James Lavelle (UNKLE / Mo’wax)
A special one-off show from prominent DJ and producer James Lavelle (UNKLE/Mo’Wax) will see Brighton celebrate the end of the year in style. On Tuesday 29 December 2026, Lavelle plays his final show of the year at Komedia, with support from local DJ talent led by Mala Clough of Girlbass.
For more than 30 years, Lavelle has been at the forefront of global club culture. Known for his eclectic DJ sets and production work with UNKLE, he has become one of the scene’s most influential tastemakers and musical curators.
Lavelle began DJing in Oxford aged 15, launching his first night, ‘Mo’Wax Please’. After relocating to London to establish the Mo’Wax record label, he took up a residency at The Fridge for Gilles Peterson’s ‘Talkin’ Loud’. The pair later launched ‘That’s How It Is’, a legendary Monday-night session at Bar Rumba that helped establish Lavelle as a major figure in London’s burgeoning club scene.
During this period, he played venues including The Blue Note, Plastic People, Ministry of Sound and Cream. The opening of Fabric in 1999 marked another significant point in his career, with Lavelle taking up a residency and launching the influential Friday-night FABRICLIVE, which ran for five years.
Lavelle has since played leading clubs worldwide, including Zouk, Womb, Watergate and Space, becoming one of the first DJs to perform in China and Eastern Europe, and playing across all six inhabited continents. His UNKLE Sounds project took his music to festivals and clubs around the world, alongside one of the early audio-visual DJ setups.
His work has also extended into acclaimed mix albums, including the inaugural FABRICLIVE and four Global Underground releases. Pete Tong has described him as ‘one of the most gifted minds in music’.
Lavelle continues to tour internationally and recently contributed mixes for Keinemusik, Crosstown Rebels and Mary Anne Hobbs, as well as the soundtrack for Virgil Abloh’s final Off-White show. His monthly Living In My Headphones shows on Soho Radio explore the more eclectic side of his record collection.
Alongside DJing, Lavelle produces albums as UNKLE, collaborating with artists including Thom Yorke, Michael Kiwanuka, Massive Attack, Brian Eno and Josh Homme. He also curates immersive art exhibitions including ‘Daydreaming With…’ and ‘Beyond the Road’ the latter of which NME described as an ‘album you can walk around’.
James Lavelle (UN1KLE / Mo’Wax) | Komedia Tue 29 Dec
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