Leeds in Barcelona: Spotlight on BacktoBasics & Dave Beer

Later this week we are heading out to Barcelona for Leeds in Barcelona: A Creative Encounter. Part of our showcase on Saturday evening will be a BacktoBasics DJ set. We checked in with Basics founder, driving force and all-round Leeds legend Dave Beer to talk about the project (and loads more!)

Why Basics

With this project we wanted to give the people in Barcelona an authentic experience of Leeds nightlife and BacktoBasics was and still is a trailblazer when it comes to the Leeds scene. Basics is one of the treasures of the Leeds 'cultural' sector and is one of the things we have here that is truly world class with serious pedigree. It has a history and story that further enhances it's mystique and legend and most of it revolves around 'Beero'. Dave and the awesome Tristan Da Cunha will be performing on Saturday night and the buzz in Barcelona is already building among our Catalan hosts!

BacktoBasics also fit really well with another massive Leeds brand involved with the project: Nicholas Deakins. Both with celebrate their 20th year this year and we are delighted that they have both decided to get involved in this project and want to represent Leeds in front of an international audience.

The Story

BacktoBasics will this year celebrate it's 20th birthday in the form of an exhibition and series of events (more to come on this project in the coming weeks) and further cement it's place in house music history. Their place in the record books is already confirmed as Basics is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest running weekly club-night. 

Check out this video feature on the BBC and hear what Pete Tong feels when playing Basics, how JoJo met her husband there and how John Galliano nearly didn't get in one night!

Leeds in Barcelona: A Creative Encounter

This week we are heading back to Barcelona for what we are sure is going to be an awesome project. We are teaming up with Marketing Leeds and LeLook to create Leeds in Barcelona: A Creative Encounter. We are really excited about this project, we feel it fits perfectly with what we are trying to achieve with Hebe and can't wait for everything to kick off.

What Is Going Down?

There are two main parts to this event. The first is a discussion to be held at the European Institute of Design (IED) on Friday evening, during which creatives from Leeds and Barcelona will discuss what they are up to and the creative ‘scene’ in both cities. There will be some really cool people involved in this discussion including Jürgen Salenbacher, Imran Ali, Dominic Al-Samarraie, Juan Antonino Ávalos, Guiseppe De Luca and Chidy Wayne. The discussion will be chaired by our very own Lee Hicken.

The following evening a showcase event will be held at the amazing Hotel Me. The event will include live fashion shoots with designers including James Steward, Dom, Dick & Harry, Kitschen Sink and we are delighted to say the awesome Nicholas Deakins. There will also be a live performance from Leeds band ICS (formally I Call Shotgun). Then we will give Barcelona a small taste of the Leeds house music scene in the form of a showcase from legendary Leeds club night BacktoBasics with Tristan Da Cunha and Dave Beer. 

The Story Behind The Project

Last year we kind of gatecrashed an event already taking place: Marketing Leeds were heading out to Barcelona with a massive delegation (around 120 people) to meet with their Barcelona counterparts from various sectors. We heard about the event by chance and asked them if we could do something with ‘our crowd’ in Barcelona. Our crowd is made up of fashion designers, DJs, bands, journalists, bloggers, photographers, artists etc. We have this network in Barcelona because 3 of our team studied there for 3 years at the Institute of Design. 

The event we put on was a great success... so much so that lots of the people we invited to the event in Barcelona wanted to come and visit Leeds. A group of these people then visited Leeds a couple of months later. During their visit we held a reception where the Barcelona gang met some of our favorite Leeds people, They also toured the city, held photo-shoots at Temple Works, drank in Nation of Shopkeepers and we generally showed some of the Barcelona ‘cool kids’ that Leeds had stuff going on. 

So the first stage was complete: Some of the main opinion leaders in one of the world’s most creative cities had been introduced to Leeds and what was going on here but obviously you can not just leave it at that and expect suddenly for Leeds to be spoken about in the same way as Barcelona, or for all these people to start booking their summer holidays here. We needed a new project, something that would take the relationship between the two cities one step further.

Our Aims

We feel this project definitely takes things a step further for a number of reasons. First of all there is the sheer scale of what we are doing. The first event we did in Barcelona last year was for around 50 guests. The two events this year will be attended by around 1000 people. Last year we showcased Leeds talent with a video on a big screen. This year we are taking out Leeds' fashion talent and products, in addition the entertainment will be provided by live musicians and DJs. If we are serious about impressing and establishing relationships with European opinion leaders this is what we need to do.

There are lots of opportunities for the talent involved in this project. There will be buyers, writers, tour-bookers, DJs, producers and others who will attend, so there are some great opportunities for new business and personal relationships to be formed. There will be international press including TV, radio, magazines, newspapers, bloggers, photographers and general opinion leaders who will get their first taste of Leeds during this event.

Stacey checking in with ICS to talk about the project Our Head of Fashion Shang Ting will judge at the showcase event

Why Hebe

This is the type of project that suits us perfectly. We are really passionate about promoting and marketing Leeds based on the talent, stories and brands we possess. We have a great  connection with Barcelona because we have lived there, so it feels great for some us to go back and bring some of the experience that we spent 3 years telling people about while studying there.

Our areas of both expertise and love are fashion, music and art and this project provides a great chance for us to put some of the talent out there that we have been championing and pushing for a long time now. We really believe that the group we are taking out are of a really high standard and will generate international interest. 

This event and project is innovative, interesting, is packed with interesting names and ideas and bottom line... is just plain cool, something that I think we can sometimes lack in the eyes of people not from here. 

Stay tuned to the site over the next couple of weeks for loads of videos, reports, photos and much more about the project and the people involved.

Hebe team member takes up residency at world leading London Gallery

They've been called inspired lunatics and literary perverts and now the York based independent publishing imprint, information as material, can add Writer in Residence to its list of aliases, as it begins a year long residency at one of London's leading art institutions, the Whitechapel Gallery. Hebe team member, Simon Zimmerman talks about his involvement and hopes for the months ahead.

What is information as material?

"It's a small, artist-led publishing imprint that was started by Simon Morris in 2002, initially as a way for Simon to get his own work out into the world. He soon found that other artists were approaching him about publishing their work, and it grew organically from there.

Since the very beginning, the imprint has been driven by a commitment to supporting work by artists and writers who reuse existing material - selecting it and re-framing it to generate new meanings - and who, in doing so, disrupt the order of things. 

information as material (iam) now has an editorial team of five people (Craig Dworkin, Christine Morris, Simon Morris, Nick Thurston and I) all responsible to developing projects as well as producing their own work for publication. In recent times iam has published work by key artists, from around the world, including Pavel Büchler, Caroline Bergvall, Kenneth Goldsmith, Sharon Kivland and, most recently, Lucia della Paolera and released books, pamphlets, posters, blogs, films and, most recently, an application for the iPhone and iPad (developed by Christine Morris), Re-writing Freud, which randomly re-writes Sigmund Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams as you tap the screen." 

How did you become involved?

"It's sort of a long story... Nick Thurston and I go way back - we grew up in the same area and went to the same school. We reconnected in later life, when I returned from Dartington College of Arts. I'd been researching what I thought, at the time, was a fairly obscure field of artistic practice that involved all kinds of artists working with books and text - approaching writing as an interdisciplinary and often performative act. Nick and I bumped into each other at a BBQ and it transpired that we both shared that interest, although we do have different concerns - I doubt that Nick would approve of my description (laughs).

I met Simon through Nick in 2005, and helped iam to find funding for the first version of what is now the Re-writing Freud application. I stayed in contact with them over the following years, but mostly as an interested reader. Then, in 2009 I started talking with Nick and Simon about doing something together as part of the In a word... project I was doing with Arts Council England, Yorkshire. As fate would have it Craig, Simon and Nick had already started work on an idea for an exhibition at the Laurence Sterne Museum, and they were looking for a Producer to work with. That idea developed into The Perverse Library, and following the closing event in October 2010 the iam team asked if I would consider joining their editorial board. I leapt at the chance, of course."

How did the Whitechapel residency come about?

"The Whitechapel has been running the Writer in Residence programme from two years now, with Maria Fusco and Sally OReilly leading the way in 2009 and 2010 respectively. The programme aims to create a platform for writing about art, writing as art and writing as a lens through which to view art. Looking at the opening part of Whitechapel's main artistic programme for 2011/12 - with John Stezaker's appropriations of film stills; Bethan Huws' re-presentation of the gallery space through minor alteration (if installing a false floor can be considered minor); and several works in the current exhibition, Material Intelligence, which reframe materials and objects - it's not hard to see why the Whitechapel has invited this collective of artists, with a track record of re-writing and 'undesigning', to take up this residency." 

What do you have in store for the the residency?

"What isn't!? Simon Morris once disclosed to me that he had been called 'philosophically irresponsible' by his psychiatrist. It think that just about sums up the tone of the iam journey, and I hope a sense of the irrational will run through the whole of the residency.

The Whitechapel programme says:

'For their Whitechapel Gallery residency, [iam] will programme events that explore the possibilities opened up by conceptualist approaches to writing and performative approaches to reading. Through editions, conferences, workshops, discussions, screenings and collaborations, the York-based independent publishing imprint will create a space for a poetic and critical engagement with issues such as ‘undesigning’, anti-expressionism and cultural piracy.'

Everyone on the editorial board is an artist in their own way, but they are also teachers, curators, researchers, performers, producers, computer programmers etc. I'm sure that all these interests will inform what we do, and how it gets done."

The official launch of the residency will be held at the Whitechapel Gallery, London on Thursday, 28 April 2011. Tickets for the event are available to purchase online, and include a drink and a free iam edition. Click here for more information.

Deano & Friends

A few weeks ago we were contacted by an old friend and told about an event that renewed our faith in a often ruthless industry. This is a story about how a community came together for one of their own. This Saturday an event takes place that we encourage every single one of you to check out, get involved or support in any way you can and it is all for one man... Deano.

This is a charity event for a well known DJ and promoter DEAN SMAHON who in October 2010 lost both legs and a hand to the blood infection Septicemia. Dean is very lucky to be alive today as most of his major organs failed and he was in a coma for 11 days. He has battled back to health and miraculously has retained all his mental functions.

Organiser and fellow Dj Alex Simmons explains the effect Dean has had on the Leeds clubbing scene:

"I can't express the importance of this individual within the Leeds clubbing scene. When the doctors said we should go and say our goodbyes there was literally every DJ who had played in and around the Leeds club scene within the last 20 years... He is a hugely popular character with all customers, DJs and operators and a very influential and inspirational man."

At the event Dean will also launch a foundation which will have the aim of orgainising charity projects and events that will raise money for the people who helped him recover and people who suffer a similar loss to himself.

We already know that our words cannot do this story justice, so perhaps it is better for Dean to do it himself:

"On 4th October 2010 I unexpectedly became ill with a rare condition called septicaemia. Doctors still don't understand how I contracted it, but a dangerous type of bacteria multipled very quickly in my bloodstream which meant the quality of my blood was quite literally incompatible with life. During the first 48 hours the Doctors advised my family that I would most likely die or at the very best survive but be without hands, feet, probable brain damage and lifelong treatment for most of my organs. However many prayers were answered because my situation stabilised and I awoke from a coma after 10 days. Although the disease did not take my life, it has left me with lifelong physical loss and profound psychological challenges. I have lost both my feet, all the fingers from my right hand and left with the remains of two fingers and a thumb on my left hand - however I have been blessed with full mental fucntion, all vital organs made a full recovery and miraculously I have the pincer movement on my left hand. Mentally it has been a rollercoaster of emotions with the relief and joy at surviving, but also the sadness and shock of my physical loss. 

During the 3 months of my hospital stay, through my countless operations and current continual need for medical care, I have been encouraged, comforted and deeply touched by the support and caring attitude of both close friends and those I have met a handful of times on the clubbing scene. I've always recognised and been heart-warmed by the coming together of very genuine people at the weekend clubs. However, never did I anticipate the degree of selfless support I would receive during my illness. I cannot find the words to thank everyone enough. THANK YOU. 

As I grow stronger physically and mentally, I have started to re-enter the Leeds Scene with tentative steps and have started to DJ again which has been an awesome feeling because it is what I love to do. As part of my rehabilitation and to achieve as normal a life as possible, prosthesis are essential to a high quality of life. Research into the prosthesis market has enabled me to see the vast array of quality which exists within prosthetics and it is my desire to ascertain the highest quality legs and hands that I can in order to have a full and happy life and to enable me to DJ better than I have ever done. Alex Simmons, who is a long time friend of mine and much respected DJ, kindly approached me with the idea of uniting the clubbing scene for one magical night to help me achieve my dream of first class prosthetics - which I have graciously accepted as I realise what a momentous platform it would be to enable me to achieve my dreams and overcome this cruel illness. 

It will be an honour to DJ at the event and to be a part of one of the most notable and memorable nights of my DJing career and the year. I truly hope you can all make it to join Alex, me and the rest of the Leeds DJ's to celebrate survival against all the odds; that anything can be overcome with the love and support of your friends; to remember that life is beautiful; and most importantly to enjoy an awesome night which is the essence of clubbing. 

God bless and love to you all, Deano x"

We hope tomorrow is a massive success and raises loads of money towards Dean's recovery. This has shown that when a community comes together to help one of it's injured soldiers then anything is possible. Every DJ, promotions company, drinks brand and the venue itself are all doing this for free out of pure respect and love which is amazing to see. For more details about the event click here

Leeds Girl Geeks 2011

On Tuesday we headed out to see our very own Shang Ting Peng present at Leeds Girl Geek Dinner, which was this time held at Harvey Nichols. Shang Ting spoke about her amazing England Observing Diary project and a little bit about what life is like as a member of Team Hebe.

To quote the organisers:

"We have an amazing evening planned and, to coincide with International Women's Day, our keynote speakers will be bringing global perspectives and stories, from Iran and China, to Leeds.

We're also super excited to be hosting GGD at one of the city's hottest venues, Harvey Nichols' Espresso Bar in the Victoria Quarter. Along with our previous venues - Living Room, The Loft & City Inn - Harvey Nichols will help us maintain our reputation for finding the most stylish backdrops for our guests and speakers"

Our Shang Ting talked about her upcoming bookWhile Sanaz spoke about Iranian culture and gender trangressionHere each member of our team talks about their feelings and thoughts on the event: 

STACEY:

"Girl Geeks was a great event. It was so nice to see so many female professionals together discussing careers, aspirations and upcoming projects. 

Shang Ting was the first to speak and she blew us away. She was so casual and entertaining yet all the information she gave us about herself and her projects was so impressive and influential. I was very proud of my friend and colleague and not only for the content of the presentation but also the fact that doing a presentation in another language means she had two jobs, one, delivering a great presentation and two, actually saying what she wanted to say in another language in front of lots of people. Shang Ting had no problem with either! She is very modest about her fanpage and book but she should be so so proud. Not only does she have a book deal at such a young age, but she also is out, doing what she wants to do and sharing her travels with everyone in Taiwan. And another important thing to remember is that she is putting Leeds on the map on an international level.

There was definitely a huge contrast between the two presentations. The second presentation by Shanaz Raji was about a subject you could tell she felt deeply about. As a person who does not know too much about Iranian culture, I definitely came away with some new knowledge. It is nice always to see someone with real passion about a subject, whether past or present.

I enjoyed catching up with some other girl geeks such as Sam Ward, Becky Freeman, Steph Noble and Christine Morris. It's a great way to mix with all different kinds of career women and compare experiences and achievements."

SIMON:

"Attending a Girl Geeks dinner on International Women's Day and listening someone talk about gender transgression... Is that irony? Who even cares if it is, listening to someone from Team Hebe rocking the crowd in Harvey Nichols was sensational. Shang Ting had me cracking up every second (for all the right reasons) and hearing her Fanpage numbers, and the way she sees her place in our team, really puts Hebe into perspective: Idea factories are made up of ideas people. "

Even the boy geeks cameMARCUS:

It was an inspiring event, a great initiative that shows that you don't need to spend big and do massive pretentious events in order to get people involved in the community and to connect with each other. Felt like there were a great mix of people there and I had a great chat with some people that I probably wouldn't have met without this event! Big thanks to the speakers as well, I hope I get to go to a few more of these kind of gathering soon again!

Shang Ting talked about the Hebe BlogAnd what it is like working for Hebe MediaLEE:

''I thought it was an interesting evening. Shang Ting did a really cool presentation and the numbers on her Facebook page are impressive. To have 10,000,000 views in a month shows that if you do something interesting and with genuine motives you can achieve amazing things. It took me back to our days in IED where Shang Ting would often give entertaining presentations backed up with serious data. I loved how she spoke about Hebe too because that is exactly the type of spirit and feeling we are trying to create here, so I guess it shows we are doing some things right.''

The second presentation from Sanaz was a totally different style and subject matter. She was passionate about an emotive subject and it was perhaps a reminder that on International Women's Day there is still work to be done in many countries and cultures."

And we will leave the final word to SHANG TING:

I felt honoured to have the chance to speak in front of many important people in the city. It was very pleasant to look over to the crowd and see everyone giving me encouraging nods during the speech. Hopefully I have fully expressed myself by putting a thoughtful plan towards an little idea, it can grow into great possibilities. And most importantly, I hope everyone there had a good time the night. Thank you again for Imran and LSX gang for giving me this great experience.