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The Lovely Jonjo
Jonjo Jury-Andrews is a 24-year-old DJ
from London who loves to cruise and stuff. People refer to him as The Lovely Jonjo. Photography by Andreas Larsson.
James: What do you do?Jonjo: I DJ and run a club night called
Lavender Panther. And I play at the George & Dragon every Sunday, which is mainly gay, but I do quite a lot of straight places too, where weirdly enough I find I can play more varied stuff. Gay people often want to hear music that they feel comfortable with, rather than music which challenges them. I play rock, electro, a bit of HI-NRG - I've been getting more into Bobby 0 - and I love a band called Soft Pink Truth. I don't mix, though.
Where did the nickname The Lovely Jonjo come from, by the way?
Sean McCluskey, the club promoter, christened me, and it sort of stuck.
Tell me about your mum. You've been seen out and about with her in clubs.
She's great. She was a punk in London in the Seventies - wearing bin bags, the whole works - and was going out with Billy Idol.
Really? That was when he was at his most beautiful! Is he your father, then?
No. She went out with him before my dad. If Billy was my dad, I'd probably have a nice house in L.A. by now.
When did you tell her you were gay?
I came out to her and my step-dad when I was 13. I was cruising, even then. I used to bunk off school and hang around at the toilets in Angel. I had a really, really bad experience the first time I got fucked - horrendous, he was really violent. I met him in a toilet and went back to his place. It was messy, I didn't realise that shit happens... literally. He went mad and knocked me about. It was grim, because I couldn't tell anyone about it afterwards.
So did that put you off cruising?
No. But my mum could tell there was something wrong with me. When I came out and told her, her reaction was, 'Thank God! I thought you were on heroin!'
Is it fun to have such young parents?
Well, my boyfriend Daryoush finds my relationship with my mum really weird - because we are so close and open with each other. The three of us went to Ibiza in the summer, and she'd be sun-bathing naked on the balcony. Daryoush was like, 'Aaargh!'
No, but she heard about Popstars when it first started and said I should go there. I'd been to G-A-Y a couple of times and hated it, but Popstars every Sunday night at Paradise was the best thing ever. I met loads of lads there who were 17 or 18, but because I was only 14 they wouldn't do anything with me.
So, is Daryoush your first proper boyfriend?
No, my first boyfriend was when I was 15 - he was 26. Then I went out with a guy who was 36.
And do you still frequent toilets now?
Yeah. I used to love the Wentworth Street toilets, off Petticoat Lane. They've been closed now, but they used to be unlocked at night so you could go down there at two in the morning, and there'd be, like, twenty blokes at it. I went one night, pilled-up, and these two skinheads were fucking this city guy and everyone was tossing over them and stuff. I have this knack for sniffing out cottages. Even on a climbing holiday in Wales, in the middle of nowhere, I found this toilet… It was basically a hut. One of the cubicles was shut, so I looked over the top and this guy was in there, I swear to God, in full gimp-style rubber. I freaked. This was in the middle of a forest! I was petrified!
Do these encounters always remain anonymous? Or do you ever see them again?
There was a bloke recently who I'd have been happy to see again - a Liverpudlian fireman.
Did he have a big hose?
Yeah. He was stocky and short, and very straight-acting. He had his braces on and said, I've done the night shift, and I need to cum before I go to sleep.'
So does Daryoush know about all this?
He likes to hear the stories! But he's one of the rare breed who would be happy just with me. I've encouraged him to try it, though, because I don't want him to get to 35 or 40 and regret that he didn't have some sort of teenage shenanigans.
Right. And what's your favourite song ever?
I Wanna Be Your Dog by The Stooges. I first heard it at Smashing when I was about 13, and it's the only time I've ever been drawn to a DJ to ask what the name of a song is. It's really sexy.