JB Biography

With his roots firmly etched in the Acid House era, JB (aka Jon Barnet) has continued to develop as one of London’s key underground house music figures, and has kept his fingers in all of the right pies throughout his eponymous career a..

JB Biography

With his roots firmly etched in the Acid House era, JB (aka Jon Barnet) has continued to develop as one of London’s key underground house music figures, and has kept his fingers in all of the right pies throughout his eponymous career as a highly respected and regarded DJ on London’s underground circuit and beyond- his dj-ing skills have taken him to Ibiza, Eastern Europe, Asia and all over the USA and South America.

With a history of organising his own parties at London’s top clubs to setting up and running a record label and a banner production company, JB has embraced all areas of the scene and subsequently acquired many strings to his bow since he fell in love with that first house beat.

It all started for JB in the late 80’s in his home town of Croydon in Greater London, when the Acid House phenomenon was just starting to bubble. At 17 JB was spinning early House, Soul and Disco tracks at a legendary local boozer The Rue St George alongside pal and D&B head Bailey (who now holds down a weekly D&B slot on BBC Radio 1). It was here JB started his party building career- by moving the people and the sound system from the pub gig on to carefully sourced empty venues every week where they’d charge an entry fee. Suffice to say, they were part of a global underground music movement that would soon explode way beyond anyone’s wildest expectations.

JB’s dj-ing talents were soon captured by massive party organisers Spiral Tribe and he became a regular DJ at their seminal raves; events which truly shaped a new party loving generation. Around the same time JB was also forming good bonds and regular dj-ing gigs from the Eukatech family at their legendary warehouse parties across London.

‘I know good music and I just wanna play great music that makes people dance like crazy’ JB

It wasn’t long before JB was running his own parties – Dance Wicked was set up with close friend and another pivitol contributor to dance music culture, the late Sammy Christie. Dance Wicked blew venues like The End, Fabric and Ocean in Hackney away – a combination of excellent line ups and a skill of getting the party vibe just right. They brought in key talents from across the Atlantic such as Timmy Regisford, Derrick May and Tony Humphries. Their first party at Ocean in Hackney with Tony Humphries headlining and Robert Owens singing went live on Danny Rampling’s Radio 1 show, and was the first club night to ever do so on Radio 1.

A record label under the same name was soon born from the Dance Wicked parties, headed up by JB and Sammy. Boasting releases from Blaze, Ambrosia, Timmy Regisford and Lesley Lawrence- the Dance Wicked releases all celebrated enviable success around the globe. And as if they didn’t have enough on their plates, at this busy time JB and Sammy also set up Bannerama, their banner production company that served all the major outdoor music events like Glastonbury, Kiss FM and Radio 1, and that is still in operation today.

With a residency across the Atlantic in New York’s Sullivan Rooms and regular DJ-ing gigs at top house music venue Centrofly in New York at this time too, JB was right in the hub of things, surrounding himself with all the major players in House Music.

After a hectic (and often very stressful!) few years JB took a back seat on organising the parties, and a front seat on his first passion, DJing. With fellow party organiser Darren Roach they set up Electronic Body Movement, a channel to help them promote themselves and both of their DJing skills and their shared love of fine underground electronica.

JB can now be seen spinning every week at Retox the fiercely important Sunday night underground house music party in London where he is a resident and which is run by his long time friends from Eukatech and Dom Cools-Lartigue. He also has monthly gigs with EBM at and 54, as well as a bi-monthly gig at one of East London’s most up and coming venues, Platinum. JB also spins for other long term friends, the Fabric crew, at Fabric around once a month; all these gigs collectively cement his credibility as a man with his finger firmly on the pulse when it comes to cutting edge electronic music.

In terms of new releases and production work, JB has recently been signed to up and coming London label Ifidota, and is spending most of his spare time between his own home studio, and the Platinum Loft studio where the label is run from. With production collaborations with Stephunkt, Azad Rizvi (Reverberations), key old school house figures Hipp-e and Lesley Lawrence plus Stef from Bulgaria and Pure Science in the pipe line, JB truly is one to watch!

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Raves & Dances

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Vampire Records presents Return of the Daywalkerz

Audio Tactics - Label Takeover