Very subjective topic, it's whoever you have grown up with isn’t it...?
My first hero's Tony Reynolds (Outrigger, later 'The Ship Ashore'), Pep, Harpo, Max, Ted Massey and the crew at the Old Vic, Martin Red (Martin Redmond) for what he did at the Hummingbird and early shellys, if we travelled for house, it was always the Flying Dj's, Brandon Block, et al, and we always turned up anywhere Justin Robinson played.
in the 9ts, it was everything 100 club, so all those guys, Ady, Mick, Butch, and of course Dave Flynn, Shifty, Irish Greg, Alan Hanscombe, all the Capitol soul folks...
as I said, very subjective..