IT was in the North, at the height of the Acid House uprising, that Justin Robertson’s musical career flared into life.

Working behind the counter at Manchester’s Eastern Bloc Records, he went on to DJ at the Konspiracy Club, and began his own hugely successful Sunday club, Spice, with fellow mix-man Greg Fenton.

Since then, Robertson has had a helping hand in steering the direction of British electronic music, and re-mixing mega hits for Bjork, Erasure, Paul Weller and the Chemical Brothers.

“It was a momentous time to be in Manchester – it felt like you were at the centre of the musical universe and I’ve never experienced anything like it since,” recalled Robertson.

“I was at university, but I ended up studying Factory Records and football!

“Rather than buying food, I bought records and used to hang out at Eastern Bloc.

“You’d turn up for work and there would be a French TV crew outside filming a documentary about Acid House.

“It was mad. When I first started playing I had no idea what I was doing – it was pure bluffology.”

Robertson has never lost the power to surprise with his maelstrom of mixes and sonic sounds constantly reinventing his DJ persona.

“That’s what Acid House was about, the storm of ideas, and it has kept morphing and changing to this day,” he said.

“The digital age has liberated that process of music-making - the rule book has been thrown away.

“I’m not a puritan, and I don’t haul boxes of vinyl about when I can use a lap top, but you always have a bit of extra love, I think, when you commit yourself to a vinyl set.”

Although the Big Smoke is home for this re-mix wizard now, he enjoys nothing more than the lush fields of the Ribble Valley in July, where his barn-storming techno sets on the Fortress stage of the Beat-Herder Festival rattle the corrugated iron walls and can sometimes be heard, it is said, on the summit of faraway Pendle Hill.

“I’ve done festivals all over the world and some have no soul, but Beat-Herder is special because it lifts the spirits like no other,” he added.

“It has a remarkable closeness and a community feeling.

“It creates a passion and love that I’ve felt at very few festivals, and it’s difficult to imagine a more beautiful setting for a gathering.

“There’s a sense of a secret garden feel to it, there’s always a bit that you never knew existed.

“You just stumble across stuff and that’s part of the magic.”

He added: “One year I wandered through the Toil Trees, enjoying the vibe, and I when I looked down there was a subterranean cigarette kiosk buried in the turf.

“All I could see was the guy’s head poking out, with someone shouting, ‘Get your ciggies here’. Wonderful.”

Justin Roberston is at The Beat-Herder Festival, Dockber Farm, near Clitheroe, Friday, July 14 to Saturday, July 16. Tickets 0844 888 9991 or www.beatherder.co.uk