Rising music star whose parents owned 1990s Harrogate nightclub is a superstar DJ in Manchester

Although he now lives in Manchester, the talented Joe Roche was born and bred in Harrogate and went to Rossett High School.

With his parents Jane Bargh and Des Roche owning The Mix nightclub on Cheltenham Parade in Harrogate in the 1990s, it is no surprise the youngster could navigate his way around a pair of decks at the age of 17.

These days Joe, born Niall Roche, releases records on Do As You Please, the label he founded in 2020, and has built a reputation as a skilled and inventive DJ and producer at home and abroad.

Recent months have seen Joe play at Fabric in London, as well as appearing at the Singapore Grand Prix.

Last year saw the former Harrogate pupil support superstar DJ Fatboy Slim as his special guest at a sell-out gig at Victoria Warehouse in Manchester.

There’s a lot of hard work involved but it’s not that unusual for him to be called upon to fly out to Marbella to DJ a four-hour pool side special.

Joe’s ascent on the international club scene began with a move to Manchester in 2015 to study DJ-ing and Production at university.

Taking his passion outside the lecture hall, in Joe’s second year as a student, he set up Do As You Please as an online record store, using his student loan to buy an initial stock of records.

Influenced while growing up by the Acid House music that spawned his parents’ nightclub, Joe is known for blending a distinctive, progressive sound with innovative technical talent, spanning house and techno sub-genres, fused with an eclectic funk and world-music groove.

The debut release on his Do As You Please label, White Umbrella EP, a vinyl-only release boasting an energetic twist on Acid House, featured artwork by Trevor Johnson and John Walsh, the legendary designers behind Factory Records promotions and Hacienda posters in the 1980s and 1990s.