Colin Faver’s story starts before rave had a name, which is exactly why it matters. He came through punk and post-punk, working around Small Wonder in Walthamstow while bands like The Cure and Bauhaus were still making their first moves. Then came the Marquee, warm-up sets, promoting gigs and that gradual shift from watching scenes happen to becoming one of the people shaping what the room heard next.

When Camden Palace opened in 1982, Colin became a resident and stayed through most of the decade. What stands out is how hungry his ears already were. Electro, new wave, disco, electronic imports, odd American records — if it had something in it, he wanted to hear what happened when it met the next tune. Long before “eclectic” became a lazy badge, Colin was already teaching British club crowds that a DJ could join the dots instead of guarding one little genre box.

So when house and acid house arrived, Colin was ready. He played Shoom, Hedonism, RIP, Pyramid at Heaven and the Wag, and carried that sound out into the growing rave circuit. Haçienda, Orbit, Rex Club in Paris, squat parties, free events and the huge M25 gatherings all became part of the map.

By the time the big rave years arrived, Colin was everywhere that mattered: Raindance, Energy, Biology, Sunrise and plenty more. But that list only tells you where he played, not why people kept booking him. He moved with the music instead of freezing himself in one era. As the records changed, Colin changed with them — and that is exactly why he stayed relevant while whole scenes were being born around him.

At Rage at Heaven, Colin was resident while breakbeat-heavy rave music was mutating towards hardcore and jungle. The same instincts showed up on radio. As one of the early figures at Kiss FM, he used his shows to put new house, techno and emerging breakbeat sounds into bedrooms and cars across London long before many listeners could get into the clubs themselves.

Techno became another mission. Through Abstrakt Dance and the Knowledge nights associated with Colin Dale, Faver helped give British audiences a direct line into Detroit, Chicago and the harder European edge. Knowledge brought artists including Richie Hawtin, Sven Väth and Joey Beltram into UK club culture at a moment when the audience for that sound was still being built.

That is why Colin sits in a different category from a DJ who simply had a long career. He repeatedly arrived at a musical turning point, understood what was happening and gave it a platform. Punk into electronic club music. House into acid house. Rave into breakbeat. Techno as its own British underground culture.

He remained active long after the original rave explosion, later moving towards deeper house, soul and radio work including Mi-Soul. The ego never seemed to be the point. People remembered the warmth, the curiosity and the fact that he would still turn up for the music.

Colin died on 5 September 2015, aged 63. The tributes came from house, techno, jungle and everywhere in between because every part of the culture could point to a moment where he had helped open a door. The best way to remember him is still to put a tape on. You hear one DJ moving through several futures while they were still brand new, trusting his ears before history had decided what any of it was called.