He's known to millions as the silky smooth voice of soul - a fixture on our radios for well over a decade.

But Trevor Nelson is more than a honey-toned presenter. He is, and always has been, a club DJ, whose first love is playing to rooms of smiling dancers with a love of soul grooves, r'n'b and hip hop.

Few people, however, realise he made his mark playing warehouse parties with his own DIY soundsystem.

"It was called the Madhatter soundsystem," he recalls, fresh off air after broadcasting his BBC 1Xtra Breakfast Show.

"I even had a load of hats. I owned about 50 at one time. I haven't got any left though. I wore most of them to bits. It was a hobby - that's why I started - and it still is today."

Trevor's latest incarnation as a breakfast show presenter, alongside co-host Zena, is the latest in a long radio career which began at the other end of the day - DJing the graveyard shift on London's then-pirate station Kiss FM.

When the station went legal he was rewarded with a daytime slot and a directorship. Still a keen club DJ, he earned a loyal following at the capital's infamous Soul II Soul nights, where he met frontman Jazzy B, eventually setting up London's second Soul II Soul shop.

He also moved into club promotion, looking after the likes of Arrested Development and Gang Starr. In 1996 he jumped to the BBC, to present the show with which he will always be linked - Rhythm Nation.

Oh, and he's also on Radio 2 - plus the telly, having presented MTV's black music shows The Lick and The Lick Chart, landing his own BBC show Trevor Nelson's Urban Choice and The Lowdown - and still regularly crops up on both channels. He must be exhausted.

"Well, I wanted to do more, so I grasped the nettle," he says. Though the breakfast show has proved a bit of a shock to the system.

"I've spent my life not getting up early. But I wanted to take control of my career. Now I can break a record on three fronts just on the radio."

For Trevor, it's just the latest weapon in his life-long campaign of bringing black music to new audiences.

"I've championed black music all my life," he says. "When I started out, house music was what was happening. Dance was the buzzword and fortunes were being made playing festivals, fields and Ibiza. At first, we were doing little clubs on Mondays and Tuesdays, and doing it for the love of it.

"I never got into this for the money. But then in the mid 90s, soul and r'n'b exploded - and we were there.

"Djing is brilliant fun, but the travelling is exhausting and wears you out. For me it became a job, and I didn't want it to. I don't want to do it if I don't enjoy it.

"There are a lot of guys out there flogging the circuit just because they've got a name, but I don't ever want to get into that.

"When I started Djing it wasn't an industry, but it has become one. I still get asked to play the big places, but I have to turn them down.

"I still make club appearances, but only if they are special."

One of those special appearances takes place tomorrow, when Trevor makes a long-awaited return to Oxford to play the Regal in Cowley Road.

"I haven't done Oxford for a while so I wanted to come back. I don't really do big venues any more," he says, "The Regal is about as big as I want to do these days. I love breaking new records and I want to interact with the crowd. It's a different energy.

"Clubs are great though. I've done big glitzy parties and little dinky clubs, and I love them all. And I guarantee that the people at the Regal will be dancing!"

So what record first sparked Trevor's love of black music?

"I was given a Jackson 5 album by my godfather when I was seven," he says. "It was the only record I had for years. I'd walk to school and save my bus and dinner money to buy records, and would even baby-sit for people if they had a record collection.

"I was addicted. I became a total anorak. I didn't set out to become a DJ, I just wanted to play records.

"I once had 10,000 vinyl records," he says, admitting, with some regret, that he had to get rid of some. Though he still has no shortage, as the remaining discs are on display, "like a man displays his books".

And will he be bringing along a favourite to the Regal?

"Yes - the Jackson 5!" he laughs. "It's one I always carry around. The crowd will want bass lines - hip hop, crunkcorr and r'n'b, but I guarantee I'll play at least one of theirs. Maybe!"