Judge Jules

Julius O'Riordan (born 26 October 1966), better known by his stage name Judge Jules, is a British dance music DJ, record producer and entertainment lawyer.

He is known for his DJ activities, music production and long-running radio show which achieved global success.

O'Riordan became a professional DJ in 1987.

As a young DJ he became known for his interpretation of beat at the Club Valentino venue in Colchester, Essex, drawing capacity attendance.

He was quickly hired by the then-pirate radio station Kiss.

O'Riordan was a contributor to the UK-based black music magazine Soul Underground between 1988 and 1990.

He contributed both as 'Judge Jules' and as 'The Dark Knight', using the anonymity of this identity to provide inside information on the music scene.

He was voted best DJ in the world by DJ Mag in 1995.

O'Riordan was educated at Highgate Wood Secondary School, a state school in Highgate Wood in North London and at University College School, an independent school for boys in Hampstead (also in North London), followed by the London School of Economics (LSE), where he earned a degree in law.

During his time at university, O'Riordan started hosting small parties where he was the DJ and earned the nickname "Judge Jules" due to his field of study.

He began his show with Radio 1 in October 1997.

When he first arrived, the show went out between 17:00 and 19:00 on Saturday evenings, ahead of Danny Rampling's show.

From 31 July 2004, after the departure of Seb Fontaine from the station, his show was moved to 19:00 – 21:00 on Saturday nights, ahead of Tim Westwood.

The show was advertised as "The UK's Saturday Warmup", or "The Weekend Warm-Up".

The show kept this slot until September 2007.

During those years, his music policy ranged from playing commercial to underground tracks, and much in between.

The first segment of the show was taken by the Cut-Up Boys, who did a five or ten-minute mix featuring several dance tracks and a cappella tracks playing simultaneously.

The rest of the first hour was generally taken up by house music and the second hour featured trance music, although if they were broadcasting the show outside the studio, the music might vary.

In September 2007, the show was moved to 01:00 – 03:00 on Saturday mornings.

Because of his DJ commitments on Friday evenings, it was now pre-recorded instead of being broadcast live.

From September 2008, the show was moved forward to 23:00 – 01:00 on Friday evening.

The reason for the move was the departure of Dave Pearce, whose Dance Anthems show was moved to BBC Radio 6 Music.

His show attracted a wide audience from around the world due to Radio 1's online presence and the Sirius Satellite Radio network in the United States and Canada.

Through the radio show, he was responsible for launching many popular trance tunes and acts in the UK, and was a pioneer for commercial contemporary dance music.

Many people send their unreleased tracks to him: according to his own website, during the time when his show was being produced, he received between 250 and 300 promos per week.

His Radio 1 show was produced by independent production company Somethin' Else.

O'Riordan was also a substitute presenter for the long-running Radio 1 weekend show The Essential Mix, which included hosting the Benga mix in 2008.

He presented his last show on Radio 1 on 30 March 2012.

He also has an internationally syndicated radio show called "The Global Warm Up" (also produced by Somethin' Else) which can be heard across the US, Russia, Europe (including RTÉ 2fm) and the Middle East or via podcast.

O'Riordan was an Associate in the Music Group at the law firm Sheridans from 2012 to 2018.

O'Riordan had a regular club night in Ibiza that started out as Judgement Sundays at Eden night club; in 2013 this became Judgement Fridays.

In 2014, Eden nightclub was rebranded "Gatecrasher" and Judgement Fridays moved over the road to Es Paradis and combined with the Fiesta del Agua (water party).

In 2015, O'Riordan wrote a series of six articles for the 'Industry Insider' section of Mixmag which outlined basic legal advice for a number of music industry topics, including management, publishing and recording contracts.

In March 2018, he joined Sound Advice LLP as an entertainment lawyer.

Jules' legal expertise centres around the entertainment areas in which he has over 30 years experience.

As of May 2019, there have been 792 episodes of the Global Warm Up.

Alongside his full-time job as an entertainment lawyer, in 2019, O'Riordan still tours frequently as a DJ and continues to play at notable venues such as Zero Gravity Dubai and Ministry of Sound, and at events such as Luminosity Beach Festival, Creamfields and Dreamstate USA.

In March 2019, O'Riordan announced his 'Judge Jules: Live' project which features O'Riordan playing dance classics alongside a 10-piece jazz band and two vocalists.

The show debuted at The Plug in Sheffield on Saturday 22 March, with four further dates announced in London, Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol.

The live project differs heavily from other comparable shows because the tracks are all re-written for the band to play from the ground up in a different style, specifically for this show.