David Michael Beer (born 24 January 1965) is an English music mogul who came to notice in the 1990s as the promoter of the UK's longest running club night[1] Back To Basics.
He followed bands like The Clash and The Cure across the country and once got into a gig, climbing in through a dressing room window, too young to get past the bouncers on the door.
Beer faced the post-warehouse party world with the DIY ethos of a punk and Back To Basics was born on 23 November 1991,[9] named literally to represent what the club set out to do.
Beer personally greeted all 80 clubbers on the opening night and those who were refused entry due to their dummy sucking or poor choice of trainers were encouraged to try harder next time.
By Nov 1992 at the end of its first year, Dave and Alistair found themselves on stage at the Royal Albert Hall, looking out to a packed auditorium as they picked up the DMC and Mixmag Award for Best Club.
Over the next 20 years from 1991 to the present day, Beer toured Back To Basics all over the world from Australia to the USA and held club residencies at Home London, and Space Ibiza.
Beer was also responsible for bringing international talent into the UK for the first time including Danny Tenaglia, Josh Wink and Frankie Knuckles.
The event, named The Symphonic Sounds of Back To Basics was held in celebration of the brands cultural and economical contributions to the city and Beer was also honoured as a son of Leeds.
The event that was held annually for three consecutive years saw the likes of Corinne Bailey Rae, Basement Jaxx, Groove Armada, Robert Owens, Adamski, Robin S, Alison Limerick and Saffron from Republica join Beer on stage with Opera North's 50 piece orchestra.
The event was covered by several local news channels including BBC Look North[12] and The Yorkshire Evening Post[13] Over the years, Beer has DJ'ed to millions of people all over the world at the Berlin Love Parade alongside Radio 1 DJs Sara Cox and Pete Tong; at Creamfields, Glastonbury, Bestival and at Homelands where in 1999 he was flown in by helicopter to play to 40,000 people.
Beer's career as a music producer began when he teamed up with his Basics' partner Alistair Cooke for their debut single Keep The Faith, which was released under the alias The God Squad in 1993 on Junk Rock Records.
The music video featured a cameo of one of the biggest producers around at the time, Arthur Baker who drove an open top Cadillac in one of the scenes.
Further developments in Beer's career have come in the formation of The Blessed – an eclectic live musical collaboration between him and techno producer Gareth Whitehead, head of Bulletdodge Records.
Beer turned his hand to label management in 1995 and set up Back To Basics Recordings with co-promoter and producer, Ralph Lawson, and Michael Hirst.
At the MiNT Club in Leeds on 16 June 1999, he delivered a speech at an event called Arthrob in conjunction with The Arts Council of England alongside readings from novelist Irvine Welsh, Miranda Sawyer, and Biyi Bandele.
The night was an audience with Irvine Welsh, Howard Marks, Wayne Hemingway, and Beer himself, held at the Leeds University conference auditorium on 9 December 1999.
[27] The pair teamed up in the showcase of Howard's life stories – a series of stand-up shows – that included a bizarre PowerPoint presentation featuring demonic images to the backing track of Sympathy for the Devil, remixed by Beer.
[29] Furthering his involvement in events outside of clubland, Beer DJ'ed at the Royal Ballet in Covent Garden where he was booked to create a music programme for a pre-choreographed performance.
His hedonistic tales became regular content in the likes of DJ Mag, NME, The Face and Mixmag, the latter of which included Beer in its Royal Family feature in 1998 – a double page spread profiling the greatest and most influential people in dance music of the time.
In June 1999, Beer took to the Channel 4 airwaves to take part in Nightlife Legends, a six-part series of late-night chat shows looking at the clubbing scene.
[33] At Primal Scream's Screamadelica Live Tour event on 14 March 2011 at the o2 Leeds Academy, Bobby Gillespie dedicated the show to his pal who was there in the crowd.
The Save or Delete initiative invited clubbers to show their concern about the destruction of the world's oldest forests by filling in vote-cards handed out at clubs across the UK.
He also took part in a sky dive to raise money for child disability charity PhysCap, with his friend Adam Warner who suffers with cerebral palsy.