Judge Jules on Clubbing a Clubber- I Bitterly Regret Hitting Him

"People have always had an ambivalent attitude towards me which I've learned to live with. But concerning that guy I hit, I bitterly regret it. I don't think there's any excuse for that sort of behaviour, it doesn't matter what the provocation is."

When Judge Jules thumped a Gatecrasher clubber last month, it was just the latest controversy to engulf the Radio 1 super-jock. Labelled by Mix Mag as "the DJ some clubbers love to hate," the incident followed sustained harassment from the target of his blow, though chatting to Skrufff this week, Jules remained contrite and full of remorse.

"The argument, 'I'm only human' doesn't really apply, I should be able to rise above it," he told Jonty Adderley. "It was just because I was drunk basically, which is a very poor excuse."

On a happier note and (presumably) with no pun intended, Jules has also just released his latest compilation CD, Clubbed Volume 2, a double disc collection of techno and trance club anthems. Including floor fillers like Dave Clarke's The Compass, Green Velvet's La La Land and PPK's Resurection alongside less familiar club tunes, it's both accessible and highly listenable, reflecting his still finely tuned commercial tastes.

Skrufff: How did you decide between "b ig" commercial tracks and your own personal favourites on the new CD-

Judge Jules: "Generally, as a DJ, I try and play records which I'd describe as 'big room records' but I'm also aware that while 20% of them might crossover, the other 80% might not do anything chart-wise. That's what makes a decent album, because we don't want a Now Dance Volume 999, though at the same time my style is quite big room orientated."

Skrufff: Is the 'journey' idea of a DJ set one you subscribe to-

Judge Jules: "On this CD, one side is techno driven and the other trance, so if you played them one after the other they would work as a journey. When you're DJing in a club the journey-esque nature of your set is dependent on how long you're playing for. The ultimate constraint for me in terms of set lengths is my bladder, actually. I can do up to about four hours, but beyond then, because I like a drink when I'm DJing, that's the limit. For the first two hours, I don't need to go to the toilet, into the third hour, it's once every half hour, then into the 4th hour it's once every 15 minutes and beyond that, it gets impractical to carry on- short of having a commode or a bucket beneath the turntable."

Skrufff: Miami's Winter Music Conference is coming along in March, with people holding back tracks to unveil there, what's your assessment of the dance music being produced right now-

Judge Jules: "I read a piece in 7 magazine recently in which they said they didn't feel there is the same creativity in dance music right now but I think dance music has continued to evolve. It's unfortunate if you become jaded and lose the excitement that dance music offers to somebody with less experience of it but I still get the same buzz when the right tunes come along. I don't think the flow of quality tunes is any lesser, but at the same time the huge volume of tunes coming out makes it harder to find the same number of tunes."

Skrufff: Quite a few industry commentators have suggested Britain's club scene might have peaked, how do you see the state of UK club land compared to say America-

Judge Jules: "There's been a slight recession in terms of numbers of clubbers but I don't think that's indicative of clubbing having peaked, it's rather about the state of the economy. The US dance scene is very strong without question, I play there quite regularly, but it's not really constructive to compare. I don't think there's anything wrong with the UK scene at all, actually."

Skrufff: On your website you talk about the fame aspect of appearing in magazines like Hello, where do you draw the line personally on what's appropriate-

Judge Jules: "There's a big distinction between DJs and most of the people involved in Tags

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