Funk You For The Memories

After redefining the dance scene and taking the globe by storm with a canny concoction of big beats and even bigger hooks, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Brighton-based Norman ‘Fatboy Slim’ Cook has seen and done it all. In fact, even the original superstar DJ himself thought he’d arrrived at a point where nothing could surprise him – but then, last month, he got an offer he couldn’t refuse. Let’s just say that they had him at “giant octopus.”

“I don’t know if you’ve ever DJ’d standing on a bus surrounded by a 40 foot inflatable octopus, but it’s quite a buzz,” grins the beatsmith as he recalls his appearance at the closing ceremony of the London Olympics, on August 12. “It was [director] Kim Gavin’s idea. I told him I wanted to do something outrageous. If you’re George Michael you can stand there and sing and look pretty, but as a DJ you have to have something mad happening. We chose an octopus because we needed a large eight-legged animal to represent the eight points of the Union Jack. We chose not to go with a mollusk…”
Hailed almost universally as an outstanding success, Norman tells us that he was proud to be a part of the Olympic finale and felt he was doing his bit for club culture as a whole. Hell, the producer enjoyed himself so much, he didn’t even mind being stuck in a bus with Russell Brand for a few days.
“Russell was fantastic,” laughs Norman. “Hanging out with him was almost as exciting as the event itself. I was a little worried as he is a bit full-on and I figured a bored Russell Brand might be a dangerous Russell Brand. There was an awful lot of hanging around and we were locked in that bus together for many an hour. But we became firm friends. He is a genuinely hilarious person to hang out with. It was all a fantastic adventure and I loved sitting around chatting to the likes of David Beckham and Eric Idle, as supermodels wandered past.
“It was a triumph all round,” he continues. “It was a great honour to be selected for Team GB in the ‘DJ-ing event’ and it was a very surreal thing to be a part of.”
By the time you read this, Norman will be preparing for stint at a top secret location in Ireland, as part of Arthur’s Day on September 27. Despite not knowing yet which venue he’ll be turning up in, he can’t wait to get back
to Ireland.
“I’m really looking forward to it because at this stage in my career there are very few boxes I haven’t ticked and when one comes along I’m like, ‘Oh, I haven’t done that before, sign me up.’ I’m obviously aware of how friendly Irish crowds are, so putting them in a strange environment and seeing what happens is going to be great. It’s going to be very intimate, it’s going to be very funny and I don’t care that I don’t know where it is, because there’ll be lots of Irish people drinking Guinness and raising money for charity. What could possibly go wrong?
“There are pockets around the world that just get what I do and Ireland is one of them,” he adds. “I think it’s because you have a sense of humour and don’t take life too seriously. I don’t do very well in Germany – they don’t get me – and I struggle in France but Brazil, Japan and Ireland are big for me. I think places where people are open and friendly like me because my music is quite open and friendly.”
With Norman currently “in DJ mode,” the hit-maker (who first burst onto the scene with The Housemartins in 1985) tells us that he doesn’t have any plans for a new Fatboy Slim record. He is, however, open to re-teaming with David Byrne to work on a follow-up to their 2010 opus Here Lies Love and is also interested in another hook-up with Rizzle Kicks in the wake of the success of their single ‘Mama Do The Hump.’
“I would love to work more with David,” he begins. “If he comes up with ideas more stupid than a musical about Imelda Marcos then I’m up for it! Apart from Rizzle Kicks – who badgered me into making a tune with them! – I haven’t been a studio animal recently. Rizzle Kicks are great. They join the list of local Brighton boys done good and working with them was very pleasurable.”
With dance music currently enjoying something of a resurgence thanks to the efforts from the likes of David Guetta and Calvin Harris, how does Norman feel about the
scene today.
“The image of a DJ nowadays is a Dutch or Swedish ‘superstar’ flying around on a private jet, drinking lots of champagne with a bevy of beautiful women, which isn’t really what I do or why I got into the business,” he offers. “For me, dance music is a lot more dirty and underground. However, if this image brings more attention to club culture then I’m all for it and if smaller DJs can get more work off the back of it, then that can only be a positive thing.”
In three years time, Norman will be celebrating his 20th anniversary making music as Fatboy Slim. During that period, he’s sold millions of records, bagged countless awards and given generations of fans gazillions of nights to remember. With his influence on club culture spanning two decades (even more, if you count his late ‘80s work with Beats International, Pizzaman and various others) we ask him how he feels about his role in the creation of the scene.
“Overall, I feel very proud of my work,” he concludes. “It’s nice when I meet people like Skrillex and they go, ‘You’re the reason why I became a DJ’’ I get respect for my part in the legacy of it, which is cool. I can’t complain, can I?”