Carl Cox and Ibiza is a match made in clubbing heaven; the talented DJ has been an integral part of the island summer scene for over a decade and a half. Having said an emotional goodbye to his Tuesday night Space residency – Music Is Revolution – in 2016, fans of the spinner were delighted when he announced a couple of Pure Carl Cox parties at Privilege this summer – Tuesday July 11 and 18. As he gets set for a triumphant return to the clubbing capital, we look at magnificent seven of his Ibiza moments…

THE DEBUT
Before he was granted his own party, Carl Cox played Space’s world famous Terrace in 1998. Back then, still fresh faced and wide eyed, it was the first time the Terrace had been used properly after previously being an open air chill out space. It was actually a Radio 1 workers after party and saw 1000 people turn up to hear Cox smash out the techno on a makeshift DJ table with a simple cloth wrapped round. Simpler times!

THE RESIDENCY
It all began for Carl Cox’s own event back in 2001 when he set up shop at the iconic Space Ibiza. In the years following he made himself famous for playing marathon sets that sometimes ended up lasting 22 hours. In that time he would run a gamut of styles from the hard techno and house, with which he made his name right through funkier house styles and modern tech. Always bouncing about and beaming behind the decks, his smile became as famous as his sound and doubtlessly brought thousands of people to the island just to experience them. 

Listen to Carl Cox @ Space 2001

THE END
People still get teary eyed when you mention the closing of Coxy’s long running Music Is Revolution party. Going under the title of The Final Chapter, the party saw Cox play a rare all vinyl set. The party was a roadblock as fans pf the spinner flocked to Ibiza for the last chance to see him host his famous party. BE-AT.TV streamed it all and claimed  22,348,318 people were reached, that there were 4,049,900 views, 246,522 interactions, 109,216 comments and 54,341 shares in all. 

SPACE CLOSING
Even before people had recovered from the end of Carl Cox’s Music Is Revolution party, the club that had hosted it for all those years also closed. It was a momentous occasion that had a myriad of DJs and the owner Pepe all in tears. It saw highlights like Tale of Us and Darius Syrossian closing down with Underworld’s epic ‘Dark and Long’ in spine tingling style, while the final curtain dropped with Nic Fanculli and Cox closing out Space with Kings of Tomorrow’s classic ‘Finally’  and Angie Stone’s ‘Wish I Didn’t Miss You’ amongst an hour of tear jerking and emotional classics that had owner Pepe standing at the front of the booth before delivering a powerful closing speech. 

BOILER ROOM VILLA PARTY
Back in 2013 the Intec boss was invited to host his own Boiler Room and he did so from a villa in Ibiza. It found him in fine form and serving up plenty of htose and Ibiza classics while energetically bouncing about from foot to foot. Slick selections and smooth mixing were the order of the day and it was another time the whole island came together to worship at the altar of an Ibiza legend. 

DESTINATION IBIZA MOTORCYLCE TOUR
As a famous lover of riding on two wheels, Carl Cox has, on five previous locations, taken a load of fellow motor heads on a winding tour through Europe. It found him lead a crew of techno lovers to Space on the back of some serious Ducati machines for the opening of his season. The two-week trip included 14 nights in a hotel, ferry crossings, VIP at Carl’s Space closing party and a day party at Carl’s own Sands restaurant, plus on the way back you stopped off at the Argon MotoGP. In bringing together his two main passions he once again proved his legendary status to all who got to know him. 

PURE CARL COX
Of course, this summer the veteran is evolving once more and taking his party, Pure Carl Cox, to Privilege, where he has promised a return to old school rave values where the focus is all on the music. Tuesday July 11 and 18 are the dates for those events, and support will come from the likes of Nicole Moudaber, Joseph Capriati and Dax J. Say the promotes behind the event: “Carl has made his feelings clear on this. Techno is for warehouse parties and that’s where it belongs. We want people to come in, sweat buckets and walk out of our events feeling that that was something extraordinary. On the production side, we’re keeping things simple. Think smoke, lights and lasers. We’re letting the music do the talking.”