I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to make of Goldie, as I ventured to South London’s Kensington & Chelsea College to hear him give a talk to students about his career as one of drum ‘n’ bass’s pioneers.

I’d briefly seen him on Channel 4’s Celebrity Big Brother and in the Bond film, The World Is Not Enough. I was aware of his romance with Icelandic oddball Bjork and, well, who could not picture his set of gold nashers! I know a little of his music, his album Timeless, which finally brought him mainstream attention, being a soundtrack to my first forays into clubbing and after parties.

The man I meet is incredibly friendly and impressively articulate. He’s from the street yet poetic in language. Passionate and driven and still seemingly as keen about his music as he was when he first started creating tracks. When he speaks he looks you straight in the eye. His trademark gold chains and rings he jokes are ‘a taxable expense – stage ware’, though I’m sure his more spiritual side would recoil at the suggestion he be in anyway materialistic.

As he saunters around the college’s recording studio and poses for photos, the students warm to him instantly. A charismatic talker he holds the stage. He advises ‘no one NEEDS three cars’, resulting in a ripple of laughter from the students. But this wealthy guy didn’t have an easy start in life.

Goldie grew up in Walsall, West Midlands, and until the age of 18 lived in a care home. He attended the Frank F Harrison Comprehensive where he was the only student to wear uniform being rules of the orphanage. That and his glasses made him an easy target for bullies, but he was undeterred and found solace in music.

‘My musical taste is so diverse as a result of all of us jostling for the record player in the care home’ he tells me. ‘ We’d literally get ten minutes each to listen to our music, so I heard everything from Bob Marle to Prince to Ska. I’m like a sponge, I pick everything up!’.

He admits at school to having been great at art: ‘I made a bust of Stevie Wonder’s head’ he beams. He flunked at maths and English, did an art foundation but dropped out and as a musician is entirely self-taught.

After college he started making jewellery, hence the name Goldie (his real name is Clifford Price). He was into graffiti. His musical heroes are Miles Davies (‘Decoy really blew my mind’) and Pat Matheny. ‘Pat’s a perfect example of someone who shares growth. His album Still Life Talking changed my life: it was ground breaking. Where it took me was so inspiring. Lyrically you can’t get better than Radiohead or Postal Service. Thom Yorke is a phenomenal inspiration. From the moment you put the record on you’re in his world, in his space’.

‘Often we live in the past to go forward. We start with imitation, then we have to find our own style. You have to be precise in your planning, have your concept or vision for your sound and don’t let technology take over your ideas. So many people leave tracks unfinished. If you lose the concept of your music it becomes an open ended case’.

Goldie was the first star to really take drum ‘n’ bass into the mainstream. The early ’90s saw him release singles, such as Angel and the acclaimed Terminator, in which he pioneered the technique ‘time stretching’, the process of changing the speed, or duration, of an audio signal without affecting its pitch. In ’94 he set up the infamous label Metalheadz with Doc Scott. The label is now synonymous with drum ‘n’ bass.

Then in 1995 he released Timeless. The album reached number 7 in the charts and the single Inner City Life (which sold over 15,000 copies on vinyl alone) made him a household name.

‘I’ve never set myself an easy task working in drum ‘n’ bass. Back when I created Inner City Life, it was part of a 22 minute track. It couldn’t be played on Kiss FM, so I had to cut down the components to make a ‘single’ version’. The public lapped it up.

It has nothing to do with luck. It’s all to do with opportunities and passion, trying to make something of your life. Create a brand for yourself, that’s something I learnt through doing graffiti. You have to have a fundamental drive: you’ve got to be hungry and stay focused’.

Goldie gets his kick from ‘arranging sounds and colours.’ He hates working in isolation and describes it as ‘like working with the lights off. You should play to each others strengths’. He writes poetry. He paints. At the height of his fame he turned down the offer to work with Madonna! ‘Yes, I kicked myself then, but I’m over it now,” he half laughs.

When I ask him what he’s most proud of, without hesitation he tells me Letter of Fate, the hidden track at the end of the album Mother, a 60-minute exploration of feelings towards his own mother.

The album features a track with Bjork and of course Temper Temper, with Noel Gallagher. ‘You know, those vocals were on the warm-up take: he didn’t even know we were recording. The performance was almost subconscious, but we loved it and kept it!’.

What has Goldie got left to prove,? Will he always be creative? ‘Yes’ he says without a doubt. ‘You get to the top of this hill and there’s always a bigger one to climb. Just look at how long we have been recording audio. Recording audio is a great gift. The acceleration of music because of technology, it’s like a runaway train”

Kensington and Chelsea College Head of Music, Kayo Anosike first met Goldie when they were DJing together in Miami, and knew her students would definitely relate to him. And as he brisks about the stage (we did offer him a chair, but he spends most of the hour in animated bursts), she’s right that, at 42, Goldie’s definitely still an ambassador for youth culture. After his talk (‘This is the first time I’ve ever done a college lecture,’ he confides, any nerves firmly concealed), the students are clamouring to thrust demos in his hand and have their pictures taken with him. A total success.

So, what did I make of Goldie? He’s a little bit of everything to everyone: an ex-druggie, yet a role model; a hard nut, yet keeping an eye on the time to get to his daughter’s birthday party. Before his driver whisks him off, he gets a call to say he’s having some of his art exhibited in Berlin. Excited by the endless possibilities life has to offer, if anything Goldie is a total professional, and an interviewer’s dream.

We offered ATM Rewind members the chance to attend this ‘Audience With’. The lucky winner was Jerene Anderson, who told us, ‘I really enjoyed the Goldie event. Goldie is extremely down to earth and very upfront. The advice he gave the audience was priceless. I learnt that its ok to take risks and that networking is essential to success in the music industry. Goldie spoke to us on a level, which both young people and adults could relate. He also has a wicked sense of humour’.