Why Jockey Slut Mattered, According to the DJs Who Loved It

Yesterday we brought you the story of Jockey Slut, or the best club culture publication you probably never read. Today we've decided to let a few DJs and producers take a trip down memory lane and give us the lowdown on the sorely missed magazine.

Joining us on a trip into the past are diminutive Canadian icon Tiga, London clubland overlord Erol Alkan, one of the 2 Bears Raf Rundell, compilation king Trevor Jackson, and Mr Mo'Wax himself James Lavelle. Let's let them do the talking.

THUMP: What was your first introduction to Jockey Slut?

Tiga: I don't remember what issue I got first. That old Daft Punk cover comes to mind. I also remember a Primal Scream one. I must have bought it on one of trips to London. Maybe 94? I remember I liked that JS didn't waste all that space with the UK club round up like Mixmag. It was noticeably less "party" oriented and seemed more about "my" music at the time. More techno. It's strange to think of it now but it also introduced me to a certain English sense of humour.
Erol Alkan: I can't really remember how I first discovered Jockey Slut, it was definitely in the late 90s, and I recall having an interest in it as it covered a lot of bands and musicians on the alternative scene. It would be fair to say that Jockey Slut soon filled the gap that the NME had started to leave in my thirst for new music. Guitar music was certainly starting to stale and Jockey Slut covered new electronic sounds from right across the spectrum. You'd buy an issue for The Chemical Brothers on the cover and discover a new artist on German indie label Kitty Yo for example…
Raf Rundell (The 2 Bears): In 1995 I was 16. Most weekends my mate Jamie and I used to smoke dope and listen to 60s music or indie bands. Some weekends we used to go to the raves up the road at Lydd Airport near Ashford. There we'd take acid and get scared by the older local boys pretending to be gangsters and, quite often, the music too. We didn't really like the raves but we didn't want to miss out on what was, looking back on it, like a demented extension of our school disco. There were two tribes. The indie kids and the ravers and we didn't fit neatly into either.

That summer we saw Orbital and Underworld on our first visit to Glastonbury. Jamie had an elder brother whose room we used to sit in when he was out. He had better records and a lava lamp. In there one day I found a copy of Jockey Slut. I think LFO were on the cover. Here was a magazine that seemed far out and full of things that I was interested in and had no idea about but was also accessible to a suburban wannabe techno warrior. It had a spirit of inclusion, of different styles of music of fashion, of people. At 16 I thought I knew everything worth knowing about and had a kind of "everything I'm into right now is all there is worth bothering with, everything that came before this is complete rubbish" ethos.

Jockey Slut disabused me of these notions. It was OK to like Blur and LFO. It was OK to like football and music. It was OK not to be really serious all the time. It was OK. What a revelation, what a relief.
Trevor Jackson: That era is all a total blur to me, due not only through my excessive drink and drug intake but also addiction to fast cars, prostitutes, supermodels and any club that played big beat and britpop. My first memory of Jockey Slut was waking up one morning at the Metropolitan Hotel with Kate Moss and a naked Ben 'Fat Truckers' Rymer bursting through the door with a copy in his hand screaming about this new band Daft Punk that he swore would change the future of dance music forever. Kate was furious when I invited him to join us and left me for the chap out the Kills. Ed and Tom Chemical were in the kitchen making beats with a ZX spectrum, Erol was doing the washing up, the rest is history.*
James Lavelle: Reading the first issue.

What kept you reading, issue after issue? Where there any favourite features or interviews that still stand out?
Tiga: I liked the interviews. Reviews. Obviously this is at a time when information was scarce (and I lived in Canada) so every little scrap was cherished. Photos of people (like the Daft Punk shots) came to completely define the artists in my mind's eye for years to come. I liked that last page "have you ridden a horse" thing. I guess at its core I was interested in many of the same artists: Weatherall, Mills, etc…
Erol Alkan: I always felt like I was discovering something new. I remember the writing being of a high standard, so I'd read every feature, each issue. Two pivotal moments were when they awarded Gonzales 'Album Of The Month' for The Entertainist and Alan Braxe & Fred Falke's "Running" Single Of The Month, on both occasions I immediately left my house and went out and bought those records without hearing them. I later went on to book Gonzales to play Trash (he eventually played on three separate occasions) and "Running" is one of my favourite records from that era..
Raf Rundell: Pre-internet, Jockey Slut was the place I found out about new bands and artists. If you didn't read the magazine you were missing out. It's hard to imagine that now but that's what it felt like. Favourite features? Later on I became a press officer. The magazine did a feature on an artist called Brooks who I was working with. We did the interview and pictures around Soho. One of the shots is Brooks and I stood at the urinals in the public toilets on Great Marlborough st. Brooks is peering over my shoulder with a carry on nudge-wink look to the camera. A proud moment: a picture of me having a piss in Jockey Slut.
Trevor Jackson: I liked the free CD's, I'm rather cheap and the idea of buying anything I find disgusting.
James Lavelle: They were particularly good in their choice of topics and music — it felt more organic and real than the other dance based press, reminding me of magazines like Soul Underground which I had loved as a kid.

Was there a particular regular feature you always looked forward to?
Tiga: No not really. But I read it cover to cover daydreaming about one day being part of that world. It held clear priority over Muzik and Mixmag and DJ and stood alongside The Face and ID in my monthly educational curriculum. It's actually quite amazing to think back at how much influence those articles had on a kid in Montreal. I wanted to tell somebody that yes, I had once been on a horse.
Erol Alkan: The great thing about Jockey Slut was that the sum was greater than all the parts, even though each interview and feature was worth reading. I think they documented a particular moment better than anybody else. I suspect it had a lot to do with being involved with Bugged Out and close to many of the pivotal artists of the time. Jockey Slut gave me a sense of confidence in being different within the world of dance music.
Raf Rundell: I'm sure everyone's going to say this but Luke Cowdery's Vee Vee Right/Vee Vee Wrong column was always a highlight.
Trevor Jackson: Anything that mentioned myself.
James Lavelle: I loved it as a whole, which is a very rare thing!

Like we said…watch this space for more Jockey Slut goodies to come…

Follow Josh on Twitter