*THROWBACK* *25TH ANNIVERSARY* of One In The Jungle

Riddle me this, riddle me that,
This one is the living, and the boom shack-attack,
Nine o'clock, we're rocking the show,
So listen Massive... it's the sounds of Jungle!

25 YEARS AGO ON THIS VERY EVENING, THE JUNGLIST MASSIVE TRULY TOOK OVER!!!!!

As the show that literally gave birth to J.Bo Tapes, I couldn't miss the opportunity to give a Special Dedication to this monumental occasion - 9pm on a Thursday night in the summer of 1995 and the world was changed by BBC Radio 1 broadcasting the first national drum & bass show, One In The Jungle.

I previously talked about the significance of this two week period at the end of July 1995 in my previous throwback post (LTJ Bukem's 1995 Essential Mix) and it worth repeating here. Despite jungle raves growing hugely in scale and the genre selling enough records independently every week to get into the pop Top 10, the scene was largely marginalised and even vilified by the mainstream press and relegated to illegal pirate radio station in large urban areas for promotion. Despite this, these irresistible chopped and sped-up breakbeats with earth trembling basslines continued to spread and took over youth culture across the land.

Radio 1's controller realised they were out of touch and listeners left in droves to the pirates, damaging their credibility to claim to be the youth station of the nation. Modelled on Kool FM's pirate output, these 6 one-hour episodes (along with an unbroadcast pilot featuring DJ Ron) were aired in summer 95 and were so successful that One In The Jungle was commissioned to run throughout 1996-1998 in a primetime weekend slot as an equal to the existing dance and rap music output (shout out Westwood). This second run also coincided with BBC Radio launching their pioneering RealMedia streaming service in 1996, and eventually the catch-up on-demand option that defines our world today. This just increased drum and bass's reach around the world as the service was global and helped make the scene's leading DJs internationally famous and in high demand. One In The Jungle, of course, eventually morphed into the award winning Fabio and Grooverider show from 1999-2012, meaning that from being sidelined, the scene became nationally broadcast for 17 straight years on the nation's number one radio station, as well as being streamed around the world, all on the back of this little experimental one hour show. Its importance is obvious.

Years later it was just as vital to this site - a nostalgia pang led to me searching the net to find digital copies of the first few shows only to draw a blank. Knowing that the genuinely historic first three episodes had been safely stored in a box in my parent's attic for 15 years, I knew that I had to get them, rip them in high quality, and set up this site so others could download and enjoy them as much as I knew I would, to spread the cultural legacy of those times. The reaction was so positive to the initial three (and I was so excited with some of the other tapes I spotted in those boxes) that I started archiving other classic tapes and posting on this blog. I tend to prioritise either mixes that I remember changing my whole musical outlook, my life, as well as ones that nobody else seemed to have for the J.Bo Tapes exclusives!

I very proudly contributed to the One In The Jungle Archive project too, but that sadly ended in 2013 incomplete. Thankfully, the project in its final state has been kindly mirrored here if you want to download more of these historical mixes. The project to create a full set of every show ever transmitted is still active, and if you have a dusty old tape somewhere with one of the missing shows on it, please holla!

It is safe to say that the impact of One In The Jungle can still be seen clearly across the world with plenty of active forum chatter still try to figure out all the tracklistings, the still unknown exclusive dubplates dropped on the shows, several sites still trying to complete the complete digital archive of all the shows and 100s of mixes posted to Mixcloud and YouTube for all to enjoy forever.

Enough talk, now its time for you to go listen to some of the shows exclusively uploaded to this site over the past decade...

********** NEW LINKS 07-Jul-2020 **********

Goldie & MC GQ - One In The Jungle - 20Jul1995
Details: https://jbotapes.blogspot.com/2009/10/jbo-tape-1a-goldie-mc-gq-one-in-jungle.html
Download: CLICK HERE

J.Bo Tape #1A: Goldie & MC GQ - One In The Jungle - 20Jul1995 ***EXCLUSIVE*** by J.Bo Tapes on Mixcloud

DJ Rap & MC Moose - One In The Jungle - 27-Jul-1995
Original Post: https://jbotapes.blogspot.com/2009/10/jbo-tape-2-dj-rap-mc-moose-one-in.html
Download: CLICK HERE

J.Bo Tape #2A: DJ Rap & MC Moose - One In The Jungle - 27Jul1995 ***EXCLUSIVE*** by J.Bo Tapes on Mixcloud