As a DJ, I know the government must intervene to save the night time industry

‘Nightclubs act as joyous escape routes’: clubbers on the Haçienda dancefloor in Manchester in 1988. Photograph: Peter J Walsh/Pymca/Shutterstock

Nights out in our favourite club – especially during our formative years – often help create our sense of identity and our place in the world. And become part of our collective memory.

I know all this from my long association with the Haçienda in Manchester, a nightclub that closed 23 years ago but was remembered in a one-hour BBC2 documentary.