To many people the name Nile Rodgers will not be instantly familiar. But his band, Chic, will.

Along with Bernard Edwards and Tony Thompson, as Chic, Nile created the disco favourites Good Times, Le Freak and Everybody Dance. They would go on to become three of the most sampled records in music history.

What you probably don’t know though is that far from just producing these seminal classics, if it were not for Nile many of the best loved records of the past 30 years would never have come about.

It is hard to know where to begin. David Bowie, Madonna, Sister Sledge, Diana Ross, Duran Duran, Luther Vandross, Debbie Harry – they have all been touched by his magic.

It is not for nothing that, in 1996, Nile was named the top producer in the world by Billboard magazine.

Mighty impressive for a guy whose first job was playing with the Sesame Street band at the age of 17.

"I don’t need to have people walk down the street and go ‘God! There’s Nile Rodgers’," he reveals.

"I just love walking around and hearing our music pumping out of someone’s car or coming out of some club. It is the greatest feeling in the world. It is not about me, it is about what we have created.

"That was the whole concept behind Chic. It was what we used to call the Chic mystique," Nile continues.

"One day we were in the men’s room with the Bee Gees after this big songwriters’ event. They had gotten all the awards the year before for Saturday Night Fever and now a year later here we were. We had just released Le Freak and I Want Your Love and the accolades that had been given to them were now going to us, these completely unknown guys.

"We are in the bathroom and they were saying ‘who the hell are these guys?’ and we were standing right next to them."

One problem with that sort of anonymity is that people don’t always realise it is you, not some other, later artist who is largely responsible for a hit record. But laid back Nile takes sampling in his stride. He has certainly had enough experience.

"That part of my life I have cut my brain off from," he drawls. "A lot of times people send me stuff and want me to critique it. I have accepted we live in an era of collage art and it is fine. Any time somebody wants to take our music and do something with it I always let it go.

"In the beginning when it first happened with Rapper’s Delight (Sugarhill Gang sampled Good Times to use in the song which would become the first ever rap hit) we got very upset. It took a whole life’s experience to come up with a groove like that and these guys take that and make a record that is bigger than ours."

"It took us 25 years. It took them 25 minutes and it is amazing."

He continues: "But that was the beginning of hip hop and it is all good. I am proud of writing Good Times and I am proud of being the co-author of Rapper’s Delight."

Creamfields 2008 in Daresbury is this Saturday and Sunday Aug 23 24. Chic featuring Nile Rodgers play on Sunday August 24. Tickets on www.creamfields.com