Jay Friction - Profile

Jay Friction

In ’93, Jay landed his first residency at Labrynth thanks to Vinyl Matt, a friend and resident DJ. The iconic Four Aces club, once a reggae venue was packed every weekend, run by the enigmatic Joe Wieczorek and the ever-lovely Sue, who Jay absolutely idolised.

Labrynth was pure rave culture, he played house sets in the club’s secondary rooms and made the rounds across every record store inside the M25 handing out Labrynth flyers, dropping off comps for the shop owners and their friends, and digging for rare musical gold. That era was euphoric.

By ’95, craving the buzz of a crowd again, Jay started running his own parties, he hired restaurants and bars, filled them with friends and their friends, and kept the floors moving. Some of his friends were regulars at legendary London nights like Release the Pressure and Just Can’t Get Enough. Later going on to book CJ Mackintosh, thanks to a mutual connection, which he describes as an unreal moment!

By ’98, Jay was ready to go big. He took a leap, hired Imperial Gardens and the club brand Kinky Malinki was born, this brand defined his next chapter.

Back then there was no social media. Just hard graft. He shamelessly bluffed his way into hiring the venue, had 60,000 flyers printed, and spent countless sleepless weekends getting them out at clubs, on cars, franked letters flying out of post offices like confetti.

With his co-promoter Paul, he put on huge nights across the UK & Ibiza, Imperial Gardens, The Glasshouse, Aquarium, Ministry of Sound, Turnmills, The Cross, El Divino and their longest-running monthly residency at Pacha London.

In this era Kinky Malinki were guests at the biggest parties of the era, Ultra Vegas, Eye Candy, Hotdog, the list goes on. It seemed like they were partying all over the UK for a while.

35 years in and Jay’s still addicted to the music and still as passionate about Kinky Malinki as he ever was. You can catch Jay & Alun as part of the Kinki Malinki show every Tuesday from 5pm.