Dave Beer: Legendary Leeds DJ and Back To Basics club night founder on his first album, beating cancer and converting to Buddhism

Even before launching Leeds’s defining club night ‘Back To Basics’ in 1991, Dave’s life had been one non stop joyride to the sound of some of the best music of the last century.

From crashing The Clash’s dressing room to touring with The Sisters Of Mercy and then managing hip-hop heavyweights Run DMC and Public Enemy in America - at which time he became enthralled by the caustic power of dance music - Dave was in good stead to become one of the city’s leading lights on the music scene.

But now Dave is in a place of reflection, having had a 4.5cm tumour removed last November.

He said: “I had to go to intensive care for a blood transfusion and was written off but I kept going.

“When I have these near-death experiences I have these epiphanies and you appreciate things a lot more.”

As well as deciding to release music under his own name for the first time, Dave has also converted to Buddhism due to a twist of fate that he never envisaged.

We met for a coffee at the Kadampa Meditation Centre, which was established in the same building as Rehab, where Back To Basics was held for a number of years at the dawn of the century.

Dave said he was contacted by one of the monks and invited down. He was told that a benefactor from New York who has remained anonymous had purchased the building before converting it into a meditation centre in 2022 “as a present to Leeds”.

“There was too many synchronicities to ignore”, said Dave. “Whoever the person is we must have touched them along the way.

“I also did a flyer for one of the Back To Basics nights about a 25 years ago with a monk on the floor that said ‘Think’ on it. It was all a bit weird.”

Dave was then invited along to some of the meditation classes and, a year on, he decided to become a Buddhist.

“It all makes horrible sense”, he said. “It’s brilliant what they are doing.

“I’ve been coming for about a year now and though at first I thought I could never clear my mind I kept coming back. I’ve yet to hear anything in the teachings that didn’t feel right.”

Dave’s sense of ease and the clarity he got from overcoming cancer has now geared him up to release his first solo album in the summer, named ‘What Goes Around’.

He said: “I’ve done so much stuff under different pseudonyms and spent my life promoting other artists and it feels like this has happened for a reason.”

The first track to be released was ‘For The Beloved’, which was recorded over a decade ago at Dave’s home studio after a night out in Leeds with soulful vocals from Chicago native Robert Owens; or ‘The Elvis Of House Music’ as Dave called him.

“It was so special”, he said. “I was writing down lyrics of why people never forget your love even after you’re gone and I had Robert’s voice in my head at the time and then two weeks later he came to record it.

“It’s taken a while but now feels the perfect time to be releasing it.”

The album features 10 tracks made over the years and will be released by the label Jack Said What, which is co-run by Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh.

Dave said: “I just sent him a load of tracks and he came back and said ‘I’ve listened to the album and it’s brilliant’.

“I didn’t realise at first but there is a connection between the tracks about love, community and people.”

He added: “I’m not doing it to become a big recording artist, it’s because I think the messages in there are quite strong and the world needs a lot more love right now. I think house music does that.”

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Back To Basics had a “strong community vibe” that has been “lost over time”, Dave reckoned. “Since lockdown clubbing has not been the same”, he said.

It’s a long shot from the time when the club was king during the 90s and Back To Basics helped bring in not just party goers but businesses to Leeds.

Dave, who lives in Far Headingley but was born in Pontefract, said: “Leeds was like New York to me as a kid.

“It’s mad to look back over the years and think how it’s changed.”

Back To Basics was so central to bringing new traders and students to Leeds that Dave was made an honorary son of the city, which was a far cry from the hedonism and punk aesthetic that fuelled the club’s early years.

“There’s something really special about Leeds and that’s why I’ve never left”, said Dave. “There’s such a great crossover.”

He added that Back To Basics is far from done as it has become “part of the city”.