It's All gone Pete Tong is contemporary Cockney rhyming slang for everything's gone wrong.
It's also the title of a 2004 Canadian biopic on the rise and fall
and rise and fall and rise and fall and rise and fall and rise and fall
and rise and fall and rise and fall and rise of Frankie Wilde, superstar DJ extraordinaire of the Ibiza club circuit & the most def man since Mos Def. Frankie lives his life deep in sound until he wakes up to find his world on mute. Hearing loss has long been a potential occupational hazard of any musicisan and DJs moreso what with wearing headphones inside loud clubs. For Frankie the fear becomes real and takes him on an incredible journey.
At first he tries to hide his loss and spins awful at his gigs; the critics and fans all say he's losing his edge.
So he thinks fuck it all and wallows in misery like a bloody wanker. Having dropped the beat too many times, his heart skips. Between two of the major forces in Frankie's life, cocaine and music,
the former assumes control once he's lost touch with the latter. That is, until he learns to touch the
music by feeling the vibrations of the speakers which allows him to
match the beats better then before. Having saved his own life he may thus begin again.
Overall I heartily endorse this film and encourage you to check it out if you have any interest in electronic music and/or deaf culture. The soundtrack is really good too, with stuff by the Man Himself, Carl Cox (who makes an appearance in the film as both actor and talking head), the Beta Band, Pete Tong (of course), Deep Dish and others.
Inexplicably there is a Bollywood remake of this film released just last month—called Soundtrack, it was well received by critics but seems to have flopped in the box office.
See also LaDon Battle aka DJ Def.
Also: occupational-induced hearing loss has struck again, causing the retirement of Chicago house artist Larry Heard from the world of DJing. The author of an article about this states that he uses "custom-moulded earplugs with precision-engineered filters, designed to reduce the volume of sound but retain its clarity, softening that painful hi-end without affecting the lower frequencies that quicken the heartbeat and get the feet moving." Of course, such things are rather pricey.