This is a question which has been on my mind for a few days now – was I too hasty to criticise London club The Cause for a charity event that never happened? I’m beginning to think I was. Allow me to explain some background here.

On the early hours of 31st July, Bill Hodgson was admitted to hospital with a suspected drugs overdose, along with two other men. The three had reportedly taken drugs on the premises of the club. Hodgson, a 21-year old aspiring DJ, died soon after arriving in hospital. I reported the story on Monday 2nd August.

The Cause then agreed to remain closed until August 11th whilst the police investigated. They were due to reopen with an event to raise money for The Loop, a harm reduction charity. This was due to take place on August 15th, but cancelled at the last minute. I covered it here, and I wasn’t very nice.

Since it was published, one of my sources got in touch to explain some of the perils of doing charity events in nightclubs. He explained that he did a similar event many years ago – loads of DJs promised to do it. But when offers of paid work for that date came in, he was truly astonished at the number of DJs who dropped the event like a hot potato.

To be honest, I had my suspicions something odd was going on. I trawled through every social media profile I could find for the DJs who were on the lineup – and I didn’t come across a single one actually promoting the event. And whilst I’m aware some DJs aren’t great on updating the socials, the fact none of them seemed to have made their followers aware of an upcoming appearance just seems odd.

The truth is I thought this was dodgy, and I really wish I’d just trusted my instinct when I covered the story. Whilst I think I do a pretty good job here, I’m still learning every day on how to do just that little bit better. Perhaps The Cause were not to blame for this debacle, after all…