“A gatekeeper to the scene.”
Carl Cox
Introduction
Carl Cox is one of the most famous club DJs that the UK has ever produced. Carl was born in Oldham in 1962 and spent most of his early life in Carshalton and Brighton. Beginning as a mobile DJ at the age of 15, his music is a combination of electronic music and dance. He has been a techno champion and a veteran of acid house. He works without an agenda. Whatever your identity, he aims to promote your existence. A DJ with over 40 years of experience who never loses sight of his passions. The music he plays comes from a particular place, giving his listeners something to hear from his soul. The history of what got him here, the hip-hop, drum and base, gaba, techno, Detroit underground sound, is ingrained in him, and he feels it would be a shame not to share it with people.
He was described as one of the most charming DJs in the business, a DJ who was there for Danny Rampling’s Shoom night in Ibiza in 1987. He brought the music of Chicago to the UK raves and acid scene. A son of the Windrush generation, his parents came to Britain from the West Indies to build the economy. His father was a bus driver, and his mum was a midwife. Cox is much more than a DJ who went to Ibiza and made it. He is a man who has had a series of ups and downs in his personal life as well as his music career.
Growing Up
Carl’s dad was a significant influence on his future music. He introduced his son to his type of music in the family home. Carl and his sisters had no choice but to listen to it as he played it loudly in their bedrooms. Music like James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Sam and Dave, Booker T and the MGs, Elvis Presley, Duane Eddy, Dolly Parton, Issac Hayes, Jim Reeves and Green Onions. An eclectic sound that you would dance to. One evening, when Carl couldn’t sleep, he came down and sat on the stairs and watched through the bannisters at his parents’ friends dancing. His father came out to get some drinks and allowed him to go back to bed or play the 45 records on the monogram-stacking record player. You chose ten records, and they dropped them down onto the turntable after each song had finished—an 8-year-old child who could fill his father’s void so he could entertain his guests. So, the music journey began.
Going to the record store with his father, Cox was allowed to buy the odd record of his own, paid from the money he got from a milk and paper round. The first record he bought was Diana Ross’ Love Hangover. It’s a ballad that goes into disco music. The start of a record collection that now amounts to 150,000 pieces of vinyl. A collection that dates from 1968 to 2006.
Carl was into car mechanics and electrical engineering growing up but still didn’t know what he wanted to do. As a mobile DJ, he built his amplifiers and speakers. The crossroads came in 1985 when he was a scaffolder, earning good money and being a weekend DJ. In the end, he had to choose between the two. He chose the latter. Earning little money as a DJ, he was helped by the Prince’s Trust. They helped him build the disco unit he had invested £1,000 into. They matched his money, and he attended a business school in Battersea to learn accountancy and business acumen. You got a certificate at the end of the course and then were let out into the world.
At 18, Cox was imprisoned for driving on a ban twice. Serving his time, he learned how to respect others and the system. It was a massive learning curve for Carl. His birth as a DJ came in 1985, but you needed to be a radio or local radio DJ to cut it. Cox worked around it, doing weddings and discos. He was a go-between who turned that commercial sound into his own. He has always seen being a DJ as a passion; you must be in it to succeed. You have to understand the transition of a record, the beginning, middle and end. You take your listeners on a journey and understand what your position is.
Three Decks
Famous for using three decks on his sets, Carl had to start on two decks and learn how to transform the raw music into his sound before upgrading to three decks. It took him five years in his bedroom to master this, driving his family mad and cutting records. He remixed as he played. Still, to this day, Cox tries to minimise the use of computers and never uses the sync button. He plays and naturally syncs. He believes the best sets are imperfect because the DJ is genuinely working.
The Rave Scene
Cox can make a party anywhere. The rave scene was a wonder: What music and DJs were coming? Even when the police are going to raid the venue? The police were outside, making it more thrilling because you wanted to bang out as many tunes as possible and entertain the crowd. The communication of rave events was based on word of mouth, answering phones and pagers. Cox felt it wrong when people rebelled against the 2 am curfew of going home and having a kebab on the way. Right or wrong, clubbers rebelled against the commercial sound and moved to the excitement of the warehouses and open-air events. An establishment that once punished the revellers now embraces them and their music.
The Future
Despite Covid and a drop in signings to UK venues, Cox remains optimistic about the future. He is now the father of DJ music and is highly versatile. His set remains unique wherever he plays. The early days of Fabric and the rave scene remain alive in his set, and his music is loved across the generations. He is appreciated and loved, but not for his social media following. The phone still rings, and he will do what he does best if in demand. When the time comes to walk away, he knows that he has done his best. He wants his legacy to be that his music has made people happy, not negative and unmindful. A negativity that social media thrives on. Cox is a working-class kid who came good.
