Tokyo, Panorama Bar in Berlin, Made / Warung in Brazil, Cavo Paradiso in Mykonos, Crobar in New York, Space in Miami & Ibiza, Vinyl in New York, Zouk in Singapore, Fabric in London and Cocoon in Frankfurt are just some of the venues she has played in recent years. Jo is currently resident at Space for We Love Sundays. 

On the production front Jo has been making serious waves through her moniker TRNSSTR

(Transistor) alongside production partner Pete Gleadall. After the success of their first single 'Sausage Dog' which was premiered at the WMC with remixes from Davide Squillace and Plasmik, the second TRNSSTR single 'As You Like It'  receivied major support from the likes of  Luciano, Anja Schneider and Tiefscharwz to name a few. TRNSSTR perform live with Pete on laptop and keyboards and Jo on decks effects and vocals.

Jo has recently been producing with Nicole Moudaber, with tracks due for release on Area Remote and Yellow Tail.  

Where did it all begin?
Jo's story began in 1990 when after years of attending many of the early raves and illegal parties she noticed a distinct lack of female DJs. As a massive fan of this exciting new music that was sweeping the nation, Jo decided to buy some decks and started mixing. From those early days it was always the deeper side of things Jo preferred, soulful sounding tracks that take you on a journey, no matter what style she plays from Techno to House it has to have meaning and a bassline to kill.  

While working in the Gaultier shop in London's Soho, Jo made her first mix tapes and gave them to friends and customers to gauge their response. The reactions were better than expected and her first gigs quickly followed at fashion after-show parties.

In 1991 Jo was given a chance to play at London's legendary after-hours party Trade at Turnmills. Seizing the opportunity she smashed the club, blending her mixture of deep house and techno and as a result was given a residency that lasted three years. Trade was her stepping stone into the big league, at that time Trade was the only after hours in London, all the promoters, Dj's and industry people came down to party religiously each week so in no time at all Jo was being booked to play at club events like Puscha, Boys Own, Tribal Gathering, Back to Basics and Full Circle.

These gigs were the basis for her winning such accolades as DJ Magazine's highly coveted DJ of the Year Award (she is still the only female DJ to have ever won this award). 

Taking her stage name from the boxer Smoking Joe Fraser, Jo felt it provided ambiguity over an obviously feminine name as at the time it was seen as a novelty to be a female DJ (how times change!) It's thanks to women like Jo that these shifts in attitudes have taken place. 

 Jo has been spinning in Ibiza since 1993 playing at Amnesia,  Ku (Privilege), Pacha, and Space as well as infamous secret beach and villa parties. 

In 2002 and 2003 Jo was assigned to do a 'postcards from Ibiza' report on Pete Tongs Essential Selection on Radio 1. As Jo has been frequenting Ibiza for 15 years, she was perfectly placed to give weekly reports of all the latest club news and goings on there. In addition 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. 

Jo  has mixed the Terrace CD for the Space Album that was released on Azuli Records in 2003. This followed on from the other successful compilations Jo has under her belt such as 'Defected Sessions 14', 'DEF Com 2' and 'SJ01' released through Trust the DJ. Jo also mixed a cover-mount CD for Muzik magazine in the summer of 2001 and more recently in 2006 she mixed the cover-mount CD for Mixmag which was hugely popular.

Jo's international credibility has led her to work alongside numerous iconic figures in the world of music and fashion. She has DJ'd at The Pet Shop Boys end of tour party, a Grace Jones concert, Skunk Anansie's album launch party, Jamiroqaui's South African tour parties, as well as at fashion events for the likes of Alexander McQueen, Michiko Koshinos and Julian Macdonald.

Jo was signed-up by Storm Model Agency in their Celebrity Section and was the face of a major billboard campaign for the Sega video game Mortal Combat. 2002 saw Jo become the centre point of Pioneer's advertising campaign for their HDJ 1000 professional headphones. And on top of all this in 2002 Jo entered into the world of television and made her debut as a presenter for MTV: Dance in Ibiza as well as presenting for Radio One at Mardi Gras and in Ibiza in 2002. 

In 2004/5 Jo was rocking the planet as one half of the dance floor phenomenon that was NastyDirtySexMusic. The parties were ultra-underground, word-of-mouth affairs with the ethos heavily geared towards cutting edge music and not making profit. The success of the NDSM parties saw it become We Love... Sundays at Space's newest resident that year, introducing the electro-house sound to an unsuspecting Ibiza crowd (not bad considering it started life as an illegal rave!) By late summer 2004 NDSM were playing in Space's The Red Box; fast forward to summer 2005 and NDSM were fully-fledged terrace regulars, a massive achievement in an incredibly small space of time. A full tour of Asia and Australia in the winter of 2004 also cemented NDSM's status as did a double CD mix compilation, released through Ministry of Sound in June 2005. MOS also played host to NastyDirtySexMusic nights on a bi-monthly basis which were among the busiest nights at the club for some time. After a whirlwind couple of years the guys decided to call time on the project on New Years Eve 2005. 

For the past 3 years Jo promoted her own club night "Nude" with Terry Hart from Go!Zilla/Redlight. Nude ran parties in warehouses in London's East End and over the past two years taken over the terrace and discoteque at Space in Ibiza. The ethos of Nude was anything goes, with outlandish freakish performers and cutting edge Dj' s, these parties were the ultimate in debauchery and undergound sounds. Guest Dj's included Dan Ghenacia ( Freak "n' Chic) , Clive Henry ( Circoloco), Giles Smith ( secretsundaze) , Radioslave and Moby. Nude came to an end this year as Terry and Jo separated to work on other projects. 

One thing's for sure that with bags of energy and a wealth of experience to draw-on it seems Jo still has plenty up her sleeve for the months and years ahead! 

www.smokinjo.co / www.myspace/smokinjomusic