Twenty-six years after he first encountered the disused bus garage that would become Ministry Of Sound, Justin Berkmann has seen the label his club had spawned swallowed up by Sony Music.

Founder Berkmann still remembers entering the cavernous South London space for the first time and finding its every surface caked in pigeon droppings. He has seen extensive change since that hot 1990 summer, but none as big as what transpired in August this year.

The announcement that Sony had ...