{"id":279,"date":"2013-01-07T13:07:28","date_gmt":"2013-01-07T12:07:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deanwhitbread.com\/blog\/?page_id=279"},"modified":"2026-03-24T16:31:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T15:31:43","slug":"dean-whitbread-biography","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/deanwhitbread.com\/blog\/","title":{"rendered":"Dean Whitbread"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Camouflaging
Camouflaging Trees from Further Attack<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dean
Dean Whitbread<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Background<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dean Whitbread first came to public notice aged 11, when the local paper, The Croydon Advertiser reviewed a piano piece he had composed and performed at the school concert.<\/p>\n

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Later graduating from Hornsey College of Art, his 1983 and 1984 New Contemporaries videos, soundworks, sculptures and performance pieces met with critical acclaim,\u00a0 “Camouflaging Trees from Further Attack” –\u00a0 in which he wallpapered the trees on London’s south bank – this becoming Dean’s first television news appearance.
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In the early 1990s, Dean was a London-based songwriter and producer with UK and European chart success. His first single as producer was Lift Off by Nagamatzu<\/a>, his biggest UK chart hit was 1987’s Lucy by Habit<\/a>, and his biggest hit song to date, 1997’s Survival Game,<\/a> written in 1993 for the Swiss-German charity Menschen f\u00fcr Menschen<\/em>\u00a0did very well indeed, topping the dance charts in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and achieving platinum sales in Chile (gracias, Chileans!)<\/p>\n

\"Vince
Vince Clarke streaming live from his shed 31st December 1999<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Realising (thanks to computer programmer and Go champion Chris Stevenson<\/a>) in 1994 that the internet was going to be revolutionary proved to be turning point in his work life. Backed by record producer and indie luminary John Loder<\/a> of Southern Records, and starting with BBC’s Radio 1nteract in 1995, Dean established Netmare Limited, a web production company (one of the very first in Europe) which developed online programme formats for simulcasting (internet plus radio and \/ or television) for the BBC, one-off promotions, live rock concerts, fundraisers, carnivals and festivals, inventing blends of live event streaming with as much audience interaction as they could get, and dynamic, high-activity websites for Vince Clarke, MTV, the (reformed) Sex Pistols, Supergrass, Tribal Gathering, The Big Chill, the world’s first internet band Res Rocket Surfer, Notting Hill Carnival and many more.<\/p>\n

Seeing the millennium tech bubble about to burst in 1999, Dean helped his staff get jobs in large corporations which would ride out the storm, dissolved the business, and took a year’s sabbatical. In 2000, for Amnesty International he co-produced Just Right<\/em>, an interactive educational product for 11-16 year olds, based on the UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child. The project was well received, and he continued to work in education as a part of his work mix thereafter.<\/p>\n

After a year away from payrolls, late payments and seven day weeks, valuing his health and wishing to develop his writing, Dean decided not to return to the role of managing director, but instead to work exclusively as a consultant for private clients. Fate intervened in the form of the re-appearance of his old friend, graphic artist, musician, and composer-producer Mark Crook, with whom he started a successful media design and production partnership<\/a>.<\/p>\n