Spare a thought – the smallest one you can possibly conjure up, ideally – on this Saturday evening for Derrick May. Thanks to all those pesky women who’ve made all kinds of very unpleasant allegations against him – never actually denied, by the way – his career is an awful lot quieter than it used to be.

Sure, the dance music community has failed abysmally to continue speaking out against him – bar a few exceptions such as journalist Michael James and this blog – but they have at least responded by no longer booking him. Which at least tells me not everyone in the dance music world is awful, if not much else.

One person who certainly won’t be getting in touch with May anytime soon is the extremely well-connected Pete Tong. Despite Tong speaking a few times over the years about how much he admires May as a DJ, the Essential Mix is one place that May has never properly appeared.

My sources in Detroit have told me this is because May previously didn’t have enough time to record a mix, due to his incredibly busy DJ schedule. I’m reliably informed he has been asked to appear at least three times, and the problem on each occasion is lack of time.

May did previously appear on an Essential Mix special in 2018 to commemorate the show’s 25th birthday – where he did a 45 minute set. But I’ve been told a few times now after the 45 minute mix was broadcast, May was keen to do the full 2 hour set, hoping to do it no later than 2020.

It’s now 2022 and Derrick May’s Essential Mix has still not appeared. One source in Detroit tells me May is feeling “dejected” about the possibility this won’t happen now. He said “Derrick’s achieved most of what he wanted. But an Essential Mix in the country where he became a big star was one of few he hadn’t got. And he’s pretty much accepted it’ll never happen now”

As I said earlier, I do hope the thought you had to spare was miniscule…