Fatboy Slim
Fatboy Slim | |
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Background information | |
Birth name | Quentin Leo Cook |
Also known as | Fatboy Slim |
Born | Bromley, Kent, England | 31 July 1963
Genres |
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Occupation(s) |
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Years active | 1979–present |
Labels | |
Formerly of |
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Spouse(s) | |
Children | 2 |
Website | fatboyslim |
Norman Quentin Cook
In 1996, Cook adopted the name Fatboy Slim and released .
It was reported in 2008 that Cook held the
Life and career
1963–1984: Early life and career beginnings
Cook was born in Bromley, Kent. He was raised in Reigate, Surrey, and educated at Reigate Grammar School, where he took violin lessons alongside future Labour Party leader Keir Starmer.[6]
He grew up with a love of music. When he was 14, his brother brought home the first album from the punk band
At 18, Cook went to Brighton Polytechnic to read a B.A. in English, politics, and sociology, where he achieved a 2:1 in British Studies. He had begun DJing some years before, but it was at this time that he began to develop his skills in the thriving Brighton club scene, regularly appearing at the Brighton Belle and student favourite The Basement, where (then known as DJ Quentox) he began laying the base for Brighton's hip-hop scene.
1985–1995: The Housemartins to The Mighty Dub Katz
In 1985, Heaton formed a guitar band called
Cook achieved his first solo hit in 1989, "Blame It on the Bassline", featuring future
Cook formed Beats International, a loose confederation of
Cook then formed
Cook enlisted help from producer friends Tim Jeffery and JC Reid to create a
Cook also formed the group The Mighty Dub Katz with Gareth Hansome (aka GMoney), his former flatmate. Together they started the Boutique Nightclub in Brighton, formerly known as the Big Beat Boutique. Their biggest song together was "Magic Carpet Ride".
1996–2008: Fatboy Slim
- "We just got really, really drunk and wrote down a whole lot of names and then looked at them the next day and went, "that's the one." I really love old blues records. Really old, like pre-war blues. I love blues singers and a lot of them have really stupid names. There was like... Peetie Wheatstraw and Snooks Eaglin, Arthur Big Boy Crudup..."[10]
Cook adopted a quasi-blues-style pseudonym Fatboy Slim in 1996. Cook said of the name: "It doesn't mean anything. I've told so many different lies over the years about it I can't actually remember the truth. It's just an oxymoron—a word that can't exist. It kind of suits me—it's kind of goofy and ironic."[11]
The Fatboy Slim album and Cook's second solo album, Better Living Through Chemistry (released on Skint Records in the UK and Astralwerks in the US), contained the Top 40 UK hit "Everybody Needs a 303".
Fatboy Slim's next work was the single "
In 2000, Fatboy Slim released his third studio album Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars and featured two collaborations with Macy Gray and the track "Weapon of Choice", which also was made into an award-winning music video starring Christopher Walken.[19] The album also included "Sunset (Bird of Prey)," whose socially significant video sampled the 1964 "Daisy Girl" campaign ad.[20] At the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards in New York, Fatboy Slim won six awards for "Weapon of Choice", the most awards at the ceremony.[21][22]
In 2003, he produced "
Fatboy Slim's greatest hits album Why Try Harder was released on 19 June 2006. It consists of 18 tracks, including ten Top 40 singles, a couple of Number Ones, and two new tracks, "Champion Sound" and "That Old Pair of Jeans".
In 2006, Cook travelled to
2008–2012: The Brighton Port Authority
The Brighton Port Authority debuted in 2008 with a collaboration with
The soundtrack album for the TV series
The band's debut album,
In 2010 Cook released a mix album titled The Legend Returns as a covermount album in the June 2010 issue of Mixmag. He returned as Fatboy Slim when performing at Ultra Music Festival in Miami in March 2012.
On 12 August 2012 he performed “Rockefeller Skank” and “Right Here, Right Now” at the
2013–present: Return of Fatboy Slim
On 20 June 2013, Cook released his first charting Fatboy Slim single in seven years; "
In 2015, Cook released a 15th anniversary edition of Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars. This was supported with the release of miscellaneous remixes. In May 2015, Cook compiled The Fatboy Slim Collection, an album of songs used throughout his sets over the years.
In 2017, Fatboy Slim returned with his single "Where U Iz", released on 3 March.[25] Later that year, he released another collaboration with Beardyman titled "Boom F**king Boom".[26]
In 2018, a remix album from Australian artists of Cook's previous works was released, titled Fatboy Slim vs. Australia.[27]
In June 2023, Cook played at Glastonbury Festival.[28] He performed the song "Insomnia" by Faithless as a tribute to Maxi Jazz.[29]
Other works
Cook produced the single "Mama Do the Hump" by fellow Brighton band Rizzle Kicks released in December 2011 which peaked at number 2 in the charts.
Cook has been responsible for successful remixes for
Performances
On Saturday, 13 July 2002, Fatboy Slim played at the second of his free open-air concerts on Brighton Beach, the Big Beach Boutique II. Although organisers expected a crowd of around 60,000 people, the event instead attracted an estimated 250,000 who crammed the promenade and beach between Brighton's piers. Local police forced the event to end early amid safety concerns due to overcrowding. Shortly after the event there were two deaths, one due to a fall from the Upper Esplanade[31][32] and one from a heart attack.[33] After the show finished, major traffic congestion ensued throughout the Brighton area, with many caught in traffic jams until the morning.[34]
In June 2005, Fatboy Slim filled the Friday night headline slot on the "Other Stage" at the
In 2008, Fatboy Slim played at the
In 2009, he toured Australia in the Good Vibrations Festival. Also in 2009, he played in Marlay Park, Dublin alongside David Guetta, Dizzee Rascal, and Calvin Harris, as well as one huge performance at the Sziget Festival in Budapest. He also performed at V Festival 2009.[40]
At Glastonbury 2009, he played an unadvertised concert in the "pinball-machine" stage at trash city.[41]
In 2010, Fatboy Slim headlined the east dance at Glastonbury Festival.[42] On 18 June 2010, he performed in Cape Town, South Africa as part of the Cool Britannia FIFA World Cup music festival at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.[43] He also performed in Naples on 15 July at the Neapolis Festival. On 30 May 2011, he performed as the headliner for Detroit's Movement Electronic Music Festival in Detroit, Michigan.[44] On 25 September 2011, Fatboy Slim headlined the Terrace at Ibiza's famed Space Nightclub's We Love Sundays closing party. On 29 October 2011, Fatboy Slim opened at the San Francisco Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, following up on the 30th, closing out the Red Bulletin/Le PLUR Stage at the Voodoo Music Experience in New Orleans, Louisiana. On Saturday, 24 March 2012, Fatboy Slim performed a live DJ set on the main stage at Ultra Music Festival in Miami, Florida. In addition to his other 2011 performances, Fatboy Slim also played a headline gig at the Bestival[45] on the Isle of Wight on 11 September.
In March 2012, Cook hosted a one-hour radio programme, titled On The Road To Big Beach Bootique 5, on
He performed his famous "The Rockafeller Skank" (dubbed the 'Funk Soul Brother') at the closing ceremony for the 2012 Summer Olympics on top of a giant inflatable octopus, which emerged from the top of a party bus.
In 2013, Fatboy Slim played at Ultra Music Festival,[47] Wavefront Music Festival, Exit Festival, Bestival, and Glastonbury Festival (as a special guest on the Wow! and Arcadia stages).
On 6 March 2013, Fatboy Slim played at the House of Commons in Westminster, London. This was the first time a DJ ever performed there, and the performance was in aid of the Last Night A DJ Saved My Life Foundation, which is aimed at "encouraging 16- to 25-year-olds to get more involved in their communities through grassroot initiatives and to raise awareness for community music projects".[48]
In May 2014, Fatboy Slim played Coachella for a second time, again on the Sahara stage.
In December 2014, Fatboy Slim played three sold-out shows including The Warehouse Project in Manchester & O2 Brixton Academy, with supporting acts such as
On 15 May 2016, he played a private two-hour set "Baby Loves Disco" for preschool children and their parents during the festival Brighton Fringe holding.[51]
At Glastonbury 2016, he played the John Peel stage for the first time.[52]
In October 2019, Cook performed a mashup of his track "Right Here, Right Now" and Greta Thunberg's United Nations speech during a concert in Gateshead, England.[53]
In May 2021, Cook performed at one of the first UK events in Liverpool, England as part of the government's trials to restart mass audience events.
In July 2022, Cook returned to Brighton beach for the 20th anniversary of Big Beach Boutique. He was joined by Carl Cox, Eats Everything, and others.
Legacy
Known as DJ Quentox (The OX that Rocks), Cook and DJ Baptiste started putting on
Personal life
He married TV personality Zoe Ball in 1999 at Babington House in Somerset. In January 2003, Cook broke up with Ball, but three months later they reconciled.[55] They have a son, Woody Fred Cook (born 15 December 2000), who appeared on the Channel 4 show The Circle in 2019, and performs under the record label Truth Tribe, and a daughter Nelly May Lois (born 14 January 2010), who premiered a DJ set as Fat Girl Slim with Camp Bestival during the COVID-19 pandemic to raise money for the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust and The Trussell Trust.[56] They lived in Western Esplanade, Portslade, Hove.[57][58][59] On 24 September 2016, Cook and Ball announced their separation after 18 years.[60] Cook is a 12% shareholder of Brighton & Hove Albion, the football club he has supported since moving to Brighton in the late 1980s.[61]
On 4 March 2009, Cook checked into a rehabilitation centre in
Collaborations
Bands
- The Housemartins (Bassist; 1985–1988)
- Rockaway Three (1988)
- Double Trouble (1988–1990)
- Beats International (1989–1992)
- Pizzaman(1993–1997)
- Freak Power (1993–1996)
- Fried Funk Food (1995)
- Mighty Dub Katz ("Magic Carpet Ride" dance song [1995] and "Work it, Work it")
- The Brighton Port Authority (2008–present)
Awards and nominations
Discography
Studio albums
- Better Living Through Chemistry (1996)
- You've Come a Long Way, Baby (1998)
- Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars (2000)
- Palookaville (2004)
Filmography
Cook appears in the documentary Tripping (1999) directed by Vikram Jayanti and written by Jeff Taupler about Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters.[63] He appears as himself in the 2019 satire film Greed.[64]
References
- UK Government. 8 July 2002. p. 8166.
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- ^ "Fatboy Slim | Music Videos, Songs, News, Photos, and Lyrics". MTV. 16 July 1963. Retrieved 12 September 2011.
- ^ "Fatboy Slim Pulls into Brighton Port Authority". Billboard. 13 June 2008. Retrieved 14 July 2012.
- ^ Michaels, Sean (15 May 2008). "Fatboy Slim is no more". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
- ^ Maguire, Patrick (31 March 2020). "Keir Starmer: The sensible radical". New Statesman. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
- ^
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- https://rockandrollogist.wordpress.com/2020/08/20/the-greyhound-blue-orchid/
- https://www.mylondon.news/news/nostalgia/croydon-pub-elton-john-gig-24561093
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- https://www.flickr.com/photos/paulwrightuk/22658580046
- https://www.setlist.fm/venue/the-greyhound-croydon-england-2bd7108a.html
- ^ a b acast (14 May 2019). "Norman Cook aka Fatboy Slim • Distraction Pieces Podcast with Scroobius Pip #268 | Distraction Pieces Podcast with Scroobius Pip on acast". acast. Retrieved 17 May 2019.[permanent dead link]
- ^ a b "HOUSEMARTINS". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 25 December 2013.
- ^ "Interview With Fatboy Slim". Synth History. 29 September 2022.
- ^ "NPR's Weekend All Things Considered: Fatboy Slim". www.npr.org. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
- ^ "Classic Tracks: Fatboy Slim 'Praise You'". www.soundonsound.com.
- ^ a b "Instrumental Instruments: Atari ST". daily.redbullmusicacademy.com.
- ^ Mellor, David (25 February 1989). "C-Lab Unitor (SOS Feb 1989)". Sound on Sound (Feb 1989): 42–45 – via www.muzines.co.uk.
- OCLC 925234032.
- ^ Geary, Leigh (3 February 2020). "Fatboy Slim - When hits were stored on a floppy disk and created with an Atari ST". Coolsmartphone.
- ^ "Norman Cook's long way to stardom". BBC News. 7 September 2001. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
- ^ "1999 MTV Video Music Awards". Rockonthenet.com. Retrieved 22 September 2014.
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- ^ Bein, Kat (7 February 2018). "Fatboy Slim's 10 Best Songs: Critic's Picks". Billboard.
- ^ "2001 MTV Video Music Awards". MTV. Retrieved 22 September 2014.
- ^ "2001 MTV VMAs". Rockonthenet.com. Retrieved 22 September 2014.
- ^ "Fatboy Slim joins Freemasons at Brighton Pride". Gay Star News. 23 August 2012. Archived from the original on 9 September 2015. Retrieved 22 September 2014.
- ^ "Fatboy Slim Takes Us Into The Archives To Discuss His Biggest Hits | 100% Interview" – via www.youtube.com.
- ^ "Where U Iz". Fatboyslim.net. 3 March 2017.
- ^ "Boom F**king Boom (feat. Beardyman) by Fatboy Slim". Apple Music. 11 August 2017. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
- ^ "Fatboy Slim vs. Australia on Apple Music". iTunes. 19 January 2018. Retrieved 31 January 2018.
- ^ "burn #residency - Masterclass: Fatboy Slim" – via www.youtube.com.
- ^ Geraghty, Hollie (25 June 2023). "Watch Fatboy Slim pay tribute to Faithless' Maxi Jazz at Glastonbury 2023". NME. Retrieved 7 July 2023.
- ^ "Right here, right now: Fatboy Slim and Sound Affects Brazil". The Independent. Archived from the original on 27 February 2014. Retrieved 22 September 2014.
- ^ Morris, Steven (17 July 2002). "Nurse dies after fall at Brighton beach party". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
- ^ Gray, Chris (21 December 2002). "Brighton restricts beach parties after Fatboy Slim concert chaos". The Independent. Retrieved 9 February 2023.
- ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 9 February 2023.
- ^ "Fatboy Slim crowds cause chaos". BBC News. 14 July 2002. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
- ^ "BBC Glastonbury 2005 – Fatboy Slim". BBC. Retrieved 12 September 2011.
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- ^ Top pics of Dizzee, Doherty and The Saturdays... "Fatboy Slim – V Festival 2009: Best of Saturday". Virgin Media. Retrieved 12 September 2011.
- ^ Alicia Canter (28 June 2009). "Glastonbury festival 2009: Fatboy Slim wows Trash City | The Guardian". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 September 2011.
- ^ "News – The 2010 line-up is revealed!". Glastonbury Festivals. Retrieved 12 September 2011.
- ^ "Dizzee Rascal, Fatboy Slim To Play World Cup Shows". Billboard. 26 May 2010. Archived from the original on 10 May 2021. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
- ^ "Fatboy Slim, Carl Craig head Movement: Detroit Electronic Music Festival 2011". Consequence of Sound. 24 March 2011. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
- ^ "Bestival 2011 Line Up". Virtualfestivals.com. Archived from the original on 12 December 2013. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
- ^ Laughlin, Andrew (22 March 2012). "Fatboy Slim joins Xfm for Big Beach Bootique show". Digital Spy. Archived from the original on 17 April 2012. Retrieved 6 April 2012.
- ^ Baltin, Steve (19 March 2013). "Fatboy Slim: Las Vegas' EDM Scene 'Really Isn't for Me'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
- ^ "Fatboy Slim to DJ at the House of Commons". TranceFixxed. 12 February 2013. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 9 February 2014.
- ^ "Manifesto". The Warehouse Project. Retrieved 29 November 2019.
- ^ "Upcoming Events – O2 Academy Brixton". www.o2academybrixton.co.uk. Archived from the original on 23 December 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
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- ^ "2016, Glastonbury – Fatboy Slim in Pictures – BBC Music". BBC. Archived from the original on 29 June 2016. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
- ^ "Fatboy Slim remixes Right Here, Right Now with Greta Thunberg's United Nations speech". The Independent. 9 October 2019. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
- ^ "A Selection of Lists from Q Magazine – Page 2". Rocklistmusic.co.uk. Retrieved 12 September 2011.
- ^ "Zoe Ball and Fatboy Slim 'to split'". BBC News. 18 January 2003. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
- ^ "FATGIRL SLIM – World premiere DJ set by Nelly Cook (with a little help from dad Fatboy Slim.....)". YouTube. Camp Bestival. Archived from the original on 11 December 2021. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
- ^ "Fancy living next door to Fatboy Slim? You'll want to put an offer in right here, right now". May 2019.
- ^ Petridis, Alexis (4 September 2010). "How the Fatboy grew up". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 21 April 2010.
- ^ "Zoe Ball launches subscription YouTube channel". The Argus. 20 July 2014. Retrieved 20 July 2014.
- ^ "TV's Zoe Ball and DJ Norman Cook announce separation". BBC News. 24 September 2016.
- ^ Jennifer Drury (2008). "Work begins on new stadium". My Brighton and Hove Albion FC.
- idiomag. 31 March 2009. Retrieved 1 April 2009.
- ^ "Tripping (1999 Ken Kesey / Merry Pranksters documentary) - Trips Festival 1966 - Festivival". Archived from the original on 27 October 2018. Retrieved 27 October 2018.
- ^ Walker, Emily (28 February 2020). "Norman Cook's cameo role in Steve Coogan film Greed". The Argus. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
External links
- Official website
- Norman Cook ... AKA Fatboy Slim
- Fatboy Slim at AllMusic
- Fatboy Slim discography at Discogs
- Fatboy Slim at IMDb