Lil Jo Interview

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Jo Davis was a well-known face on the London gay scene, having previously been the manager of Candy Bar and an up and coming DJ. Then she decided to go on Channel 4's Shipwrecked programme. Did the experience live up to her dreams or was it more "Lord of the Flies" than "The Beach"? She tells Anabel Unity Sale all about her life-changing experience.

LoveGirls: What do you think of the Candy Bar?
Lil Jo: It's great; it's the Candy Bar and always will be! It's had a very pretty facelift recently and has moved and changed with the times.

LoveGirls: How did you get involved in Shipwrecked?
Lil Jo: I was DJing one night at Trash Palace and Shipwrecked's assistant producer happened to be there, thought I looked quite cool so came up to me and said I should be on their show and gave me her card. I'm quite sceptical and thought "stop messing me about". I had heard of the show but never watched it. so I went away, did my research, asked my family what they thought and they said go along. I went to the audition last august and it was fun. It was a large group of girls and we had to do loads of activities.

LoveGirls: When did you find out you’d been successful?
Lil Jo: It sounds cocky but I walked away thinking I’d got it. The next morning I got a phone call and went back, then I was told I was on their top list. In Ooctober I was the fourth new arrival on the island.

LoveGirls: Why did you want to go on the show?
Lil Jo: It just sounded amazing; to be able to live in a desert island for four months, without running water, without electricity, mirrors or GHD's. It was a personal challenge to sleep on the beach and not have a roof over your head. It just the most amazing life experience.

LoveGirls: Why did they choose you?
Lil Jo: I’m an individual and when I got out there most of the people on the island had never met anyone like me and it was a social experiment so you got the opportunity to meet people you wouldn’t normally in life. A lot of the guys hadn’t met a gay girl. I’m not conventional, I am loud and outspoken.

LoveGirls: What was it like on the island?
Lil Jo: When the weather was nice it was beautiful! At first it was quite difficult. When I’d wake up in the morning everything was a chore, you’d have to wash in the sea, cook breakfast over a fire, sleep on a beach with sand everywhere. Half way through it seemed normal. It just became life, this was how we live. You get used to not seeing people, not having electricity doesn’t bother you. You get up when it gets light and you got to sleep when it gets dark.

LoveGirls: What was it like meeting and bonding with people you didn’t know?
Lil Jo: There are people on the island that I was close to in a team sense but had nothing in common with them. Stuart was a lad’s lad and we had nothing to talk about at but we cared about each other.

dj Lil Jo - candy bar

LoveGirls: Was any of it staged?
Lil Jo: No but sometimes you have to do it again because something had gone wrong with the camera. They asked us to try not to swear because the show goes out during the day but there were occasions where it was natural and when we got a little bit aggravated swear words do come out. There were a few scenes with me where it was quick heavily bleeped! [laugh]. It wasn’t boring. You have a group of people all cooped up on a desert island and you have got work together. Every week something would happen, like needing to train for a race or getting letters from home.

LoveGirls: When did you come back?
Lil Jo: In February, everyone else is back now.

LoveGirls: So do you know if the Sharks or the Tigers win?
Lil Jo: Yes! [laughs]

LoveGirls: Did the sharks win?
Lil Jo: I can’t say! [laughs even more]

LoveGirls: What did you miss the most?
Lil Jo: Being able to sit on a toilet that flushed, where you didn’t have to learn a karate chop to escape the flies. It was a hole in a ground with a pile of pooh on the bottom, it wasn’t private! I missed washing powder, shampoo and hair products. I missed music a lot but always had music going on in my head. I made an island version of Stomp, with coconut husks and sitting around the first but it got cut out the show.

LoveGirls: Who did you get on with the most?
Lil Jo: Stevie and Elisa. My best friend – who is definitely a friend for life – has yet to come on to the show.

LoveGirls: Was there any bullying on the island?
Lil Jo: My problem was due to Lorenzo and his personal issues, which caused him to leave the show and go early in week nine [Shipwrecked is now on week 15]. He said he was fine with my sexuality when he found out I was gay, despite the fact he fancied me, and he thought he could turn me. Once he realised it wasn’t going to happen his attitude change. Nobody else had a problem with it.

LoveGirls: Are you a team player?
Lil Jo: Yeah. On the island you could start projects off and when I first got there I thought the fact that the boys only had one table where they did they cooking, washing and kept their hairbrushes on it so I said “right, we need to have a separate kitchen and a separate bathroom” and we started building different things.

LoveGirls: Does reality tv deliberately create conflicts by bringing people who clash together?
Lil Jo: No, I don’t think so. Most of my story [about the disagreements with Lorenzo] was cut out the show, presumably because of the issue after celebrity Big Brother. In the title sequence to Shipwrecked there is me crying about being bullied and all the viewers are waiting for it to happen on the show and it never happened so the title sequence got changed. So where is the story? I was upset as i’m so anti-bullying but I do understand they can’t show everything.

LoveGirls: Highlight of the show?
Lil Jo: Can’t tell you yet because it’s not been shown! But it’s not the final result, although everyone was involved in it. My favourite bit made me feel high as a kite and at one with my team.

dj Lil Jo - Shipwrecked

LoveGirls: Did you fancy anyone?
Lil Jo: No! Elisa is an absolute darling and is stunning and I love her to pieces, but not in that way. If they wanted a lesbian romance to happen they didn’t really match Terri and me that well! We weren’t each other’s types.

LoveGirls: What was it like adjusting back to real life?
Lil Jo: It was quite scary. The first shop I went into was to get a new mobile phone and I couldn’t talk to the salesman because I was shaking so much. He asked if I was ok and I was stuttering I was so nervous. To walk into a club for the first time was totally overwhelming, there were so many people around me. Being back was almost claustrophobic; my first night sleeping in a bed was like being boxed in.

LoveGirls: What did you miss most about being out there?
Lil Jo: That’s a really hard question. Maybe it’s just being there. Sometimes I wake up and think, “take me back to my desert island”.

LoveGirls: What do you think of the gay scene now?
Lil Jo: I think there is a gap in the gay scene so my DJ partner Sandra D and I are bringing people PLAY at Essence, a weekend polysexual night with a difference. PLAY will come at you with an anything goes, relaxed vibe and is about being yourself, we want inclusion instead of door policies where you have to wear the right clothes, or know the right people to get in. It's also about mixing genres, people don't just listen to one style of music anymore.

LoveGirls: When does PLAY start?
Lil Jo: The opening night is this Saturday (5 May - Ed. hope to see you all down there!). On Saturday 12 May it’s my 25th birthday and I’ve decided to give people presents so come along and get some freebies. I might even give someone the life size cardboard cut out I have of Angelina Jolie. We also some really good play merchandise that we’ll give away. Visit the PLAY MySpace page

LoveGirls: Anything else you want to say?
Lil Jo: Lovegirl readers should vote for me in Shipwrecked’s weekly vote because with the money win I won’t be totally selfish and spend it on me but will invest it in a fabulous nightlight for London. I’m hoping to put on a Wednesday and Friday club night too in the future.

smut clothing

Girl on girl tank top £30 and black sweat band £5 by Smut Clothing. Check out the rest of the Smut range at http://www.mysmut.eu.com.
Photography by Gemma Betts
Make-up by Francesca Rizzi

Love Girls