He made disco cool when they said "Disco is dead" and is widely regarded as one of the founding faces of the UK house music scene. With more aliases than Smith and Jones, who on earth is the real Dave Lee? It was Rough Trade who first offered Dave the chance to fulfil his ambition of working in the studio - his first release was called "Get Busy" under the moniker MDEMM and reached number 18 in the club charts. This was enough to convince Dave that the time was right to start up his own label and, in 1988, Republic Records was born, introducing 'garage' as a genre of music in its own right. His first tunes as Joey Negro, "Do It, Believe It" and "Do What You Feel", met with great acclaim on both sides of the pond, the latter scoring him an album deal with Virgin. Dave also took this time to enhance his reputation as a remixer and producer working with the likes of M-People, Diana Ross, Pet Shop Boys and Simply Red. An accomplished and highly respected producer/remixer who never fails to delight the underground dance music scene with his classic records, Dave is one of the dance music' best kept secrets. Ten years on and Dave Lee aka Joey Negro, the Hed Boys, Doug Willis, Raven Maize and now Jakatta is still at the forefront of the global scene even if he still hasn't decided what name to go by!
