Jon of the Pleased Wimmin - Passion (1994)

Why is it that there are no decent music videos for dance tracks of the early 90s???

Jonathan Richard Cooper, a.k.a. Jon of the Pleased Wimmin, was born in the Belgian Congo in Africa, while both his parents serving as missionaries in the Salvation Army. As a child he developed a love of music and fashion. At school Jon would spend his dinner money on buying records. True to his non conforming nature, Jon became a goth in his teens. He turned to the Croydon goth clubs to hear music from The Virgin Prunes, Soft Cell and Cocteau Twins. Then Jon discovered London's West End clubs and became inspired by the New Romantic era thanks to bands such as Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode and Human League. Studying fashion at the London College of Fashion, Jon went on first to run his own clothes shop in Kensington market and then to work for designer-turned-DJ Rachel Auburn in her clothes shop. In the early 90s, Jon formed a dancing drag cabaret act known as 'The Pleased Wimmin' with two friends from college, dancing outrageously in pre-house clubs such as Kinky Gerlinky and The Pleased Wimmin became infamous in London. More importantly, they encouraged people to lose their inhibitions and this soon caught the attention of Danny Rampling.
Danny was so impressed by their style, that he invited The Pleased Wimmin to become a regular feature at his infamous Glam night at London's Milk bar. It was here that Jon was offered his first DJ break, filling in a warm up spot one night. He learnt to DJ on the job and with his instinctive knowledge of how to work a crowd, he was a complete natural and destined to become one of the UK's leading new DJs. In 1993, Jon started his own night, 'Pleased' at the Velvet Underground in London. What started as a low key, intimate gathering every Wednesday, grew into the best mid-weeker in London. Boy George, Blur, The Manics and Pete Burns were regular attendees.
In 1994 Jon turned to music production and made his first record, 'Passion' – a cover of the Bobby O production by The Flirts.

The record was produced with Norman Cook, a.k.a. Pizzaman, who released it on his label, Southern Fried. The track was soon picked up by East West and later by Paul Oakenfold's Perfecto. Jon followed his pop success with 'Give Me Strength' a year later, which was released with Sister Bliss, and by delivering remixes for the likes of Divine, Erasure and even Chris Rea.
In 1997, Jon decided he’d had enough. He became disheartened by DJing at so many clubs that he wasn’t passionate about and decided instead to concentrate on playing at smaller clubs. One night whilst DJing at 93 Feet East a few years later, Jon handed Wall of Sound’s head honcho, Mark Jones, a demo from behind the decks. Mark had been a regular at Pleased in the mid 90’s and knew Jon’s music well.
In 2001 Jon signed up for Wall of Sound DJ and artist under his new stage name The Visitor. He moved to Edinburgh and now juggles his DJ schedule with running his own record label, Lovelife!, recording as the Velvet Mafia, as well as running his own fashion label, Pleased.

Jon of the Pleased Wimmin - Passion (1994)



Jon of the Pleased Wimmin - Give Me Strength (1995)