Paul Oakenfold claims the most important step in his music career was moving from the UK to New York City when he was about 20 years old. He thought he could “Take on the world”. Although the move was partly due to his boredom with England at the time, it was mainly due to the incredible, inspiring music that was coming from New York. Paul had already completed a wine and cocktail course, and was a qualified chef! This meant he could drop everything and pursue DJing, safe in the knowledge that he had something to fall back on.
Life in New York for Paul started with talking his way into clubs for free; By posing as a reporter from NME or Melody Maker, and using his British accent, Paul was able to get into clubs like Paradise Garage and Studio 54.
Judge Jules initially went to New York in ‘87 to find new funky hip-hop tunes; He ended up finding house music. Although some house music was played at the Hacienda in Manchester, house music was relatively unknown to the UK at the time. The massive sound systems added to the experience, and before Judge Jules knew it, house music was his ‘gospel’.
