BIOGRAPHY

Where and how did it all start? At the age of just 9 Surrey born Mark still this day remembers getting his first tape recorder and recording the national charts with a cassette. The next step was having a double tape ghetto blaster and while playing a track and recording it, he would then pause the track playing and play another track at a different part of the song while recording it and linking the tracks together, he would do this using many different tracks creating a so called nowdays megamix.

At the age of 12 Mark purchased a turntable (a really heavy chunky mono turntable) and a set of small speakers from the local school jumble sale and used to play his elder sisters 70's and 80s Soul Funk Disco & Rare Groove 7 inch vinyl on them. After realising one day he no longer wanted the 7 inch version he decided he wanted the full length 12 inch versions which will allow him to mix each track together for longer.

At the age of 13 Mark used to ride to the car boot sales on his bike finding and replacing all the 7 inch singles that his sister eventually gave him and replacing them with the 12 inch versions. This then started to become a real hobby.

At 14 Mark started to get into the music which was known as Old Skool Hip Hop & Electro and used to regularly tape radio shows including DJ Tim Westwood on LWR, DJ Paul Dodd's show on JFM and then came DJ Mike Allens show on Capital Radio. At this age Mark discovered going out and used to make sure that his Mum taped the shows for him so he could see what was new for that week. He was one of the first boys in the area to discover and purchase Old Skool Electro Hip Hop which was becoming extremely popular.

The first PROPER record shop Mark used to visit was Groove Records in Soho - this was like a dream come true.. all the records you heard on the radio could be purched here at an import price of £4.99. "I could only ever afford a couple at a time after getting my money from golf caddying." "And still to this day remember the old lady sitting on a stool in the shop who knew everything about Old Skool Hip Hop and Electro music." (Said Mark)

At the age of 16 Mark had his first DJ gig at the local workmans club with his then DJ Partner (Mark B) (Hip Hop Producer) and another old friend. On this night you would hear anything from Kylie Minogue's - I should be so lucky to Pass the Peas by the Jb's. This was a real success and we got paid £50 between the three of us for it.

Our own next event for us to put on and DJ at the age of 17 was an Old Skool Hip Hop Jam called "Tales from The Dope Side". We hired a local hall, doorman and sold tickets for it. We used to paste (Mark B's) graff written posters up onto bus stops etc using wallpaper paste to get the word about. A couple of days before the Jam Marks mum said she had a phone call from the Police saying we had to cancel the party because of the name - saying that it had something to do with illegal substances. Mark still to this day does not know whether his mum was telling the truth or not.
After then DJing various parties in London And Surrey including weddings and private functions mark would also play house music which was already very big in the UK.

In 1991 DJ Mark J and Mark B launched Smokin Beats - An Old Skool Hip Hop jam in Kingston upon Thames. This event was a sellout. Guests used to travel to see us DJ and to listen to our Music from all over London. It was a real Old Skool Hip Hop night with real Hip Hop Music still talked about these days by many. Smoking Beats then moved to a regular spot at Londons famous Wag Club on a weekly basis and was still successful until we decided to end it.

After this DJ Mark J was then resident DJ in bars and clubs in some of Londons and Surreys prime venues as to this day playing anything from 80s Soul & Rare Grooves to Old Skool Hip Hop and RnB & Swingbeat and through to all aspects of house music.

In 2007 Mark alongside another old school friend launched the brand "Swish" This was a Sunday night which soon became Surreys No 1 place to go on a Sunday night. Once again we used to get guests travelling miles to attend this night. On Bank Holidays we would have over 1000 guests turn up.
At the end of 2009 Swish ceased.

Mark also held a very busy weekly show on Londons award winning Flex FM.