GURU JOSH PROJECT
Guru Josh's way to fame started in the early 80's. Josh studied to become a
dentist in 1980, but soon chose another path.
He just couldn't stand the thought of looking down peoples throats with bad
breath for the rest of his life. He left dentistry to make music. Josh played in
clubs and bars for one year before leaving for Jersey to become a
partypromotor.
In 1983 he left for America. There he started working for a chauffeur
company where he rented out limos for tours. He soon made his first million,
but not from making music. In 1986 he left for London and gave away his
house, car, bike and money to his friend Gaza.
-“I came here to do music, not run companies. I’ve had the time of my life but
music is my heart, and London is where I need to be. If I go to London with
this cash I will not do music.", Josh said.
In London Josh stayed with a doctor and his retired prostitute wife. He soon
set up a music agency called A-Z.
-"I took 10% from acts and 15% from bars; advertised in all pub magazines
and rented me and mad Mick the sax player to all my best gigs with the best
cash. This was an instant success. I had 120 acts and great access to the
music industry in and around London."
About the same time Josh formed the band Joshua Cries Wolf. This is where
he got the name Josh from. They won the 1989 Nescafé British Band Contest.
However he felt that he was playing in the wrong venue. Dance music had
taken of, and that is where he should be if he were to have success in the
music buziness.
-"I told the band I was leaving and started to go the huge illegal parties like
world dance that had 20,000 nutters dancing in a field."
After a while Josh hooked up with Adamski and Seal to play keyboards with
them. They played as a group for a bit, but Seal's and Adamski's egos was too
much for Josh and he thought he could do this by himself:
-"I wrote a set, called myself Guru Josh and played in front of up to 25,000
people for a measly 50 quid a night. Sunrise, World party, Biology. All of them
I played, I was the main man. They loved it."
Steve, a promoter and friend, promoted a rave called Infinity. He financed a
white label called Infinity to promote his gig. 1000 were printed - 500 for
the promoter, the remainder Josh gave to DJs which were briskly thrown in
the bin. They said:
-"Josh, its got sax, its crap". However One DJ called Mike Pickering, resident
at the coolest club in the land, the Hacienda Manchester, played it and
became the anthem of Manchester.
Guru Josh was now fashionable and cool. His record was duly retrieved from
all bins and became the anthem of 89. An underground smash was born.
-"It was funny how all the DJ’s suddenly said they supported me. Fashion is
so funny. But that is what makes fashion, having the balls to stick your neck
out. To create Fashion is not to be fashionable (I think)".
3 weeks later, 5 majors were bidding ridiculous amounts money. He
eventually signed to Deconstruction (BMG) for 250,000 pounds, and EMI
publishing for 300,000 pounds.
-"My world changed. I now signed on the dole with bodyguards. Incredible,
my turbo range rover parked outside the dole office signing autographs for
the unemployed was a sight. I couldn’t understand it, the woman behind the
desk gave me my 70 quid said I was great on Top of the Pops last night.
Signing her shirt I decided it was time to sign off".
Infinity sold 3 million, the second single 2.5 million the album 900,000.Josh
was the biggest dance star in the world.
After a while Josh and Mad Mick parted and Josh continued solo. Back in
London, he auditioned nearly a hundred useless sax players for the
forthcoming tours. Adding to this misery, Josh found out he was getting
ripped off by his manager.
-"I had enough, left the business, got married and lived in my house for the
first time since i bought it. I was on the road that long. It was good to get
away".
After 1 year with slippers, 2 cats and a cozy cup’s of horlix, Josh was itching
to do something different and under a new name. 2 years earlier he had
bought a top studio for his house that cost him half a million. Unused, he
plugged it in for the first time.
-"Computer graphics took my fancy. I thought why not mix computer
graphics to music and sell them as a visual album. There was no market.
Woolworth’s and HMV said if you sell 2 thousand that’s good. Visual videos
do not sell."
Despite no market he believed this was the next big thing and put his money,
over 150 grand, into digital video equipment and computers. He took 15
unemployed computer kids of the street, converted the 2nd and third floor
into visual design studios and spent the next 9 Months creating a 50 min
video called "Dr devious and the Wisemen - VR Dance in Cyberspace".
-"I was DR Devious but no one knew, the only hint was the company - GJ
productions".
The video sold 220,000 copies and set a world trend. Dr Devious was the
coolest character in the world, and no one knew who he was. That was his
downfall.
Josh then spent nearly 1 million pounds converting a 5000 foot warehouse. It
was decked out with all the mod cons. 4 More Dr devious videos were
created, ""VR2 More Dance in cyberspace" , "VR3", "VR4" and "Lost in silly
space". All were hits. EMI got involved. However because I did not tell anyone
it was me, everyone working for me said they were DR Devious. Josh says:
-"This monster was out of control, we did videos for MTV and all the biggest
dance acts. After my best friend from childhood, in charge of my company,
ripped me off, my wife shagged my best friend, all outlets taking more than a
fair share, money invested in America diverted to boats and parties and a
bunch of back stabbing leeches I made very rich, it was time to get out."
After all of this Josh took some time off and travelled Europe with 2 friends.
Together they put up dance parties under the name Camouflage. mainly in
Portugal.
-"I painted the Porsche, RV and everything else in Arctic camo and with 2
transvestite dwarfs on the top of my camouflaged Porsche the parties never
failed. They were great. After 1 year I decided to go to Ibiza to show the world
my new show."
In Ibiza, Josh and his friends stayed at the camping Florida Es Canar. They did
a weekly show at the Kaos, now Eden. The show was successfull, but not
hugely profitable.
"After 2 years at Kaos it was changed to Eden and I lost my night to the big
promoters."
Josh had a chance to play at other clubs but was bored with the industry. He
wanted a different lifestyle, so he got fit jet-skiing every day, scuba diving,
swimming, chilling and going out with a psycho Catalan chick that he's am
still with.
He also bought an apartement in Port Olympic, Barcelona. In the winter he
snowboarded in Andorra, only one hours drive. Josh loved Barcelona, but
missed Ibiza. After a while he sold the apartement and moved back to the
campsite in Ibiza. He lived there for five years.
-"Boy what an adventure. You meet real people there. It was the happiest
time of my life".
In Ibiza he bought a paramotor and a parachute and set up an aerial-
company, doing aerial photographs. He also flew around San Ann with
banners attached to his legs, promoting the big clubs. This was successful
and made good money but after 3 accidents, the most serious falling out of
the sky in Satogrande Spain, he decided to keep his feet on the ground and
hung up his parachute.
He then bought a restaurant called La Parra in Santa Eulalia wich he
decorated with his own made water fountains, made out of glass tiles. It
didn't work out the way he wanted, and eventually sold the restaurant after
18 months.
In 2007 Josh created The Guru Josh Project together with producer Snakebyte
and Dj DazPerkz. They signed a new record deal with one of germanys
biggest labels - Big City Beats, and early 2008 Guru Josh's big hit Infinity will
be released ones again.
FÖR BOKNING KONTAKTA: UMBRELLA ARTIST
Kontaktperson: Sebastian Krupmann
Mobil: +46-723294656
sebastian@umbrellaartist.se
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