During the pandemic, an idyllic story started to gain traction. The dance music world needed to change, they said. The future was all about smaller nights with lesser known DJs cutting their teeth in their own areas – not about the same DJs being everywhere and charging a fortune for the privilege.

It took me no pleasure in pointing out on my Facebook page in the pre-blog days that this story was a fantasy. In reality, there are far too many vested interests in the system for that to happen. The rise of a generation of new DJs poses a threat to those who are older, and they don’t like it.

Hyperbolic headlines have appeared during this period too, that huge swathes of clubs would disappear during this period. Again, this has not happened. Almost all of the big clubs are still here – some, such as Ministry of Sound, were even given money to see them through this time.

And new clubs have also been launched. If Glam, based in Shoreditch in east London, is anything to go by, the old guard aren’t happy to get off the stage just yet. Who are they booking for their first few events? Michael Gray, David Morales, Louie Vega, Tony Humphries, Armand Van Helden – the star-studded list goes on.

The decor inside is nothing new, either. Indeed, the pictures remind me of Gay Tony’s – or Tony Prince, to use his other fictional name – club in The Ballad Of Gay Tony, the old Grand Theft Auto game from 2008.

This new clubbing, it looks awfully similar to the old…