Brandon Block – superstar 90s DJ and fabled hedonist – wasn’t about to let a trifling bit of lung disease stand between him and his drugs. Recovering in a hospital isolation unit, he chomped a hole in the protective screen shielding the outside world from his raging infection. At Block’s request, his pals dutifully slipped him wraps of cocaine.
It was 1994, and Block was at the height of his global fame, spending summers bouncing between villa parties and headline slots in Ibiza. The hospital stay followed an ill-advised swan dive off a ferry into Hong Kong harbour. Block’s battered immune system put up little defence against its filthy waters.
“If you knew me back then, you’d know it was a typical Blocko moment,” he says. “All my mates were telling me not to do it, but we’d been partying all night and I was off my head. It makes me cringe thinking of some of the stuff I’ve done. But I’m here – thankfully – to tell the tale.”