In 1971 she sang in St Winifred's School Choir on the school's first album of modern hymns. In 1977 Julia played guitar in punk group Blackout alongside James Fry, Tony Ogden and Gordon King. Fry, Ogden and King went onto becoming World of Twist and Earl Brutus. She played synthesiser with electropop band Illustration in 1979 whose members were Tony Harrison Timm Johnson Paul Lancaster and Morgan King . Their track "Tidal Flow" was included on the classic record Some Bizzare Album on Some Bizzare Records run by Stevo Pearce. The group toured with Blancmange and Pink Military. Adamson worked as personal assistant to record producerMartin Hannett from 1981 until 1983. She was employed as a tape op and sound engineer at Yellow Two and Strawberry Studios in Stockport from 1984 to 1990. At the closure of Strawberry studios in 1991 Adamson helped to rescue a number of copy-master tapes from destruction. There were a number of tapes that included recordings by Factory Records and other artists. In March 2014 she was taken to court by solicitors on behalf of Warner Music and Joy Division. She had no legal representation, as it was too expensive for her. The legal help in the court said of the solicitors, they 'had never dealt with such aggressive solicitors and they had broken a lot of legal codes. There was also a very strong case for Julia's defence.': where she claimed to be the legal owner of the tape collection. While working at Yellow Two and Strawberry Studios recording studios, she played guitar, synthesiser and programmed computers in group What?Noise from 1986 until 1991. She contributed to album Fat and 12" vinyl EP Vein. What?Noise toured in the UK and recorded at the studios where they worked as sound technicians. Nagle was a member of the Fall between 1995 and 2001, playing keyboards, guitar, vocals and computers. She contributed to albums The Twenty Seven Points, The Light User Syndrome, Levitate, The Post Nearly Man, The Marshall Suite and The Unutterable. She and Mark E Smith contributed to songs by Elastica and performed at the 'Sacred and Profane' themed Meltdown Festival hosted by Nick Cavein 1999. Adamson toured extensively with the Fall. In 2006, Adamson launched Invisiblegirl Records and Invisible Girl Music Publishing, with over 30 releases to date. Invisible Girl Music includes an expanding publishing catalogue of original songs from the singer-songwriters on her record label.
