Maurice Jay is a radio and television personality in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. He is currently the Programme Controller for

U105 U105 is a Belfast, Northern Ireland, based radio station, providing a mix of music and speech as well as hourly news bulletins. It is owned by News Broadcasting and was launched at 6am on 14 November 2005. U105 broadcasts on 105.8 FM in Belfa ...

, a

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

-based radio station that is part of the

Wireless Group News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or telev ...

. Jay played lead roles in over 100 UK-wide performances of

West Side Story ''West Side Story'' is a Musical theatre, musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a Book (musical theatre), book by Arthur Laurents. Inspired by William Shakespeare's play ''Romeo an ...

Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; born Louis Bernstein; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was th ...

. He was included in the Sound of 2008 and 2011 panels at the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Education

Jay was born in

Holywood Holy Wood or Holywood may refer to: Places * Holywood, County Down, a town and townland in Northern Ireland ** Holywood, County Down (civil parish), a civil parish in County Down, Northern Ireland ** Holywood railway station (Northern Ireland) ...

and attended

Sullivan Upper School Sullivan Upper School is a mixed non- denominational voluntary grammar school in Holywood, Northern Ireland, and has approximately 1,100 enrolled pupils. The school motto is ', Irish for "with the gentle hand foremost". History Sullivan Lo ...

there. He was awarded a diploma in Sound Technology & Music Business from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

Music

In the mid-1980s Jay began club DJing and held down various residencies and regular guest appearances in venues around the country which included Radio Top Shop and a weekly residency at The Bronx (nite club), one of the country's leading dance music venues, where he was a local pioneer of Chicago House. In 1989 he was a Northern Ireland finalist in the

DMC World DJ Championships The DMC World DJ Championships is an annual DJ competition founded by the Disco Mix Club (DMC) which began in 1985. It has been described as a "pre-eminent competitive DJ event". History Competitors are each given 6 minutes to perform, with win ...

and was one of the first DJ's to employ samplers and sequencers, making live real-time remixes of tracks during DJing sets. In 1990, Jay started as a professional

sound engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a sound recording, recording or a Concert, live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization (audio), equalization, Dynamic range ...

at Sonopista Studios in

Almería Almería (, , ) is a city and municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, located in Andalusia. It is the capital of the province of Almería, province of the same name. It lies in southeastern Iberian Peninsula, Iberia on the Mediterranean S ...

, Spain, one of the country's first all digital recording studios. He also worked as a live touring front of house (FOH) engineer for the company's PA hire division, working with

Chick Corea Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea (June 12, 1941 – February 9, 2021) was an American jazz pianist, composer, bandleader and occasional percussionist. His compositions "Spain (instrumental), Spain", "500 Miles High", "La Fiesta", "Armando's Rhumba" ...

on his 1990 Inside Out Tour. From there, he moved to New York, working at

Jonathan Elias Jonathan Elias (born 1956) is an American composer best known for his film soundtracks. Background Elias was born in New York City in 1956. He is of Jewish-Hungarian background. Elias started playing piano at the age of six, and was composin ...

Associates Recording Studios. Jay returned to Northern Ireland in the mid-1990s to take up the post of resident FOH engineer at The Empire Music Hall. His live engineering work has included mixing radio sessions for artists such as the

Grammy The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...

Award-winning

Amy Winehouse Amy Jade Winehouse (14 September 1983 – 23 July 2011) was an English singer, songwriter, musician, and businesswoman. With over 30 million records sold worldwide, she was known for her deep, expressive contralto vocals and her eclectic mix ...

, former

Marillion Marillion are a British neo-prog band, formed in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, in 1979. They emerged from the post-punk music scene in Britain and existed as a bridge between the styles of punk rock and classic progressive rock, becoming the mo ...

frontman

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, Brit Award nominee

Nerina Pallot Nerina Natasha Georgina Pallot (born 26 April 1974) is a British singer, songwriter and producer, who has released eight albums and over a dozen EPs. She was nominated for British Female Solo Artist at the 2007 BRIT Awards and nominated for an ...

, and the multi-million album selling bands T'Pau and Hue & Cry to name but a few. Jay worked as a music columnist for ''

The Irish News ''The Irish News'' is a Compact (newspaper), compact daily newspaper based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is Northern Ireland's largest-selling morning newspaper and is available throughout Ireland. It is broadly Irish nationalist in its viewp ...

'', citing meeting

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...

at his

Paisley Park Studios Paisley may refer to: *Paisley (design), an ornamental Persian pattern or motif commonly identified with the town of Paisley, Renfrewshire, in west Scotland People * Paisley (name), including a list of people with the name *Lord Paisley, in the ...

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

as a highlight. During his time running record label and artist management company ''Cherry Moon'', Jay composed and produced albums for several artists including girl band Honey; he directed music videos for Trina Be and remixed and directed the video for UK Top 10 dance chart hit Fairytale for

Curb Records Curb Records (also known as Asylum-Curb and formerly known as MCG Curb) is an American record label started by Mike Curb, originally as Sidewalk Records in 1963. From 1969 to 1973, Curb merged with MGM Records where Curb served as President of M ...

. In 2000, he was also instrumental in the foundation of a government backed sectoral lead body for the Northern Irish music industry. In the early 1990s Jay formed a funk rock band called ''The Behaviour''; the band achieved national media exposure, as they appeared on

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matter, incorporating genres such as comedy, drama and ...

's Dance NRG hosted by

Normski Norman Anderson (born 1966), better known as Normski, is a British broadcaster, photographer, and DJ. Early life Anderson was born in Camden, London. He was given his first camera at the age of nine, and was inspired by photographer Horace Ov� ...

, and performed several times on the BBC/RTE all Ireland TV show '' Go For It''. In September 2009, Maurice Jay formed an 80s Tribute band called ''The Pleasuredome'' with former members of The Behaviour; they debuted in a popular local club in Belfast in February 2010.

Broadcasting work

As a young teenager, Jay hosted school discos and presented his first radio shows on Ulster Hospital Radio. In the early nineties, he began work with Belfast Community Radio, before moving to

Downtown Radio Downtown Radio is a Hot Adult Contemporary music radio station based in Newtownards, County Down, that serves all of Northern Ireland using a network of FM and DAB transmitters. As of December 2024, the station has a weekly audience of 309, ...

where he hosted various mainline shows before joining

Belfast CityBeat Q Radio (formerly known as Citybeat and Belfast CityBeat) is a Northern Irish radio station. It broadcasts to Greater Belfast on 96.7 MHz FM and on DAB Digital Radio across all of Northern Ireland. From 5 April 2007, Citybeat became avail ...

in 2000 as Breakfast Show host. In 2005 he joined UTV as Head of Music for their new radio station

and in May 2008 he took up the position of Programme Controller. He currently also hosts Breakfast at U105 and produces / presents The NI Golf Podcast.

Acting and television

Jay played the lead role of

Danny Zuko ''Grease'' is a 1971 musical with music, lyrics, and a book by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. Named after the 1950s United States working-class youth subculture known as greasers and set in 1959 at the fictional Rydell High School in Northwest Ch ...

in a UK touring production of Grease and appeared alongside

James Nesbitt William James Nesbitt (born 15 January 1965) is an actor from Northern Ireland. From 1987, Nesbitt spent seven years performing in plays that varied from the musical '' Up on the Roof'' (1987, 1989) to the political drama ''Paddywack'' (1994). ...

and

Conleth Hill Conleth Seamus Eoin Croiston Hill (born 24 November 1964) is a Northern Irish actor. He has performed on stage in productions in the UK, Ireland, Canada and the US. He has won two Laurence Olivier Awards and received two Tony Award nominations. ...

. He also starred as Riff, the leader of The Jets, in a later production of same musical with

Opera Northern Ireland Opera is a form of Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a lib ...

and the

Ulster Orchestra The Ulster Orchestra is a full-time professional orchestra in Northern Ireland. Based in Belfast, the orchestra plays the majority of its concerts in Belfast's Ulster Hall and Waterfront Hall. It also gives concerts across the United Kingdom ...

. He has appeared in over 100 performances of this

classic and in 2008 completed another sellout run at the Grand Opera House, Belfast, playing Lieutenant Schrank. His TV appearances have included ITV network show Flux, network BBC2's Dance NRG, RTÉ/BBC Go For It (GFI) and UTV's L8 & Live. He has also made numerous appearances as a talking head and music pundit in news programmes and documentaries.

Charity work

Jay has undertaken charity work to raise awareness for the

Northern Ireland Hospice Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a ra ...

; this entailed endurance challenges where he lived in a shop window in Belfast City Centre for more than nine days, and in September 2011 visited 105 towns and villages on a bed. To date U105 has raised over £1,000,000 for the charity.

References

External links

www.u105.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jay, Maurice Living people Radio DJs from Northern Ireland Audio engineers from Northern Ireland 1976 births People educated at Sullivan Upper School People from Holywood, County Down Writers from County Down Broadcasters from County Down 21st-century engineers from Northern Ireland