Second City's Finest: An Evening with Trevor Beattie

A night celebrating the life and career of one of Birmingham's finest: Trevor Beattie.

Hosted by the Editor of I Choose Birmingham.

BIO:

Balsall Heathen TREVORBEATTIE attended Moseley School of Art alongside classmates BRIAN TRAVERS, ALI CAMPBELL, EARL FALCONER, JAMES BROWN and other members of the friendship group that went on to became UB40.

Graduating from Wolverhampton Polytechnic, Beattie moved to London and made his name in the fiercely competitive world of advertising at the TBWA Agency in the 1990s. As perhaps the most talked-about Creative Director in Adland, he created world famous campaigns for WONDERBRA (‘HELLO BOYS’), FRENCH CONNECTION UK (‘FCUK’), McCAIN (‘Chips, Glorious Chips!’) and CARLING LAGER (‘You Know Who Your Mates Are’) UNICEF (working with NELSON MANDELA and MUHAMMAD ALI). A lifelong Labour supporter, he also masterminded three successful General Election campaigns for the Party, which helped give birth to the political ‘brand’ of NEW LABOUR.

In 2005 (the day after a Labour Election Victory) Beattie quit TBWA and set up the BMB AGENCY, with 2 ex-TBWA colleagues. The agency won its first 6 new business pitches and was made Marketing magazine’s Agency of the Year in 2007.

In 2011, Beattie set up THE JACK AND ADA BEATTIE FOUNDATION. beattiefoundation.com in honour and memory of his parents. This charitable foundation supports those most in need in Birmingham and London. Beattie created a campaigning line for the foundation: KNOWING THAT SOMEONE IS FIGHTING YOUR CORNER IS HALF THE BATTLE WON. It regularly gives hand-out grants of £100 cash via its TONS OF HELP initiative.

Hiring DUNCAN ‘ZOWIE’ BOWIE (son of the legendary DAVID BOWIE) at BMB led Beattie to a change of career path. Together with Jones, he produced the Bafta-winning sci-fi movie MOON, starring SAM ROCKWELL. His new taste for moviemaking meant Beattie set up TREVORBEATTIE FILMS.

Several award-winning feature documentaries followed: ATTACKING THE DEVIL(2016) NUREYEV(2018) SPITFIRE(2019) and LANCASTER(2019). Moving into drama, Beattie produced MIDAS MAN(2024), the biopic of BRIAN EPSTEIN, The Man Who Discovered The Beatles.

Aside from the adverts and movies, TrevorBeattie has had a lifelong fascination with all things SPACE. This manifested itself most clearly in two events: In 2016 Beattie was invited by his Ultimate Space Hero, BUZZ ALDRIN to join him and a handful of friends on an epic trek to the South Pole. Upon reaching the Pole base station, Aldrin was taken seriously ill and medi-vacced to New Zealand. It was days later in the Antarctic wasteland that Beattie finally discovered his Hero had survived and aws on the mend..

And in October 2023, having bought his (Return) ticket many many years earlier, on RICHARD BRANSON’s VIRGIN GALACTIC.. TrevorBeattie finally achieved the ambition of his life and FLEW TO SPACE. Housed beneath the RocketShip Pilot’s seat was a school project callled THE SPACE RACE, written by Beattie at Moseley Art School at the age of 11..

TrevorBeattie became the 677th human, 18th Virgin Galactic Astronaut and FIRST BRUMMIE to fly to Space.