Fatboy Slim Interview
Norman Cook talks new tunes, beach parties and snogging Iggy Pop.
Norman Cook: Brighton ambassador, musical pioneer, global superstar DJ. After an early career that involved roles in The Housemartins in the mid-80s and Beats International in the late 80s and early 90s, it was under a new pseudonym, Fatboy Slim, that Norman made himself a household name. Tracks like ‘Rockafella Skank’ and ‘Praise You’ are some of dance music’s biggest and most enduring hits, whilst his status as perhaps the world’s biggest DJ has been repeatedly underlined by his series of giant beach parties around the world, which started in his home town of Brighton. With the Big Beach Boutique returning to the British seaside this year, we got Norman on the phone for a good old chinwag…
Endclub.com: So, the Big Beach Boutique returns this year, on September 26th and 27th. Can you give us a brief history of how we got from the first BBB to today?
Fatboy Slim: The first one was Channel 4’s idea. They were showing the cricket on the beach and they had a soundsystem and a big screen, and they just said "While we’ve got it set up, when the cricket’s finished do you wanna do a little show?" So we did a little show and it turned out quite big, so we did it again the next year and it got very big.
Endclub.com: What were you expecting from the first event?
Fatboy Slim: We didn’t know if thirty people would turn up, or if the weather would be good… but the weather was nice and 65,000 people turned up, all Brightonians, and it was a great party. Unfortunately it was a victim of its own success on the second one; we got some bad press, people claiming that people died at it, so we didn’t do it for a couple of years. Then everyone in Brighton just kept saying "Why don’t you do it again", and the council were saying "Yes, why don’t you do it again", so we moved it to a safer place on the beach and limited the numbers by fencing it in. We did it on New Years Day last year, in very adverse weather conditions. We all got absolutely soaked but didn’t get cold, although I got electrocuted several times by the rain coming in on the decks. Now we’re doing it at the end of September which should be more pleasant.
Endclub.com: How bad were these electric shocks then?
Fatboy Slim: Just like getting punched in the face. But it happened all the way through.
Endclub.com: How long does it take to set up an event like this?
Fatboy Slim: It takes about a year really, you have to liaise with the police, the ambulance, the council, everyone really. But there’s a willingness to do it, we have to make sure we do it right.
Endclub.com: It’s reported that you are being rather coy about the event? How coy can you be - are you reforming Beats International?
Fatboy Slim: No, no it’ll be same old, same old - party on the beach, but bigger screens, more visuals… there’ll be a few surprises but it’s still gonna be just me DJing.
Endclub.com: Can you tell us a little bit about the line-up?
Fatboy Slim: The line-up is The Whip, Beardyman as compere, Layo & Bushwacka!, Danny Tenaglia and me.
Endclub.com: Are you a big beatboxing fan?
Fatboy Slim: Yeah. Well Beardyman’s a mate of mine, and he’s local. Layo & Bushwacka! have done a lot of beach parties with me before, and they’re good mates of mine. And Danny Tenaglia because he is god.
Endclub.com: Quick challenge: if you attempt to give us 5 seconds worth of beatboxing, we will try and translate this into written copy for our readers.
Fatboy Slim: Boom tssh buh-boom-boom tssh. Haha. How do you spell tssh?
Endclub.com: I hear there are 20,000 tickets on sale, first come first served for Brightonians. Do you think you could manage to draw a 20,000 strong Brighton-only crowd?
Fatboy Slim: I believe it’s 25,000. It’s not Brighton only, but to keep it more local you have to have a Brighton postcode to buy tickets, but you can buy like four tickets and invite your mates. We don’t actually check on the door to make sure you’re from Brighton or anything, but it was one of the stipulations of us doing it again because we got invaded on the second one; the A23 is the only road into Brighton and it got absolutely snarled up for 13 miles I believe.
Endclub.com: So there isn’t some kind of secret Brighton password you need to get in then?
Fatboy Slim: We’re just trying to make it more Brighton-centric. That was one of the stipulations for safety, keeping it local, and there’s a bit of local pride in it too.
Endclub.com: How does the Brighton Beach compare to something like Parque do Flamengo?
Fatboy Slim: For me living on Brighton beach – I actually live there on the beach – it’s playing on your own beach to your home crowd, and I’ve always been synonymous with Brighton. I can’t walk three hundred yards down the street in Brighton without someone stopping me and going “When you gonna do another party on the beach then?”
Endclub.com: Is that annoying?
Fatboy Slim: No, no it’s lovely! It’s nice, no one’s ever come up to me and gone “You noisy cunt! You caused all that mess!” All that fuss about all the mess and the girl who died, that was all tabloid journalism, all the people in Brighton are like “When are you going to do it again, we love it!”
Endclub.com: What is it about the English, they love partying and festivals, there’s more festivals in the UK now than there’s ever been!
Fatboy Slim: Yeah, especially in Brighton. Brighton has always been quite a hedonistic city, and we’re used to being invaded, it’s what we do, and we entertain them, so I think people are used to our hedonistic, southern hospitality.
Endclub.com: You get a huge reception wherever you go, for example you headlined Wireless this year and played Glastonbury. How do you select which events to play each year?
Fatboy Slim: Well I’ve got certain favourites, I play Glastonbury every year, I think this was my thirteenth year running. There’s certain places like Creamfields, where I played the first one, that I’ve got a great affinity with. A lot of it is just to do with friends, I’ve always played at Cream so we’re good mates…
Endclub.com: When you play Glastonbury to you just get in and get out, or do you stay and enjoy the festival?
Fatboy Slim: No, we do four or five days, go down Friday come back Monday.
Endclub.com: Did you see many bands this year?
Fatboy Slim: I normally see the big Sunday afternoon bands, like Al Green or Tom Jones. This year though I had to leave early to go to Vienna to the Euro Finals, I did a big party in the Fanzone Park outside the stadium, on the grounds that England might have got into the final. It was booked way before the tournament, before we even failed to qualify!
Endclub.com: What about Wireless, had you played there before?
Fatboy Slim: No. It was a great gig as well. Sometimes London crowds can be a bit moody, but it was a great crowd, the weather was kind to us, and a good time was had by all.
Endclub.com: We’ve heard two tracks from your new alias, The Brighton Port Authority, can you tell us a bit about that project?
Fatboy Slim: I don’t know a huge amount about it because I can’t remember! It’s an ongoing album of collaborations that I’ve been doing for the last twenty years. I sort of forgot about it and never quite finished it after the whole Fatboy thing took over, but then my engineer found all the tapes in a cardboard box and it got re-started…
Endclub.com: You’ve got a track on there with Iggy Pop, how did that come about?
Fatboy Slim: We're just mates! He turned up at one of my gigs and I just went up and snogged him and went “What are you doing here”? He sais “I just came to check you out”.
Endclub.com: Was he topless?
Fatboy Slim: He wasn’t. But he was when he was recording with us, he did two takes and I was like “Iggy get your shirt off.” I bumped into him years and years ago and couldn’t believe he’d heard of me, and we just kept in touch and decided to do a track together.
Endclub.com: What about any other collaborators on there?
Fatboy Slim: There’s Martha Wainwright, Jamie T, Jack Penate… they’re all just mates. We’ve drunkenly decided to do a track together, gone upstairs into the studio, done a track and then promptly forgotten about it.
Endclub.com: So if they were all done at different times with different people, is there much cohesion across the album?
Fatboy Slim: It’s quite eclectic / all over the place haha. It sounded pretty good, but when it was suggested that we put it out I was like “Are you sure?” But then it was remastered and played back to me and I thought “Actually that doesn’t sound too bad.”
Endclub.com: So will The Brighton Port Authority be appearing at Big Beach Boutique?
Fatboy Slim: Haha, no, half of the people can’t even remember that they’re in The Brighton Port Authority. Jamie T’s denying he’s on it!
Endclub.com: And what about The BPA album? There’s rumours of a name floating around – can you confirm anything?
Fatboy Slim: The name is a line from Jaws and that’s all I’m going to tell you. So if you’ve heard a rumour you’ll know that it’s true!
Published: 1/09/2008
