DJ Dave Roberts, Chicago nightlife icon for more than 40 years, dies at 64
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Dave Roberts, a DJ who was an icon in Chicago's nightlife scene for more than 40 years, died last week.
Late Bar, which Roberts helped open in 2009, confirmed that he died Monday, Feb. 6. He was 64.
Roberts had suffered from a bacterial infection that had spread to his spine, bloodstream, and heart, according to Late Bar.
Chicago writer and performer Dave Awl wrote in a Facebook post that Roberts attended the Chicago Public High School for Metropolitan Studies – also known as the "school without walls," – and graduated in 1977.
Awl quoted one of Roberts' own Facebook posts about what happened next and led Roberts on a path to the underground nightlife scene: "When I was in my teens I was bummed because I thought I had missed out on all the great music. I was strictly into 50's & 60's music (and was made fun of for it). In the summer of '77 I went to London. I am and always will be an Anglophile. Everything from Shakespeare to Dickens to Holmes and The Beatles. I was in London, going to record shops, pubs and shoe stores when I kept noticing flyers for bands I had never heard of. I decided to check out a few of them. It totally changed my life. I saw the Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Jam, The Stranglers, The Damned. I am who I am now because of that summer."
Back in Chicago, Roberts spun his first DJ set at La Mere Vipere at 2132 N. Halsted St. in Lincoln Park – which was known as the first punk dance club in the U.S., Awl wrote. Roberts soon scored a regular DJ gig at the original location of the punk rock club Exit, at 1653 N. Wells St. in Old Town, Awl wrote.
Roberts also worked as a multi-image photographer in the animation industry during that period, Awl wrote.
In 1994, Roberts began the underground dance night Planet Earth Chicago at the old Club 950 Lucky Number, 950 W. Wrightwood Ave., Awl wrote.
"By this time new wave music had been largely displaced by the standardized corporate alterna-rock that the music industry found safer and easier to sell, but Dave understood that there was a thriving subculture of people who had grown up loving the weirdo bands of the late 70s and 80s, and they still wanted a place to dance to them," Awl wrote.
The Thursday night Planet Earth event was a new wave night, but Awl described it specifically as "a carefully mixed cocktail of spiky new wave, early punk, proto-punk, 2-tone ska, synthpop, new romantics, neo-rockabilly, and unclassifiable oddball pop." Roberts' collaborator and partner, Kristine Hengl, later joined him in the DJ booth for Planet Earth, Awl wrote.
In 2000, Planet Earth moved on from Club 950 Lucky Number, which closed later that same year. Planet Earth later found its way to Neo, the iconic nightspot at 2350 N. Clark St. where David Bowie had once hung out. Roberts and Planet Earth occupied the DJ booth at Neo for eight years, Awl wrote.
Roberts also spun at the Holiday Club, 4000 N. Sheridan Rd.
Roberts and Hengl opened Late Bar, at 3534 W. Belmont Ave. in the Avondale neighborhood, in 2009, Awl wrote. Planet Earth continued on Saturday nights, and was interrupted only by COVID-19 pandemic closures, Awl wrote.
The Planet Earth event has been retired with Roberts' passing. Late Bar wrote in a Facebook post:
"With the passing of the man, Planet Earth as a regular event shall end. The spirit of Dave will continue to guide us musically. New Wave & Club Classics will remain a core of our DNA, and all us Earthlings will still have a home here at Late Bar. We shall shimmy, bop, pogo, and do all 16 dances into the future. New faces will join us on the dance floor, and we will welcome them aboard with the same vigor that Dave welcomed us. The legacy of Dave & Planet Earth shall live on in all of us touched by him and his event."