Daily demonstrations bring the museum's world class collection of textile and industrial machinery to life. Steve grins, quietly pleased with himself; we’re a small audience and he clearly enjoys having us in the palm of his hand.

To us, this one sounds like ‘Getaway’ by the Salsoul Orchestra, but with gabber and classic ‘90s techno sounds.

His father, John Ratter CBE, had served in the Royal Engineers during WW2, reaching the rank of colonel.

Having welcomed thousands of westerners with warmth and kindness, Otaga sadly passed away in 1973, the same year that the teenage Steve first came to Dial House. From Edinburgh Idlewild, more influenced by post-grunge, produced three top 20 albums, peaking with The Remote Part (2002). While Modern Life Is Rubbish was a moderate success, Blur's third album, Parklife, made them arguably the most popular band in the UK in 1994.Bands such as Radiohead and the Verve, and new acts such as Travis, Stereophonics, Feeder and particularly Coldplay, achieved wider international success than most of the Britpop groups that had preceded them, and were some of the most commercially successful acts of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

The cafe was unfortunately closed for refurbishment when I visited - a shame as I'd have liked a rest-stop before my train back home, but there's no shortage of restaurants and refreshment sources in the area. The dominant musical force of the period was the grunge invasion from the United States, which filled the void left in the indie scene by the Stone Roses' inactivity. Let us interrupt this reverie about T-shirts past and present with exciting news from the land of Inspiral Carpets, for the baggy ones – “stars of the Madchester boom of the late 80s and early 90s” it says here – are back after 20 years away.Post-gig sweat steams off the shirt and a surreal, slightly elongated moment slowly passes before Luca and I turn to each other, and I mutter, “I should ask him for an interview”.

Their live show was legendary - all psychedelic lights and projections - and their debut album mixes kitchen sink drama with killer tunes. Over the course of several EPs, Clint Boon's Inspiral Carpets forged their own peculiar sound: Boon's retro-sounding Farfisa organ, singer Tom Hingley's dramatic vocals and some solid rhythms. The media can take the Britpop and stick it as far up the back entry of the country houses as they can take it. I’ve never accepted the atrocities and the absurdities of the real or material world, which frankly continue to this day”.

They distributed leaflets explaining their anarchist stance and door money often went to good causes, such as the miners, Rape Crisis and McLibel. Visit the museum and learn about, be inspired by and get involved in ideas worth fighting for; ideas such as equality, social justice, co-operation, and a fair world for all. At the 1996 Brit Awards, both albums were nominated for Best British Album (as was Pulp's Different Class), with Oasis winning the award. These two bands – in particular Radiohead – showed considerably more esoteric influences from the 1960s and 1970s that were uncommon among earlier Britpop acts. One Night/All Night (starring Tame Impala) is a trance-inducing, turbocharged techno-chugger but inflected with delicious cosmic disco lines licking its lips when not introducing pedal to the metal through the matrix grids of the city.