Clubs

Carl Cox keeps good company. At the recent Miami Winter Music Conference, deck legends Danny Tenaglia, Ritchie Hawtin and Josh Wink joined him for a Carl Cox and Friends party and the next night he did it again with Moby, David Guetta and Fedde Le Grand sharing the decks.

Mr Cox repeats the double-header treatment in London this week. He’s presenting two events at Heaven for the very good reason that last time he played there just as many people were left outside the club as were already packed indoors. The early-bird tickets flew out, so if you love techno, house, breaks and minimal you need to book immediately after reading this!

Over the two nights he’ll welcome DJ Yousef, Loco Dice, Green Velvet, Aussie D&B favourites Pendulum, Dutch master mixer Michel de Hey, his Angels of Love partners from Space Ibiza, Ashley Beedle, James Lavelle and a posse of breaks specialists (Breakfastaz, Evil Nine, Rennie Pilgrem and Meat Katie) plus The Klaxons’ Jamie Reynolds. ‘These people have entertained me which is why I’ve brought them in,’ says Cox, ‘because it’s what I would enjoy if I was a punter.’ There’s heaps of talent there, but Carl is still the main attraction. Why? ‘He’s the best DJ in the world when it comes to moving a crowd,’ said Jim Masters, his Ultimate Base DJ partner, who knew his abilities better than anyone, as their weekly night ran in London for five years.

And it’s because Carl has been such a mainstay here that his long absences have left us feeling just a little unloved. It’s been three years since he last played in London, but on the phone from Miami, Cox laughs off the idea that he’s neglecting us. And he addressed some other important issues, too…

On partying in London ‘I want to come back and do this again (maybe sooner than three years’ time!) which is why I want to create the best party I can for the best price. We’re spending a lot to transform Heaven, adding LED screens and visuals, because we want to give more and make it a different experience.’

On the shootings in Caracas, Venezuala on November 3 ‘I’ve seen plenty of fights in my time, even a couple of stabbings, but seeing four people gunned down in front of a crowd of 7,000… I considered stopping the [South American] tour afterwards. It took a lot, emotionally, to get back out there, but I’ve been doing this for nearly 30 years and I didn’t want to stop over something like that.’

On his reception in Italy ‘It’s crazy. It’s as if I’ve scored the winning goal in the dying seconds for Italy to win the World Cup, that’s how it feels when I play there. I’m seen as a DJ icon over there, and I’m just a guy from Carshalton who plays music that I hope you enjoy.’

On London and Ibiza ‘London gets so much attention for fashion, for food, for the arts, for new sounds and so on. But the rest of the world has caught up now. In Moscow and Melbourne, Shanghai and Tokyo and places like Romania and Serbia they’ve developed their own fashion and music scenes. For me the centrepoint now is Ibiza because people from all over the world go there, get inspired by what’s happening there and take that ethos home and extend that.’

On Moby DJing in Miami ‘I asked him to come and play he said “Yeah, I’d love to.” And then I thought: What is he going to play? Has he bought any records in the past 15 years? (laughs). When he played it was unbelievable. He certainly has bought records and the crowd loved him. I thought: If he plays “Go” it’s going to be all over. And then he did, with the big intro and everything. That record pulls your heart strings anyway, and to see him standing with his arms spread wide as “Go” dropped: Wow! That was a moment!’

On underground music ‘We’re not seeing a lot of dance music in the Top 40, which is great, because that’s the thing that was killing the scene. We’re in a transitional period, with small independent labels creating new directions but no defining movements. And the music that’s played at the after-parties even goes beyond my comprehension (laughs) so it’s exciting right now.’