He played his first gig when he was fourteen in a band called Retrospect with Richard Entwistle, John Allman and Martin Pike and other musicians, and by the time he was sixteen he was performing regularly.

Beer continues to do session work, most notably on The Rolling Stones' Steel Wheels album, Steve Harley's Poetic Justice and countless other mainstream and less high-profile projects.

[3][4] In 2015, Beer (alongside his fellow Show of Hands band members Steve Knightley and Miranda Sykes), was awarded an honorary doctorate of music from the University of Plymouth,[5][6] to commemorate "great distinction in [their] professional lives".

[7] Beer and frequent collaborator Paul Downes recorded Life Ain't Worth Living in 1973, followed by Dance Without Music in 1976.

In 2001, he and other former members of The Albion Band released an album called Ridgeriders, which was the soundtrack to a show about South Country tracks airing at the same time.