Defected might well like to talk about itself as the New Era Music Company – a phrase which mysteriously died on its backside the moment Simon Dunmore was evicted from his CEO post. But despite the impression new boss Wez Saunders likes to give that things are going to change whilst not actually changing very much, some issues from the Dunmore era persist.

Such as this one which we first reported on back in May 2021. At the time, Defected had just released a House Masters edition featuring Todd Edwards – and in a shameless attempt to tap into nostalgia, they acquired “limited edition” T-shirts with the slogan “Jesus Loves UK Garage”. The slogan has a certain notoriety in Britain as Edwards wore a shirt bearing this message at his first ever British gig back in 2003 at the Time and Envy on Romford’s South Street.

But there’s been a problem – Defected haven’t been able to get rid of them since, and no one can work out why. Such is the mystery that one reader got in touch in December 2021 suggesting a curse was at work. It’s worth going over this one again, simply because we at Ears To The House still find it funny yet weirdly plausible.

Our reader explained that Defected’s plush offices on London’s Curtain Road are near the site of what used to be a playhouse called The Theatre, which was built by James Burbage in 1576. He believes spirits from the area’s past are very active there and that Todd Edwards has somehow done something to annoy them – hence why the spirits have put a curse on the shirts.

Quite what Edwards is meant to have done to anger the spirits of Shoreditch remains unknown – but what we do know is when we checked earlier today, those shirts remained available on Defected’s site…