GREG BOWES speaks to DJ Carl Cox on the eve of his South African tour
THERE’S nothing like big black cox. So proclaims the teaser-flyer for one of the most eagerly awaited DJ appearances in South Africa in months. Carl Cox weighs in at 114kg and stands 1,84m, so one can understand the teaser.
But Cox is even bigger than that. He’s been voted Best DJ at the last two International Dance awards; his Worldwide Ultimatum label is in full swing, releasing top-class material from producers around the globe and he’s just released his critically acclaimed debut album At the End of a Cliche. Next week, amid much hype, he’ll be doing what he does best — taking charge of the decks at a series of parties around the country.
It’s been a struggle to get to the top. Cox developed a love for music at an early age, relinquishing more marketable chart-toppers like The Beatles for soul and funk LPs by the likes of the O’Jays, which he was playing on his own turntables by the time he was 15. His Caribbean-born parents were less than supportive. ”They felt DJing was a hobby and not something to be taken seriously,” he says on the line from his London office. ”I felt the artists on the records I was spinning deserved to be respected and appreciated and I took it very seriously.” He started listening to rock music like Pink Floyd and Zappa at school, ascribing this to an anarchic streak that is still evident in his aggressive playing. It’s also landed him in trouble a couple of times. He found himself in a detention centre on his eighteenth birthday for driving while under a ban after a stint of shoplifting and auto- theft. But he’s managed to turn his life around through his enormous self-belief and a passion for what he does.
After embracing acid house in the late Eighties he played at some of the immortal clubs and warehouse raves during Britain’s 1988/99 Summer of Love and he stole the show at Sunrise’s Midsummer’s Night Dream Party in 1989. Here he played on three decks for the first time. ”I’ve always been a creative bugger. I’d done all I could on two, so why not try three?” This imaginative approach extends itself to his production work as well. ”I didn’t want my first album to typify the moment’s trendy style but wanted it to include the span of styles I’m influenced by. It’s a progression from DJing, the melodies of jazz and disco meet the artistic expressions of people like Vangelis and Jarre and are taken to the Nineties dancefloor.”
Now 43, he’s had to fight, but his technical brilliance and crowd-loving attitude have eventually taken him to the summit. I sense no anger or hard feelings when he tells me he feels he could have been there a lot sooner had he been in with the right groups. He’s never belonged to a particular influential clique, preferring to go his own round and do what he believes in: playing for the people and making sure everybody has a good time.
Carl Cox plays Durban on September 20, Johannesburg on the 21st, and Cape Town on the 23rd. Just be there