James Anthony

James was an integral part of Summer Soulstice, not only as a DJ and loyal crew member, but also as one of our main stage front men for well over a decade…

He bought a wealth of knowledge, having began his DJ career in the early 1970’s at Bumbles (in Wood Green, North London) followed by a brief spell at Crackers on Friday afternoons with the late George Power.

James’ first encounter with broadcasting was on Horizon Radio in the 1980’s and then went on to be a major part of the original Solar Radio team. In 1990 he co-owned Street Level Records in Tottenham and in that same year joined the north London ILR Radio station W.N.K (Wicked, Neutral & Kicking) which also saw him work alongside Greg Edwards and Dixie Peach (Bernie Michaels). In October 1992 he joined the pivotal Brixton based, black music station Choice FM, and subsequently stayed there for 12 years.

He’s presented his much listened to and long running Saturday radio show called Turn the Music Up which you can now hear on Mi-Soul and you can still find him co-promoting/DJ’ing at The Soul Shack alongside fellow Summer Soulstice DJ and cohort Ash Selector – an event which has been running since 1998!

James continues to do many guest appearances as a DJ and hosted the Ultimate Boogie Night Soul Concerts in the IndigO2 at London’s O2 a few years back. Artists included musical greats such as Alexander O’Neal, Cameo, Atlantic Starr, Heatwave, The SOS Band, Blackstreet, Jean Carn, Gwen McCrae, Shirley Jones, Freddie Jackson, Junior Giscombe, Fatback Band, Kool & The Gang, Incognito, Shalamar and many more.

But we like to think that James’ proudest times came when he was working those thousands of people in the crowd in front of our main stage from 2009 to 2022. Take a bow JA!