FATBOY SLIM

Today Fatboy Slim is one of the hottest pop stars and DJs on the planet. One of the few dance acts to really crack America, he has reached a level of success that most DJ/producers could never hope for. He’s had several number one singles and albums, he’s remixed a string of anthems and holds the record for the most UK chart entries under different recording pseudonyms.. And he owes it all to an ear for unashamedly good-time party records, a lack of respect for musical boundaries and a knack for infectious samples.

Norman Cook was born Quentin Cook in 1963 and grew up in Redhill, near London. His parents record collection was mostly composed of Beatles and Carpenters records, but he discovered funk and soul in his mid-teens and he’s had a passion for black and dance music ever since. He began his DJing career by bringing records to parties and after moving to Brighton to go to college, he supplemented his meagre student income by DJing on the side.

In 1985 he was recruited as bassist for The Housemartins, a Hull-based indie group with a nice line in sensitive, politically-aware lyrics who went on to record two successful albums and score a number one hit with Caravan Of Love. Yet Cook’s heart was never really in it and it came as something of a relief when the band split a couple of years later. Lead singer Paul Heaton went on to form the hugely successful group, The Beautiful South, another member spent some time At Her Majesty’s Pleasure, but Norman began to indulge his love of dance music.

He formed the dub pop band Beats International in the late eighties and the band went on to record two albums, their biggest success coming in the shape of a number one, Dub Be Good To Me, a cover of Just Be Good To Me set to a bassline sampled from The Clash’s Guns Of Brixton. Yet the pressures of his failing marriage led to a personal crisis for Norman and the band subsequently fell apart.

However his success launched a studio and remix career which has continued to this day. Records like A Tribe Called Quest’s I Left My Wallet In El Segundo, Shakatak’s Better Believe It and Ruthless Rap Assassins’ And It Wasn’t A Dream were amongst his first mixes, and he scored another pop hit with Won’t Talk About It/Blame It On The Bassline, which featured Beats International singer Lindy Layton on vocals.

A turning point came in 1992 when Cook attended a Junior Boys Own party in Bognor Regis where, aided by his second ever dose of ecstasy, he was converted to house music – which he had hated up until then - by classic tracks like Robert Owens I’ll Be Your Friend and Clivilles & Cole's Pride (A Deeper Love). Cook subsequently formed funk group Freakpower with Ashley Slater, previously of Microgroove. They released their debut album, Drive Thru Booty, in 1994, but it wasn’t until Levi’s chose Turn On, Tune In, Cop Out for a multi-million pound advertising campaign that the group really hit the big time, scoring a number two hit in 1995.

Whilst working on Freakpower’s second album, Cook hooked up with Tim Jeffrey and JC Reid from Brighton-based Loaded Records and launched a series of side projects under a variety of pseudonyms, such as Pizzaman and Mighty Dub Kats, with considerable success. Pizzaman scored several club hits like Trippin’On Sunshine – which reached number 1 in Canada and went top 5 in Holland - and Sex On The Streets, followed by the successful Pizzamania LP. Another track, Happiness, was picked up for use in a Del Monte advertising campaign. The Mighty Dub Kats, meanwhile, scored big with Magic Carpet Ride in 1997.

It was around this time that Lindy Layton took Cook to a couple of London club nights, Heavenly Social and Big Kahuna Burger, which were pioneering a new club soundtrack. Cook found kindred spirits in the shape of the Social’s resident DJs, the Chemical Brothers, who mixed up a raucous blend of rock, dance, indie and hip-hop for a boozy party crowd hungry for an alternative to the tyranny of house and techno. This approach dovetailed perfectly with Cook’s own kitchen-sink approach to DJing and, inspired by what he’d seen in London, Cook helped set up the Big Beat Boutique night in Brighton where he became resident DJ. The term ‘Big Beat’ was soon adopted as a genre in its own right, describing a brand of dance music which combined hip-hop-inspired beats with rock sounds and acid house attitude.

Freakpower released another album and spent a year touring, but failed to recapture their previous success, blaming a lack of record company support. They switched to influential dance label Deconstruction, but released just one single for the label in 1997 before Cook’s career entered its final and most successful phase.

Fatboy Slim had begun in 1995 as just another alias, plucked from the air by Cook. The first Fatboy Slim single, Santa Cruz, was also the first release on Loaded’s spinoff label, Skint Records, but at the time Cook still regarded Freakpower as his day job. The subsequent Fatboy Slim album, Better Living Through Chemistry, was a moderate success and even spawned a Top 40 single, Everybody Loves A 303.

Soon after, Cook remixed deceased Loaded labelmate Wildchild’s Renegade Master and indie band Cornershop’s Brimful Of Asha. Both became huge hits – Brimful Of Asha reached number 1, even though the original hadn’t even charted – and Fatboy Slim fever began in earnest. Some 150 artists subsequently approached Cook for remixes that same year.

Cook was quick to follow up with 1998’s Rockafeller Skank, an irresistibly catchy cut which revolved around an old rap sample and twangy surf guitar, and scored a huge hit, reaching the top ten and achieving a level of radio play that even The Housemartins had never experienced. The subsequent album, You’ve Come A Long Way Baby, proved to have massive appeal and has become one of the defining records of the nineties. Follow-up singles Gangster Trippin’, Praise You and Right Here Right Now were equally successful, by which time Cook was installed as the new king of dance music.

He is, of course, married to TV and radio presenter Zoe Ball, and still lives in Brighton, where he was awarded a star on Brighton’s Walk of Fame. Last year he co-headlined a ‘DJ battle’ with Armand van Helden at Wembley and most recently has attracted attention for his active support for Ken Livingstone’s mayoral campaign. He also co-owns the Southern Fried label which scored a hit earlier this year with Scanty Sandwich’s Because Of You.

Rob Thomas

Fatboy Slim at a glance

Age: 36
Real name: Quentin Cook
AKA: Norman Cook
Appearance: invisible bloke in corner of pub
Known associates: Zoe Ball, Chemical Brothers, loads of other celebs
Other jobs: producer/remixer, label boss, club promoter
DJing style: clashing, cross-genre party anthems & big beats
Best known for: The Housemartins, Beats International Dub Be Good To Me, Pizzaman Everybody loves A 303, Fatboy Slim The Rockafeller Skank and hundreds more
Where to see/hear him: www.astralwerks.com/fbs; Big Beat Boutique, Brighton and various worldwide
Mix albums: From The Floor Of The Boutique
Do say: ‘Check it out now, the funk soul brother!’
Don’t say: ‘And where would you be without a sampler, eh?’