He has escaped the burnout (and worse fates) of many other DJs who started around the same time, but he is not unscathed. Hearing loss is an occupational hazard for DJs and ageing ravers, and Tong’s latest mission is to raise awareness of it (untreated, it can affect mental health and cause social withdrawal). In the 2004 mockumentary It’s All Gone Pete Tong, the superstar DJ Frankie Wilde, played by Paul Kaye, goes deaf – Tong, who has given his name to rhyming slang, makes a cameo. About 10 years ago, Tong was diagnosed with hearing loss in his right ear. “I’d been in and around music since I was 15, so I guess I wasn’t surprised. I just started to become conscious of it.”