CARL COX [09:01:08] MUTHAF*CKA ON THE COB One of dance music's most recognisable faces, Carl Cox experienced the most tragic event of his career when four people were shot dead during a recent DJ set in South America. The gang-related slayings, which were caught on video and available to view on YouTube for a short while, left the veteran DJ stunned. “I've done nothing but make people happy with my music,” explains Cox. “I've been blessed with what I have to give and how I deliver my music ... it brings people together from all over the world and I've been doing this for many years and just seeing people smiling and happy. And to just see people running away from gunfire and seeing people get shot in the face and people lying there dead with blood everywhere it was just … I never thought in all my days that I'd witness something like that at a Carl Cox event. It was absolutely shocking, and it took a lot for me to kind of think if I could carry on doing these parties. Is this what it's going to be like now? Do I bring people together where it could create a situation where these things happen again? I don't want to be responsible for this kind of situation - I need to know when everyone is in a club that everyone is going to be safe.” Cox, who took this interview in Dubai, says the United Arab Emirates is now a major stop for international DJs - including D&B don Grooverider, who might have to stay there for a few more years after allegedly getting caught at Dubai International Airport with marijuana and porn. But as Cox explains, clubs in Dubai and the UAE are a little different to clubs in other parts of the world. “The thing about the licences here [Dubai] is that you can't just get a venue outside a hotel facility - so they have to take over the boardrooms of the hotel and turn that into a club, but it [has] turned out really well.” The last time Cox did a festival tour of Australia was last year's Future Music Festival. During the Adelaide leg of the national festival, a now infamous incident occurred at the Josh Wink set that closed Future. A party happy Felix Da Housecat got on the mic and started MCing, bringing Cox into the equation - as the big man was eating corn on the cob side of stage. “That turned into an absolutely classic moment and there's a little video clip of that from Joachim Gerraud - he recorded all of it and it's on his podcast. We went to the area for Josh, and I love Josh anyway and what he creates, and it was a nice party, everyone really got into the vibe of it, but we were starving ... So we just went off and got this corn on the cob and we were sitting there eating corn on the cob and Felix was just like 'Corn on the cob. Motherfucker on the cob'. And Josh sampled it and put it on an acid house track and it was just a whole thing of the time. It was completely made up and the crowd was going nuts, just thinking this was unravelling in front of our eyes. I love moments like that - it's just awesome.” David Knight Carl Cox headlines the first birthday celebrations at The Met on Saturday January 19. He's also playing Big Day Out at the Gold Coast on Sunday January 20. back to top ^

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