It’s hard to imagine the level of fame Norman Cook, as Fatboy Slim, reached. And it’s almost as hard to picture him still doing what made him so famous – filling fields and arenas full of people with wild-eyed abandon. But he is. And, as proof, he’ll be doing it in Saigon on 30th December.
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And these days — a sign of changing times — even his kids, Woody and Nelly, are doing it too. Woody has DJed at Glastonbury (as well as appearing on reality TV shows) and Nelly has DJed at Camp Bestival as FatGirl Slim. “I didn’t particularly encourage either of them to follow in my footsteps,” he begins, by way of excuse. “Nature rather than nurture I suppose!”
Fatboy Slim has grown older, but, reassuringly, he’s not completely grown up. As lockdown loomed in his native Brighton, for example, he donned a Pink Panther suit to personally deliver copies of his compilation album, All Back To Mine, to people who had ordered it, “because I can’t trust Amazon.”
Slightly Wonky
There was always a prankster mentality about his work. Like when Spike Jonze’s street danced his way through the ‘Praise You’ video as head of the made-up ‘Torrance Community Dance Group’ or, later, when Christopher Walken sashayed through an empty hotel in the video for ‘Weapon Of Choice.’ “I have always liked things to be slightly wonky!” he agrees. “Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters were a big influence on me. I guess I’m a big believer in the slightly absurd.”
Even the name, Fatboy Slim, which he’s used since 1996, is knowingly nonsensical. “It’s just an oxymoron — a word that can’t exist. It kind of suits me — it’s kind of goofy and ironic,” he once said.
A Flying Visit
Fatboy Slim appearing in Saigon, on 30th December, 2023, at the Youth Cultural House alongside the iconic house artists Soul Central, and local DJs like Kaiser T, Alan Richie and Yokosun, has something wonderfully absurd about it too.
He has, after all, sold more than 12 million records, he’s won a Grammy, 2 Brit Awards, 10 MTV Awards, 1 Ivor Novello Award, and played to 250,000 people on Brighton Beach and 360,000 on Flamengo Beach, Rio de Janeiro. He even DJed at the London Olympics, where he “felt like I was representing Team GB in the DJ event.” Despite all that, he says the wildest thing he’s seen with his own eyes “is probably Sheryl Crowe pole dancing.”
It’s a flying visit, as these tours often necessitate. “I’ll only be there for 13 hours and that includes the gig and sleep,” he tells us. The next day, on New Year’s Eve, he’ll play at Finns Beach Club, Bali, Indonesia. He’d love to come back, though. “My tour manager has traveled a lot in Vietnam and all he can say is how friendly everyone is.”
It’s Not Nostalgia
Unusually, Fatboy Slim’s appeal today isn’t driven by nostalgia for the halcyon mid-90s era of Skint Records and the whole Big Beat era, or for his early 2000s chart-topping ‘You’ve Come a Long Way Baby’ album period. It’s that his DJ sets are still as high energy as ever, and, although he does play the hits, they’re usually re-edited into a thrilling new form.
“No stag nights, no hen parties, no timewasters…”
All this might suggest Norman Cook’s near-30 year career has been one big joyride. But when ¼ million people turned up for the free party on Brighton beach in 2002 (and not 60,000 as they’d expected) the town turned ‘apocalyptic,’ His showbiz marriage to Zoe Ball hit the rocks in 2003, although they got back together three months later and stayed together for 18 years.
Then, in 2009, when he should have been promoting his Brighton Port Authority project – his all-star album that featured the likes of David Byrne and Jamie T, Dizzee Rascal and Iggy Pop – he was in rehab. “That was definitely bad timing,” he agrees. “I was struggling with alcohol issues at that time so there was no way I could promote it!”
Sober since then, he’s full of hazy recollections and sage advice. “It’s too easy to behave like a kid in a sweetshop but ultimately it is not sustainable in the long term,” he tells us, wisely. “Everything in moderation.”
Finally, we wonder what kind of rules the Brighton Port Authority might have imposed had they been real and had the album become the thrilling success it was meant to be, and his answer could easily apply to his upcoming event in Saigon. “No stag nights, no hen parties, no timewasters…”.
Learn more about the event and get tickets here.
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