And the birth of this new youth counter culture was going to be born across the pond from the States and rise in the cities of the UK, particularly London and Manchester.

To this day there are still huge arguments as to where and who started the house scene in Britain, and having been there from the start I am going to do my best to answer these arguments.

Back in the early 80s, the UK the club scene was divided into 3 scenes: the jazz funk and rare groove scene, there were the early adopters of the NYC Hip hop scene and then there were the commercial pop clubs.

The underground scene of the early to mid 80s was the jazz funk and rare groove scene.

Jazz funk was predominantly early NYC electro records coming out of the south Bronx and beyond, while rare groove was the soul scene, and could be very cliquey. It was centered around all night parties and DJs playing rare US imported 60s and 70s soul, hence the term rare groove, and some say London DJ Norman Jay MBE coined the phrase.

House music was first heard in the UK through pirate radio stations in the major cities, especially London and Manchester, and then later to pirate crews in Birmingham, Liverpool, Glasgow, Nottingham and Sheffield.

At first, the jazz funk and rare groove crowds did not get house music and initially, the sound would clear the dance floor. They were seen as gay disco records, meaning the likes of Heaven, the Mud Club and Wag in London were amongst the first to embrace the sound. DJs like Mark Moore, who later went on to form S-Express and have 2 big chart hits with 'Theme from S-Express and 'Superfly Guy', Colin Favor, Trevor Fung, Terry Farley and Andrew Weatherall were among the first to play house music.

But the first club in Britain to play house music all night long was The Hacienda in Manchester which was partly owned by New Order's Peter Hook, with DJs Mike Pickering, Graeme Park, Dave Haslam and Jon Dasilva at the fore.

There will be a lot of Londoners who will say London had the first house clubs in Delirium, Heaven and the Wag club, but the honest truth is these clubs were only playing a few house records during the night.

The first big house record to penetrate the UK club scene was Farley Jackmaster Funk's 'Love Can't Turn Around' which ended up in the UK charts, reaching number 10 in September 1986.

London Records (which was being run by a little known soul DJ by the name of Pete Tong) then signed a deal with Trax Records and DJ International Records in Chicago to import all their records to Britain.

This followed a tour to Britain at the end of 1986 by the Chicago house masters, as a DJ International Record's tour with Frankie Knuckles, Marshall Jefferson, Larry Heard and Adonis packed out venues across the UK. When they arrived at The Hacienda club in Manchester, there was a huge queue around the block and the kids already knew all the words and tracks these producers from Chicago had made!

The DJs in Manchester weren't just listening to house music, they were making it as well and the first ever British house record to be made was T-Coy's 'Carino.' T-Coy was the alter-ego for Mike Pickering, a Hacienda resident, and the man who went on to form the commercial House band M-People and also launch Deconstruction Records.

In 1987, life was about to change dramatically as the biggest youth counter-culture movement since punk was about to explode as house music mixed with a popular new drug, ecstasy.

That same year, a group of London DJs, including Danny Rampling, Nicky Holloway, Johnny Walker and Paul Oakenfold, went on holiday to Ibiza for Paul Oakenfold's birthday. Ibiza had been the playground for the jet set since the 70s and was kept as a bit of a secret, and the club they fell in love with, Amnesia, was a beautiful open air club that looked like a Garden of Eden.

The London DJs found a mix of people they had never seen before in a club in Amnesia: every walk of life from straight, gay, white, black to the European jet set crowd all dancing through the night listening to what was later to be known as The Balearic sound, with legendary resident DJ Alfredo mixing Euro pop with Chicago House music.

As soon as they returned to London, Oakenfold, Rampling and the rest wanted to start their own nights and try to re-capture the atmosphere they had witnessed at Amnesia.

Danny Rampling along with his wife at the time, Jenny, found an old gymnasium in south London and converted it into a weekly club night, Shoom. Paul Oakenfold had started another night in South London called Future which he later moved to the Heaven club and called Spectrum. Meanwhile, Nicky Holloway had started a night at the Astoria in central London called The Trip.

House had arrived in the UK, but it was still being driven by music from America. A Guy Called Gerald's 'Voodoo Ray' quickly changed that, and became the biggest UK undergound acid house anthem. And, to back up my earlier statements, it was first aired in the Hacienda before storming the UK charts and London clubs.

People's lives had changed - they were giving up their day jobs and making music, starting record labels and promoting nights. There was a huge burst of creativity and togetherness never seen before in youth culture in Britain.

Magazines were being created to support this new scene. Terry Farley, Andrew Weatherall and Steve Mayes started up a Fanzine in London called Boys Own, and the trio would later go on to start a record label called Junior Boys Own as well as throwing parties under the same name.

In July 87, the Hacienda started a new Wednesday night called HOT which also jumped on the Balearic theme from Ibiza. Unbelievably, they put a huge swimming pool in the middle of the club! Obviously, this wasn't a good idea as there were people off their heads falling over the slippy floor, with blood everywhere. The doormen were dressed as lifeguards and they handed out ice pops at the door. It was like a thundering train of Balearic madness had hit the Hacienda, with 3,000 kids going mental to Acid house and house.

I was personally there that night and can honestly say I have never witnessed anything in a club like that before. That night changed my life and I actually left Britain the year later and went to live in Ibiza.

And in the summers of 1988/89, house music went from the clubs into disused warehouses and the fields across the south east of England, but we'll have more on the summer of love in 1988/89 and acid house raves in the next installment.

Essential Top 10

Steve silk Hurley – 'Jack Your Body'

Raze – 'Jack The Groove'

T-coy – 'Carino'

A Guy Called Gerald – 'Voodoo Ray'

Marshall Jefferson – 'Open Our Eyes'

Sueno Latino – 'Sueno Latino'

Joe Smooth – 'Promised Land'

Ten City – 'That's The Way Love Is'

Jamie Principle – 'Baby Wants To Ride'

Royal House – 'Can You Party'