Dave Lee is regarded as one of the founding faces of the UK Garage and House scene and is universally acknowledged as the master of all things disco. As an artist and producer, Dave is credited with over 200 quality releases and boasts a career, which spans two decades of writing, producing, remixing and playing dance music.

His prolific output (see below) is matched only by the innumerable aliases he adopts - with Joey Negro, the Hed Boys, Z Factor, Raven Maize and The Sunburst Band being some of the more established and widely known pseudonyms. As a remixer and producer, Dave has worked with some of the biggest names in dance and pop music and enjoyed pop chart success with Number 1's across the U.K., and Europe.

When not in the studio, Joey Negro is in demand behind the decks where he gets to share his famed record collection and encyclopaedic music knowledge with clubbers across the world.

In the beginning…
Unlike most dance music producers, Dave did not begin making music as a DJ. Instead, his talents evolved out of his passionate obsession for collecting and listening to soul/funk/jazz records in the late 70's and 80's. Getting his initial break in the business with a distribution job at 'Rough Trade Records' back in '86, Dave went on to spearhead their dance department "Demix", which worked with labels such as Rhythm King and Big Life. A year later, Dave wasted no time in building upon this early success by setting up his own label Republic Records, probably the UK's first soulful house label.

It was on the highly influential Republic label that Dave released his first production back in '88 (M.D.EMM - "Get Busy") and many of his other early works such as the classic Raven Maize "Forever Together" (which is still being reworked for the dancefloor by producers 10 years later). Republic also put out tracks by the likes of the Turntable Orchestra and Phase II which Dave licensed from US labels.

Joey Negro and a million other aliases…
Dave was one of the first producers to sample from disco music and it is said that the term "disco house" was first invented by the music press to describe Dave's output under the moniker Joey Negro. His first Joey Negro track "Do it, Believe It" was released in '91 in the U.S. by cult house label Nu Groove. The follow up track, "Do What You Feel" stormed the clubs and was also later released by Virgin/Ten Records becoming a Top 40 pop hit - helping to earn Dave deserved credibility as a producer and securing him an album with Virgin.

The resulting album, "Universe of Love" included the hits "Love Fantasy" and "What Happened To The Music" and placed Dave in huge demand as a producer/remixer of other artist's work. In 1992 he was voted 'Best UK Remixer' by both DMC/Mixmag and DJ Magazine in acknowledgement of his brilliant remixes for both dance and pop artists.

And then there was Z…
Since then, the somewhat workaholic Dave has maintained a consistently high level of successful underground output on his label Z Records. The man's countless aliases have included The Hed Boys (whose anthem "Girls and Boys" became a UK Top 20 pop hit) and more recent recordings under the names Singtime Dee, Sessomatto, Doug Willis, Mistura, Z Factor, Prospect Park and Foreal People.

As well as continuing to satisfy the club scene's need for funky soulful garage with a steady stream of releases under his much respected Z Label, Dave's reputation as a highly skilled producer and remixer has resulted, over the years, in many chart-topping liaisons with high profile pop acts. He's done remixes/productions for stars like M-People, Diana Ross, The Pet Shop Boys, The Brand New Heavies, Blaze, Crystal Waters, Sister Sledge, Lisa Stansfield, Thelma Houston and countless others of his peers on the underground scene, including Fire Island and Lenny Fontana.

Such is Dave's reputation for making credible disco music that he was drafted in to work with Take That - producing their world-wide smash No. 1 hit Relight my Fire. Not surprisingly this has led to other projects in a similar vein, for example he was the man behind boy band 911's 1998 successful re-working of the Bee Gees classic "More than a Woman". Dave is truly a man who can delight the underground while also earning the rent money in the pop arena.

Never one to stand still, Dave's more recent work with his live project The Sunburst Band has ensured that the soulful-garagey disco sound for which he's famous is updated for the 21st Century and has won him a new set of fans from across the soul, house, jazz and funk spectrum. Dave continues to draw as much commercial success on both sides of the Atlantic as ever before, having recently notched up a US Billboard No 1 charting with Joey Negro "Can't Get High Without You" (released on Eric Morillo's Subliminal label). And it looks like his Joey follow-up "Must be the Music" out on Subliminal in 2000, is poised for similar success with endless radio play by Danny Rampling and other jocks across the world.

Website : Joey Negro