Growing up in the London suburb of Ealing, the trio of childhood friends became avid record collectors, and then regular clubbers on the "rare groove" scene where they would hear records by the likes of James Brown, The Crusaders, Mass Production, the Meters, Rufus, and a mass of early to late 70's funksters.

"At the age of 15, we were very passionate about dance and soul music" , Andrew recalls, "and we got so into it that the only thing left was to try it ourselves".

Rehearsing regularly at Jan's home the boys put their grooves on to tape, and were later over the moon when DJ's at the seminal 'Cat in the Hat' club began cutting from James Brown records to cassettes of the band's jams.