BBC Radio One DJ legend Dave Pearce chatted to The Coleraine Times this week in advance of playing a set in Lush, Portrush.
Having been here just 8 months ago, the dance pioneer talked about his love for all things Northern Ireland, his 11 years with the UK's most popular radio station, as well as his upcoming projects.
'I'm definitely looking forward to the show', he s
aid, 'it'll be mad hopefully.
'I'm expecting people to go there and have a really good time, it was packed the last time, a really sweaty party.
'The Northern Irish crowd are always up-for-it, and it's great to play in a club with a nice sound-system and legendary status.'
Dave has been DJ-ing in Northern Ireland for the last 10 years, has 'seen many clubs come and go' and always 'found the Northern crowd really wild' and insists that 'it's always great to play here.'
He said: 'I play hard trance wtih techno influneces in different styles in trance.
'Trance 6-7 years ago was all about big breakdowns and now it's much more rythym driven.
'What I like about trance is that it's musicially interesting with classical overtones and intersting music form, driving beats and euphoric moments.
'At the moment I'm playing a lot of producer Will Atkinson's stuff
'I've been playing it in Ibiza - it's not dissimilar to stuff by James Best from Northern Ireland.
'Those tracks big with me.'
He continued: 'I prefer UK trance - I will put rave in it, so it's almost rave and trance AND techno - as a DJ thats what keeps you going.'
Dave started DJ-ing on a popular south London pirate radio station while still at school.
By 16 he was running his own station.
By 17 he was DJing in Bombay, India, to an international jetset Bollywood crowd.
Dave joined BBC Radio London and created and presented the BBC's first hip hop show and a weekly dance show.
His pioneering work in hip hop led him to, amongst other things, be featured on Public Enemy's critically acclaimed album 'It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back'.
He then hosted a nightly dance show on GLR, hooked up with pirate radio station KISS FM, and joined the campaign for a dance station in London. KISS FM then became the first legal dance station in the UK and Dave hosted a daily drivetime show.
He went on to host the Breakfast Show (The Dangerous Breakfast) and gained the attention of BBC Radio 1.
He then joined BBC Radio 1, initially hosting the Early Breakfast Show, and landing all Chris Evan's Breakfast Show stand-ins.
He went on to host a series of different shows on BBC Radio 1 including the Recovery Session (The Breakfast Show for Ravers), The Weekend Breakfast Show, Drivetime, Late Drive, and Dance Anthems, which ran for 11 years.
He even worked on BBC TV's first ever dance show Behind the Beat on BBC Two's Def2 strand, interviewing artists in America.
Speaking about his upcoming set on his latest touch down in the North, Dave said: 'Since we're doing a student night you can expect anthemic, driving tracks like the new Corsten and classics like Underworld's 'Born Slippy', a mix and match.
'I think everyone loves an anthem - I love big moments on the dance floor.
'If the crowd don't go nuts I know I've done something wrong.
'In Northern Ireland you can play new stuff that you cant play everywhere - they can understand the structure of the music.
'People will ask 'whats the track?'
Dave is fond of the Northern Irish cuisine, and said: 'Although I'm normally in and out of the country, I've gotta go back to London tomorrow, i normally stay out all night and eat in the late night chip shops.
'I did hve a visit to the Giant's Causeway when I was doing the Radio One dance party years ago.
'The party (also in Portrush) was full on - everyone there was great, it was a mad, mad day. 'That's the only day I've been about in day time, it was nice.
'The harbour seemed really chilled out.'
Dave's show on Radio One - 'Dance Anthems' - was historic in that it presented new music to a massive audience, and he worked at the station for over a decade.
He said of his time there: 'I miss the people - it was quite mad and it went very quickly.
'It was great - I always saw it as a show trying to bring new people into the scene, celebrating great records and playing the ones I thought were the best.
'I was lucky enough to have free choices, it was a great position.
'I was the first person to play Faithless on Radio One and Tiesto did his first live radio mix when I was there.
'During the early days there weren't that many places to hear the music people sent me.
'You'd have all this stuff before it was signed and you broke the records and they got signed.'
Dave has sold over 1 million compilation CD's in the UK, an astonishing achievement for any DJ.
Having 'really enjoyed' putting the albums together, he plans to do another one in the New Year.
'They were all very personal to me', he said.
'They all bring back memories.
'The next album will be the best upcoming tracks for the next six months.
Radio wise Dave has started the '6 Radio Show' and has started a free trance cast featuring 'underground stuff, new records.'
'It's nice to be unrestricted', he added.
Dave will be back in Northern Ireland 'in the New Year.'