Many love affairs start off in the bedroom; whether it’s Madonna, Britney, Justin or KISS adorning our walls, those early years in the dark depths of our teenage privacy can be some of the most important and formative. That was certainly the case for Dutchman Ardie van Beek, or Funkerman as he’s now known around the world.

But it wasn’t plastic pop bunnies that enamored a young Ardie – instead it was the sounds of Public Enemy, Eric B and Rakim and other heroes of the US hip-hop explosion that inspired him to take on the turntables and begin what was to be a journey into the very soul of funk. Religiously crate-digging through the annals of r’n’b and soul, he followed the samples back to the original disco and rare groove tracks, unearthing a whole history of dance music in the process. For the 13-year-old Funkerman it was as if someone had opened a musical treasure chest for him to play with.

Ironically, the free and easy days of early hip-hop disappeared, with Funkerman feeling creatively hemmed in by the rules and regulations that seemed to spring up around the sound. So it was that, in the early 90s, while spinning at Spock in Breda, the beats of Todd Terry, Derrick May, and Lil Louis gradually worked their magic on the Dutchman. It was house music, and Funkerman was hooked.