Pete Tong on ageing, all‑nighters and hearing loss

Pete Tong says he belongs to an era when nobody expected to grow old in the rave scene. More than three decades after he began presenting his BBC Radio 1 dance show, he still runs a record label and had more gigs last year than for some time. Speaking with fellow DJ Carl Cox, he describes feeling “blessed and lucky” to keep doing what he loved as a youngster.

Hearing loss has been an occupational hazard. Tong was diagnosed about 10 years ago with loss in his right ear and began wearing earplugs at work. They altered the live experience — muffling the crowd even as they preserved the music and the bass — but allowed him to work at safer noise levels and to make more informed mixing decisions given missing high frequencies.

He has tried hearing aids but does not need them all the time; they are most useful in noisy rooms or meetings with multiple voices. Tong is working with Boots to encourage testing and to fight the stigma that needing a hearing aid means you are old.

United Kingdom

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