The Arches was my home - it's still a loss to Glasgow, says DJ Carl Cox

He has been a superstar DJ across the world for over four decades - but part of Carl Cox's heart will forever be in Glasgow.

The 63-year-old told BBC Scotland News the famed Arches nightclub was always a venue he felt at home in. He believes its closure in 2015 has been a huge loss for both the city and dance music in general.

The DJ returns to Scotland in May to headline the Pavilion festival in Ayrshire, which is now entering its fourth year.

It is curated by DJ and music producer Ewan McVicar and veteran Ayrshire concert promoters STREETrave - who Cox worked with decades previously.

Cox has long been considered one of the finest DJ's on the planet.

He told the BBC he is eager for his Ayrshire show, but also reflected on fond memories of many a night in Glasgow.

"The Arches was my home," he says, speaking before a recent show supporting the Prodigy at the OVO Hydro.

"It was always a place that I felt I could be free with my music – I didn't have to be regional, I could play music from across Europe, from America.

"In Scotland I always felt I could be myself. I was very happy to be here, and just dive into my record box and play records from all over the world. I still look forward to it [playing in Scotland]."

The Arches went into administration in 2015 after a midnight closing time was implemented by Glasgow's licensing board.

The move was prompted by police complaints about drug abuse and disorder. It has since been used as other nightlife venues, but plans have been submitted to turn it into a bowling bar.

"It is still a big loss to the city," says Cox. "People still want to have it back and it meant a lot to everyone that used to go there.

"It was a great loss, especially as so many people never got to experience it but have heard about it now."

Cox bought a set of turntables while still a teenager living in London in the 1970s, and within years was DJing for a living.

By the end of the 1980s he was embroiled in rave culture, becoming firmly established as a dynamic, leading figure in dance music.

He has never relinquished that status, even throughout massive changes to both the music business and technology in general.

"A lot of the music I was playing 30 years ago you wouldn't hear on radio or TV," he says.

"There was no streaming or any way to just download it, so if you wanted to hear it then you had to get out of your house, stand in line in the freezing cold in Glasgow and then go inside and have the best time possible.

"There wouldn't be anyone judging you, looking at you – you were just listening to the music."

Although initially tied into house music and then rave, Cox has never been shy to switch things up, and move styles if he feels like it.

"I'm the most professional goalpost mover in music," he jokes.

"I've been known as a techno DJ, an old school DJ, a rave DJ – but I just see music as music at the end of the day."

Cox's return to Scotland brings him to the Pavilion festival for the event's second night on 3 May.

Co-founder Ewan McVicar and Detroit house legend MK top the bill on the first night.

McVicar established the festival in 2023, making use of the Low Green area near the beach in the town and attracting the likes of award-winning DJ Ben Hemsley and Madchester group the Happy Mondays to play it.

"It's brilliant that he's cut through the way he has, based on making his ideas work," says Cox, who previously played alongside the younger DJ in Sydney.

"It's great to see someone like him having so much success."

However while McVivar has gone from strength to strength, the wider nightlife sector has been rocked by a series of blows since the Covid pandemic struck.

Those issues have seen music venues and clubs close, as well as numerous festivals cancelled, including the Riverside Festival in Glasgow.

Last year Mike Grieve, who owns the Sub Club in Glasgow and chairs the Night Time Industries Association body, suggested Scotland should have a government minister devoted to the country's nightlife.

Cox is unsure about this idea, though.

"You need to come from the roots of dance music to understand it," he says.

"It's difficult for someone from the outside of a scene looking in to promote something relating to it. It would need to be someone who understands what makes it tick in the first place."

As for Cox, a man who famously managed to play two parties at the millennium in 2000 by flying from Australia to Hawaii and crossing the international date line in the process, he has no desire to ease up yet.

"You've got to realise that life is a blank canvas and so is the music that you are playing," he says.

"That's what makes it exciting, what journey are you going to take them [clubbers] on to get them to stay on the dancefloor. You're flying by the seat of your pants."