Carl Cox: unfinished business

Carl Cox: unfinished business

Cox picks out the guest appearances of some of his favourite DJs at his nights as particular highlights of his tenure at Space. “There were a million standout moments — Danny Tenaglia, François Kevorkian, DJ Vibe, Sasha and John Digweed, Norman Cook, DJ Marky, Goldie, Pendulum, Gilles Peterson, the list goes on,” he says. After Carl’s 14th season at Space, word came through that the 2016 season would be the club’s last.

When it came to the last night of Music Is Revolution at Space, Cox played the whole night himself — “from the beginning, 10 PM, until 7 or 8 in the morning,” he recalls. He played vinyl for the first few hours. “Then, when it came to 3 AM onwards, it went digital until close. I didn’t know what I was gonna play, and the crowd was there from 10 o’clock. Packed. Packed, packed, packed. But I had to hold the crowd back — old skool Strictly Rhythm and so on to start with. At the end I played The Doors ‘The End’. In tears, I walked away, went to the back, said ‘Give me five minutes’. That was that done.

“Two weeks later we did the whole thing again, starting in the car park that I was a big part of,” he adds, referring to the outdoor area at space where he an John Digweed used to start nights off. The fate of the club didn’t seem real during its closing period, he says, especially the very last night on 3rd October 3rd. “It was the disbelief. We had something so good for so long. So we were all in denial.”

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