I have always loved music, singing, comedy and performing!
At school and University, I was involved with the various magazines and newspapers that were churned out.
I was a debater which nearly led me into politics!! Thank the lord that my guardian angel stopped me in my tracks!
Instead, I met my soulmate (outside a chip shop in Glasgow ) and we have been adventuring ever since. Obviously the way to a Scottish woman’s heart is to buy her a bag of chips! 😂 It obviously worked! That meeting at the chip shop led to a gap year in Zimbabwe and South Africa which lasted six years!! (much to my parent’s angst.)
I gained a career while I was away as a retail fashion manager and buyer for a number of businesses in and around South Africa.
Returning to the UK I took the opportunity of enrolling in a course in stand-up comedy which led to a number of appearances at the Iconic ‘ Stand Comedy Club’ in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Having met a few likeminded comedy folk I went on to set up the LOL comedy club in the basement of Carnegie’s Bar in the center of Glasgow.
My stand up career ended when I discovered I was pregnant. I didn’t fancy the late nights in the then smoky venues so I left the circuit. I also gave up my career in fashion as an area manager for Topshop and set up my own business so that I could spend time with our daughter.
Having had a rethink of our life goals we began to enjoy more frequent holidays in the Canary Islands, finally dividing our time between Lanzarote and Scotland.
My good friend Spencer Locke used to have a couple of shows on Monster and he kindly invited me along to learn the ropes as a DJ and to cover for him when he went on holiday.
After the first show flying solo, the then station manager offered me my own show on a Monday afternoon. That was almost four years ago. On the show I interview island residents, visitors and celebrities. One of my recent guests was the fabulous Bafta award-winning actor Gary Hollywood of the legendary Mrs Browns Boys tv show.
Recently I have teamed up with Gary on Monster radio on Sunday afternoons aiming to bring some laughter into our listener’s lives with ‘ The Sunday Banter show with Gary Hollywood and AJ’.
We are only 4 weeks in and it’s already proving to be a hit with our amazing Monster listeners.
I feel very privileged to be part of the Monster radio Family and to have had the honour of reaching out to our audience throughout lockdown. Monster has been an important lifeline to people at this difficult time and we have done our best to strike a balance between entertaining and informing, which has helped listeners come to terms with this recent crisis.
This is something the whole presenting team is committed to and with live presenters all day every day our listeners have come to know that there is always a friendly presenter they can interact with while enjoying great music.
I hope to continue to bring a bit of love and laughter into the lives of our growing numbers of listeners for a very long time to come.
