DAVE PEARCE

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RANK	SCORE ?	GENRE	LOCATION
465	302	Trance	London, GB

Dave Pearce is widely recognised and respected as being one of Radio 1's leading dance DJ's alongside Pete Tong, Judge Jules and Danny Rampling. An individual who is immensely passionate about dance music, Pearce has enviable credentials to his name, having honed and developed his skills and musical knowledge across the many genres of r&b, hip-hop, rap, garage and house music through pirate and commercial radio. In addition to hosting his current "Dance Anthems" show on Radio 1 straight after the Top 40 on Sunday nights now between 7pm and 9pm, Pearce also presents the evening show each weekday between 6pm and 8pm. Pearce's history and huge contribution to dance music has been undocumented and widely overlooked until now. He has been an innovator and catalyst for dance music over the last decade helping to nurture underground dance music - traditionally confined to the clubscene - into the mainstream by the radio airwaves. Pearce's first foray into dance music was as far back as his school days when one of his friends introduced him to the new sounds of P-Funk and Funkadelic, purveyed by the funkmeisters themselves George Clinton and Bootsy Collins.

His fascination grew and it was not long before young Pearce was grooving to the likes of Sugarhill Gang and bands like Slave and The Players Association. Influenced by the likes of Robbie Vincent on Radio London and Greg Edwards on Capital, Pearce and his partners in crime, including Eugene Pererra - co-founder of Kiss 102 & Kiss 105 - decided to set up their own pirate radio station. This era was pre-Kiss FM - the pirate - with home made technology and illegal transmitters.

The programmes were secretly recorded at Pearce's college, where the tutors were under the impression that he was involved in a student radio project. As Pearce explains; "It was a bit weird when some of the shows went out and you could hear the bell going in the background. It was raw, we were playing anything from Augustus Pablo dubs on Greensleeves to Harry Tuman-Underwater."At the age of 17, whilst still DJing on his pirate radio show, Pearce replied to an advert for "DJs To Work Abroad." He got the job and then found out it was in Bombay, India and much to his surprise at the legendary Studio 29. Whilst Pearce was working out there, part of his job was to take a mobile rig on tour, he visited parts of India that had literally never seen anything like this before. Pearce returned from India and persuaded BBC Radio London to take him on.

After serving his apprenticeship for the station reading the news, travel and sports he persuaded the station to allow him to make a documentary on Marvin Gaye. This was so well received that other BBC stations picked up the show and in turn led to a regular Thursday night show called "The Funk Fantasy". The show covered everything from Leroy Burgess to Joyce Simms, Hanson & Davis to Randy Mullers and gathered a cult following as it became the catalyst for the early garage and disco sounds firing on New York's dance floors. As Pearce explains; "At the time there was very little coming from the UK - about 90% of the show was based around import records from New York where it was happening." Pearce travelled more and more to New York and began presenting shows live back to London from New York station WBLS. Pearce's fascination with New York's burgeoning clubscene grew and he remembers quite fondly the memorable experience of standing in the DJ booth with the legendary Larry Levan at the Paradise Garage and visiting clubs in the Latin Quarter including the infamous "Area".

His close association with several NYC record labels enabled him to get many new and as yet unheard test-pressings of various records. His love of hip-hop led him to persuade Radio London to pilot a new show called "A Fresh Start To The Week" which became the first ever show of its kind on BBC Radio. After only four weeks on-air it became one of the stations top rated shows. Pearce's reputation soon began to grow and he was the first DJ to play the cult BDP Scott La Rock and KRS One album "Criminal Minded". Pearce had been hanging out with La Rock weeks earlier before he was tragically murdered. He was asked to pay his own respects to La Rock and did a mix for the tribute album. A regular visitor to the Mr Magic WBLS rap show saw Pearce becoming a second citizen of New York's hip-hop and rap fraternity, rubbing shoulders with the likes of ICE T, PUBLIC ENEMY, BIG DADDY KANE, LL COOL J, ROXANNE SHANTE on the show.

Pearce's friendship with Tom Silverman, founder of Tommy Boy Records enabled him to secure the very prestigious coverage of the infamous battle of the DJs and MCs in New York. The frequent visits to the NYC clubs also had their high points in more ways than one. In the mid 80's Pearce visited a notorious rap club with a BBC researcher, only to be caught up in the middle of a gun-fight. He remembers very clearly how he crawled out of the club on his hands and knees only to find the Police pointing their guns at him. It was one of those occasions when Dave waved his press card to help him out of a very tight spot. Pearce's relationship with the then underground rap label Def Jam led him to MC the very first Def Jam "Raising Hell Tour" at the Hammersmith Odeon with RUN DMC, WHOODINI, LL COOL J, and THE BEASTIE BOYS.

A secret meeting took place late one night in a Greek restaurant between Pearce, Morgan, Khan and Pearce's arch rival Mike Allen from Capital Radio. Together they forged a new alliance for UK rap and hatched a master plan that led to the creation of "UK Fresh" the huge rap concert which was held at Wembley Arena. Pearce later went onto help out Morgan with the tracklisting for his albums including the very collectable and much sought after "Hip Hop 20." His relentless pursuit and love of hip hop led him to take the music to television after persuading BBC Director Terry Jervis to allow him to make a film on Public Enemy, despite the fact that they had only released one single. His conviction was strong, he was the first DJ to interview the band and knew even at this early stage that they would one day become huge. The BBC were told in no uncertain terms in hip-hop speak by Pearce; "that they were gonna blow-up."

Pearce pulled off one of his biggest coups by getting the BBC to record Public Enemy's first UK show in London. Pearce later gave a cassette copy of the show to Chuck D and the next thing he knew, Pearce was featured on the album "It Takes A Nation Of Millions" introducing the band. As Pearce describes, "It was one of the proudest moments, yet if I had a penny for every time they sampled me shouting the line 'make some noise', I'd be very rich indeed." He continued to push the boundaries of the BBC forward and worked on BBC TV's "Behind The Beat", on location in the States, working with the likes of James Brown and Salt 'N' Peppa. He also interviewed Larry Levan and made a film in the South Bronx with Africa Islam for BBC TV. Dave's show rapidly achieved cult status across London, always one to be innovative, Dave hit upon an idea to set up a phone hot line to his studio, but no ordinary phone line. This phone line played hot new rap tunes and gave talented MC's a chance to rap down the line. Dave aptly titled this part of his show as "Hip-Hop Connection." Later Dave was to find out that the boss of the phone line company he used for the show also published magazines and after numerous discussions with Pearce the magazine Hip Hip Connection was born.

After the huge success of his two shows on Radio London, Pearce persuaded the management to set up a late night alternative service called Nite FM. Pearce bought in Pete Tong, Giles Peterson and Gary Crowley to head up the other shows. Pearce geared his show to the sounds of underground house music which was emerging from the USA at the time. Pearce was quick to pick up on the new sounds after he had been hanging out in clubs like New York's "Better Days". He also struck up a close relationship with a then unknown DJ called Frankie Knuckles, which marked the beginning of a long friendship. The tide turned and a change in management led to the closing down of BBC Radio London.

At this time it looked as though the only dance coverage left would be one show a week on Capital and Jeff Young's show on Radio 1. Sympathetic new boss at the station, a young Matthew Bannister gave Pearce a new nightly show featuring r&b and dance. It was at this time that he witnessed first hand the acid-house explosion with the big underground raves such as Biology and Spectrum. Around the same time an approach was made by the record label Polydor who wanted Pearce to A&R their Urban Records label. During his time at the label Pearce managed to release the UK's biggest selling acid-house album "Urban Acid" which was recorded with Bam Bam, Tom Fredericks, Damon Roachford and others. Pearce also signed Jimi Polo and the song "Better Days" whilst at Urban. Better days were certainly ahead for Pearce after he hooked up with the legendary dreadlocked 'white-rasta' Gordon Mac who was trying to get a licence for a dance station in the UK. Mac had been running "Kiss" as a pirate and was determined to get a licence from the Government to ensure the station's survival. Pearce pledged his support and second time round Mac won his licence. Kiss was to totally transform the airwaves and Pearce became the first DJ for the new station presenting the "Drive-time" show.

At the same time Pearce also set up his own underground label Reachin Records sharing a warehouse in Acton with Paul Gotel where he released numerous Buzz Chart Top 10 records like Pisces "Take Me Higher", TDP -"Ladies Lets Go" and Boneshakers "Don't GoAway". He closed the label after progressing to take on the 'Breakfast Show' from Craig Charles where he doubled the audience figures in a matter of months. Pearce was responsible for "Kiss At The Astoria" on Thursday nights which regularly saw 1000 people locked outside. He introduced acts such as Manix, the Prodigy and Shades Of Rhythm. Pearce continued with his legendary stateside broadcasts from New York with Hot 97 where he interviewed guests including Naomi Campbell, Robin Williams and R Kelly. Pearce's TV career continued where he became a regular fixture on the sofa with the husky voiced Mariella Frostrup on its Video View where he would review the music videos. Dave's huge popularity on Kiss and Video View came to the attention of Radio 1 and marked a major turning point in his career.

As Pearce explains; "It was probably the most gut wrenching thing I had to deal with, an important part of my heart and my life had been with Kiss, but I realised that I had to move on and try new challenges". Within months of taking over the early 'Breakfast Show' at Radio 1 from Bruno Brookes, Pearce was asked to be the stand in for the Chris Evans Breakfast Show. Evans was very supportive of Pearce and the shows went so well that Dave became a permanent stand-in when Evans was away. Pearce recalls; "It was a horrendous time to be on, but we just had a laugh doing the shows, we were allowed to be very close to the edge". Whilst doing the early mornings shows he also found time to make a documentary for the station celebrating ten years of Def Jam. Pearce was quickly promoted to the weekend mornings taking over from Danny Baker, where he introduced a new concept to Sunday afternoons called "The Recovery Session."

The show quickly gained cult status with clubbers and was dubbed the "Breakfast Show For Ravers." It was very much a radical step forward for Radio 1 who had demonstrated continued support and commitment to Pearce with his ideas. The show was based around what people had been up to the night before as well as playing a selection of house anthems. The Recovery Session achieved cult status and culminated in two UK tours with Up Yer Ronson. Pearce persuaded Radio 1 to commit to a beach party in Bournemouth. A huge sound system was set up on the beach with Allister Whitehead DJing alongside Pearce to an incredible 10,000 people. After the departure of Chris Evans, Pearce was given the prestigious Weekend Breakfast Show on Saturday and Sunday mornings and a new late night dance show called "After-Hours" which went out on Thursday night and into Friday morning.

The show enabled Pearce to have a free reign in what he wanted to do. The show featured guest DJs from David Morales to Tall Paul, Princess Julia toDarren Price. "After-Hours" became the first R1 show to showcase Happy Hardcore with Force & Styles and Speed Garage with Matt-Jam-Lamont. This summer Pearce hosted a series of beach parties at various locations around the UK by setting up a soundsytem on the beach and inviting top DJs to come and play. The parties saw live sets from Tall Paul, Seb Fontaine, Brandon Block, Alex P, Carl Cox and a live PA from Chicane. Dave also hosted his "After Hours" show live by satellite from 'Amnesia' in Ibiza. As a result of the show's huge success and Pearce's ever-growing popularity he was promoted to the prime time slot on Sunday evenings between 7pm - 9pm straight after the Top 40 chart show.

The new show called Dance Anthems is a continuation of the clubbing weekend. Pearce explains; "It gives listeners the chance to call in with their favourite club anthems, it means over a period of time that we will get to hear many records that would hardly ever or never be played on Radio 1, even though they are anthems in their own right". Later in the show Pearce gets to play the top tunes he has played out over the weekend. In January of 1998, Dave Pearce was delighted to take over writing the weekly "Dance Bizarre" column of the biggest selling daily newspaper The Sun, bringing the nation all the latest news and gossip from the dance world as well as recommending his dancefloor killer tunes. Dave also had a secret wish of his come true in March when he landed a walk-on part as a local news reporter in Mersey Television's cult soap Brookside after confessing to Mersey TV boss Phil Redmond that he was a huge Brookie fan. "Walking on to the set of Brookside was one of the top buzzes of my life alongside meeting James Brown and introducing Public Enemy. Brookside has always been my Saturday chill-out for the last ten years and I was deeply moved when I received a round of applause for my two lines that I had rehearsed all day! "

Dave had a remarkably successful 1998 and in May released his own dance music compilation album entitled 'DAVE PEARCE presents DANCE ANTHEMS' on the Manifesto label. The album embodied classic dance anthems alongside future predicted hits and of course some of the most popular tunes requested on his Sunday night Radio 1 show. Recently it has also been rated as the fasted growing show on the Radio 1 network in the past year and over the Summer the "Dance Anthems" entourage were lucky enough to broadcast several shows from the clubbers paradise island of Ibiza! Also, since Sunday 9th August, the show's enormous popularity has led to the Dance Anthems team gaining an extra hour so the show now runs from 7pm until 10pm. The runaway success of his gold selling compilation album has resulted in a second volume in the pipeline. To be released later on this year, DANCE ANTHEMS 2 will surely be as fantastic as the first, celebrating the best moments of dance music from the early Rave classics, through to some of the most memorable Ibiza anthems and forthcoming top tunes . Dave Pearce now also presents the NEW LATE DRIVE SHOW on RADIO 1 Mon-Thurs 6-8pm.