Secret DJ condemns ‘plague raves’ as he tells how he ‘died for five minutes’ during weeks-long COVID coma
A British DJ who spent weeks in a coma after contracting coronavirus in Ibiza has told how he “died for five minutes” during his ordeal – and says he has received death threats for speaking out against others in the industry who continued to perform during the pandemic.
Known as The Secret DJ, the 51-year-old has not played live since November 2019 and had been warning of the dangers of COVID-19 and “plague raves” long before he contracted the Delta variant himself early in July of this year.
However, he claims some in the industry travelled abroad during the pandemic to perform in countries with fewer restrictions than their own. “You’ve killed people and you don’t even want to know about it,” he says, of any who did.
Warning: This article contains images of injuries
After falling ill himself and being flown by helicopter to Majorca for treatment, the DJ – who does not reveal his identity, having written books anonymously about the industry – told Sky News he was left “like a corpse”, his body ravaged by the virus, and that he later found out his heart had stopped while he was in an induced coma.
Doctors told him being vaccinated had most likely saved his life. The virus left him with lung damage, while his weeks in a hospital bed left him with severe muscle atrophy, but by September he was back at home in Ibiza and having physio.
However, the story doesn’t stop there. During a cycle ride at the beginning of November, as he began exercising to get himself back to strength, he put his foot down coming to a stop – and his leg, weakened following his time in hospital, “shattered”.
After undergoing surgery, the DJ has been told it may be months before he can walk again. Unable to work, he has set up a GoFundMe account to help with his medical bills. Despite the discomfort, he describes his leg injury as “a birthday present” compared with the “six weeks of living hell” of having COVID-19, and wants to warn others that lives are still at risk.
“You very much learn the difference between discomfort and pain [when you are seriously ill with COVID],” he tells Sky News. “Constant and intense discomfort is the sort of thing you torture people with.
“Pain peaks and troughs, it disappears, but [this was] constant, intense discomfort, like every time you breathe – which is what, 20,000 times a day? It’s like drowning 20,000 times a day.”
‘You were dead’: Waking up in hospital on a different island
The DJ pictured in hospital in Majorca. He had written ‘sin cerebro’ – ‘without brain’ in Spanish – as a joke on a bedpan
When he fell ill – he thinks he contracted the virus going out to watch England play Italy in the Euro 2020 final – he recognised the symptoms; the DJ believes he previously had COVID early in 2020, but could not test for it at the time. This time round, and after having his first vaccine, he decided to stay at home and isolate.
By day 10, he says he was passing out, injuring his head when he keeled over in his kitchen. Luckily, he came to long enough to call emergency services.
The DJ awoke in hospital in Majorca, not realising he had been there for several weeks. While he speaks a little Spanish, he says the language barrier meant he was not aware at first of the full extent of what he had been through.
“When I was welI enough one day I got up [out of bed] to adjust the blinds,” he says. “A doctor came in and said, ‘What are you doing, man? You had double pneumonia. I had my hand in your chest cavity two weeks ago. You were dead’.”
He says he was told his heart had stopped for five minutes.
By the time he was well enough to be discharged and fly home, his appearance had changed dramatically. “I was [like] a corpse. I was about half my size, I was practically translucent.”
He found himself being taken in a wheelchair through Ibiza airport, surrounded by “my people, the kids I make dance” as they arrived for holidays.
The after-effects of weeks in hospital
The DJ was left with serious injuries after breaking his leg – due to being left with weak bones following weeks of being bedbound in hospital
Determined to get back to normal, his recovery at home was going well – until the bike accident. His leg was snapped in three places, his foot dangling.
Now, he is starting recovery all over again. “[The doctor] says I will walk again one day,” he says. “He said it might take six months, might take a year, but he says you can come back from it. And I know I can come back from it because I’ve come back from worse than this.”
It is one of the many complications of being seriously ill with COVID-19, he says, of having to spend so long in a hospital bed without moving.
So he wants his story to be a cautionary tale.
“It’s really simple, you know, just imagine it might be you who dies. Just imagine it might be you that’s in an iron lung. Just imagine it might be your mum that dies.
“When I was in intensive care in Majorca, there were kids in there, perfectly healthy kids, children. There was people in their 80s. It doesn’t discriminate.
“The doctor said to me, ‘you’d be dead if you hadn’t had the vaccine’. People say, ‘you got the jab, but you got COVID anyway’, like it’s an excuse not to have a jab. No, I got the jab and I didn’t die because I had it.”
‘COVID isn’t going anywhere’: A warning to others
The DJ says he was a resident at some big clubs in Ibiza under his own name before creating The Secret DJ
The Secret DJ has not performed since 2019, has had no paid DJing work for two years. He describes himself as “a mid-range DJ” who played internationally and had been a resident at some of Ibiza’s biggest clubs.
Before The Secret DJ took hold he performed under his own name, but had started performing under the guise – behind a screen – just before COVID-19 hit.
During the pandemic, he used social media and wrote for industry publications urging others not to travel to countries with fewer restrictions to perform when lockdowns were in place in the UK or Spain and elsewhere.
Now that many lockdowns have lifted, he says believes people still need to consider mass events carefully.
“I spent the entire COVID period telling people not to DJ,” he says. “We call them plague raves – don’t plague rave, don’t spread COVID. Because some DJs were individual super-spreader events, they were literally flying all over the world throughout COVID, wherever they could possibly play.
“My DJs, my people who have been travelling around the world – you’ve killed people.”
He says he has received death threats for speaking out.
“When you p*ss off the fans of somebody very famous, it goes very badly, basically. You can get hundreds of death threats a day if you p*ss off the right person.
“It’s not my place to tell anybody what to do, but you must be aware there are consequences. COVID is still there. If you go out, somebody could get sick. Are you okay with that?
“It’s your decision – but it’s not going anywhere, and it kills people.”
Tom Cruise has paid tribute to Val Kilmer, wishing his Top Gun co-star “well on the next journey”.
Cruise, speaking at the CinemaCon film event in Las Vegas on Thursday, asked for a moment’s silence to reflect on the “wonderful” times shared with the star, whom he called a “dear friend”.
Kilmer, who died of pneumonia on Tuesday aged 65, rocketed to fame starring alongside Cruise in the 1986 blockbuster Top Gun, playing Tom ‘Iceman’ Kazansky, a rival fighter pilot to Cruise’s character Maverick.
Tom Cruise said ‘I wish you well on the next journey’. Pic: AP
Val Kilmer in 2017. Pic: AP
His last part was a cameo role in the 2022 blockbuster sequel Top Gun: Maverick.
Cruise, on stage at Caesars Palace on Thursday, said: “I’d like to honour a dear friend of mine, Val Kilmer. I can’t tell you how much I admire his work, how grateful and honoured I was when he joined Top Gun and came back later for Top Gun: Maverick.
“I think it would be really nice if we could have a moment together because he loved movies and he gave a lot to all of us. Just kind of think about all the wonderful times that we had with him.
“I wish you well on the next journey.”
The moment of silence followed a string of tributes from Hollywood figures including Cher, Francis Ford Coppola, Antonio Banderas and Michelle Monaghan.
Kilmer’s daughter Mercedes told the New York Times on Wednesday that the actor had died from pneumonia.
Tom Cruise at Caesars Palace on Thursday. Pic: AP
Diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014, Kilmer discussed his illness and recovery in his 2020 memoir Your Huckleberry and Amazon Prime documentary Val.
He underwent radiation and chemotherapy treatments for the disease and also had a tracheostomy which damaged his vocal cords and permanently gave him a raspy speaking voice.
Kilmer played Batman in the 1995 film Batman Forever and received critical acclaim for his portrayal of rock singer Jim Morrison in the 1991 movie The Doors.
Read more from Sky News:
Tributes to ‘genius’ Kilmer
Richest billionaires named
Springsteen’s seven new albums
He also starred in True Romance and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, as well as playing criminal Chris Shiherlis in Michael Mann’s 1995 movie Heat and Doc Holliday in the 1993 film Tombstone.
In 1988 he married British actress Joanne Whalley, whom he met while working on fantasy adventure Willow.
The couple had two children before divorcing in 1996.
Bruce Springsteen is to release seven albums of mostly unheard material this summer.
The US singer said the songs, written and re-recorded between 1983 and 2018, were being made public after he began completing “everything I had in my vault” during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a short video posted on Instagram, Springsteen said the albums were “records that were full records, some of them even to the point of being mixed and not released”.
The 83-song collection is being released in a box set called Tracks II: The Lost Albums and goes on sale on 27 June.
Some 74 of the tracks have never been heard before.
Springsteen first teased the release on Wednesday morning with a short social media video accompanied by text which said: “What was lost has been found”.
Tracks II is the follow-up to the star’s first Tracks volume, a four-CD collection of 66 unreleased songs, released in 1998.
Bruce Springsteen at New York’s Carnegie Hall at a tribute to Patti Smith last month. Pic: PA
The New Jersey-born rocker, nicknamed The Boss, last released a studio album in 2022.
Only the Strong Survive was a collection of covers, including songs by Motown and soul artists, such as the Four Tops, The Temptations, The Supremes, Frankie Wilson and Jimmy Ruffin.
The late soul legend Sam Moore, who died in January and was a frequent Springsteen collaborator, sang on two of the tracks.
Read more from Sky News:
Tributes to ‘genius’ Kilmer
Penguin island facing tariffs
Richest billionaires named
Springsteen is coming to the UK in May to launch a two-month tour of Europe with his E Street Band.
The shows will include performances at the Co-op Live in Manchester and Liverpool’s Anfield stadium.
The singer-songwriter has sold more than 140 million records since his debut on the music scene in 1973, according to his website.
Entertainment
Stalker who believed Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas was his aunt avoids jail
A man who stalked Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas for six years has avoided jail.
Kyle Shaw, 37, got a 20-month suspended sentence and a lifetime restraining order on contacting Ballas, her mother, niece, and former partner.
Liverpool Crown Court heard that he thought Ballas was his aunt and “began a persistent campaign of contact”.
“He believed, and it’s evident from what he was told by his mother, that her late brother was his father,” said prosecutor Nicola Daley.
The court heard there was no evidence he was wrong, and “limited evidence” he was correct.
Ms Daley said Shaw’s messages had accused Ballas of being to blame for the death of her brother, who took his own life in 2003 aged 44.
He also set up social media accounts in his name.
Shaw had pleaded guilty to stalking the former dancer between August 2017 and November 2023 at a hearing in February.
Incidents included following Ballas’s 86-year-old mother, Audrey Rich, while she was shopping and telling her she was his grandmother.
The court heard in messages to Mrs Rich, Shaw had asked: “Where’s my dad?”
Ballas was so worried for her mother’s safety that she moved her from Merseyside to London.
Kyle Shaw outside court on the day of his sentencing. Pic: PA
In October 2020, Ballas called police after Shaw messaged her and said: “Do you want me to kill myself, Shirley?”
Posts on X included one alongside an image of her home address that warned: “You ruined my life, I’ll ruin yours and everyone’s around you.”
Another referenced a book signing and said: “I can’t wait to meet you for the first time Aunty Shirley. Hopefully I can get an autograph.”
The court was told Ballas’s niece Mary Assall, former partner Daniel Taylor and colleagues from Strictly Come Dancing and ITV’s Loose Women were also sent messages.
‘I know where you live’
On one occasion in late 2023, Shaw called Mr Taylor and told him he knew where the couple lived and described Ballas’s movements.
The court heard the 64-year-old TV star become wary of socialising and stopped using public transport.
Prosecutor Ms Daley said: “She described having sleepless nights worrying about herself and her family’s safety and being particularly distressed when suggestions were made to her that she and her mother were responsible for her brother taking his own life.”
Ballas has been head judge on Strictly Come Dancing since 2017. Pic: PA
Shaw cried and wiped away tears as he was sentenced on Tuesday.
The judge said the stalking stemmed from his mother telling him Ballas’s brother, David Rich, was his biological father.
“I’m satisfied that your motive for this offending was a desire to seek contact with people you genuinely believed were your family,” he said.
“Whether in fact there’s any truth in that belief is difficult, if not impossible, to determine.”
Shaw pictured at court in February. Pic: PA
Read more from Sky News:
Cast of Beatles films revealed
Tractor crashes into houses in Cheshire
Defence lawyer John Weate said Shaw had been told the story by his mother “in his mid to late teens” and had suffered “complex mental health issues” since he was a child.
He added: “He now accepts that Miss Ballas and her family don’t wish to have any contact with him and, importantly, he volunteered the information that he has no intention of contacting them again.”
Shaw, of Whetstone Lane in Birkenhead, also admitted possessing cannabis and was ordered to undertake a rehab programme.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports12 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway