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Who is Fatboy Slim? Ashley Payne
Long Ago - 1989 Beats International Fatboy Slim is the newest alter ego of DJ Norman Cook. About 10 years ago, the English band The Housemartins disbanded. Norman described himself as just 'another member of the band' on the payroll. This allowed him to return to the past-time that he had always known and loved - being a top class DJ. He went on to form the group Beats International, which was more a collaboration of musical artists than a band, and he had a number one hit with "Dub Be Good To Me" (1989), a cover of the original song "Just be good to me". The Beats international album Let Them Eat Bingo (1990) was a dub filled sound-fest. Norman and others had succeeded in creating unique and original music almost completely out of the use of other records. Beats international recorded another album "Excursion on the Version" (1991), where Norman's musical songwriting talent shone through more than on the previous album. However, the album has a real early nineties 'ragga' feel, and now sounds laughably outdated. A typical fashion victim... (the first 3 tracks on the album are damn fine tho). Beats international toured for a while, where Norman met multitalented brass player, vocalist and all round 'artistic entrepreneur' Ashley Slater (previously from cult UK funk group Microgroove). Ashley arranged and played brass for the second Beats International album, but Beats was disbanded in favour of a new group - Freakpower. In fact, Freakpower's first album Drive Thru Booty (1994) was mainly made up from material that Norman had written for a third Beats International Album. This material was tweaked by Cook and Slater, and more material added to it by Slater (including a cover of a Microgroove track). Freakpower was much more a band than Beats was (even though the second Beats album was made up of a lot more instrumental input than the first) but with a bit of dabbling in dub-ism here and there. In fact, the album was originally released with a fantastic (limited edition) Dub CD by Norman. This dub material sounds similar to the "Praise You - Original Version" remix which is found on the Right Here Right Now Fatboy Slim single. Its good music, but Norman said that it was songs like the original version of Praise You which spurred him on to create Fatboy Slim as we know him today. There was almost a competition between DJs to see who could slow beats down the most and create the trippiest tracks - however, Norman pointed out that it was impossible to dance to these tracks - hence he created Fatboy Slim... But: Back to Freakpower: Levi's Jeans picked up on one of their tracks, Turn on Tune in Cop Out, after hearing it on an Acid Jazz compilation (allegedly, this compilation was free on the front of the cover of a magazine or something?), and used it to launch a multi million dollar advertising campaign. The track became a summer anthem, Launching Freakpower & Norman into the limelight once again. Not So Long AgoPizzaman / Mighty Dub Katz Sometime after the first Freakpower album, Norman found time to create a new album under the pseudonym Pizzaman (1995), spawning such classics as Sex on the Streets, Trippin' on Sunshine and Happiness. This album gets classed as UK house - lots of housey organs & happy drum tracks. We hear Norman pioneer the big-beat phenomenon with Gottaman containing an early but poorly polished thumping big beat drum loop. Many of the songs on this album exhibit some of Norman Cook's favourite songwriting styles - huge latin percussion and a latin style piano riff, fading & looping and jumping and thumping etc (take a listen to Fatboy Slim 'Everybody Loves a Carnival', and even the Freakpower 'No Way' track and you'll know what I mean about the percussion) Then Freakpower toured for a year, and recorded a second album made from original material written by both Cook and Slater together. The album, called More Of Everything for Everybody (1996) was a funked up return to the 70's with funky flares and enough energy to power all the traffic lights in the UK. Two singles cruised the dancefloors, but the record company holding Freakpower, Island, cast a shadow over the album by allegedly losing faith in the band, and thus the album fell victim of this with poor promotion, sales and press. Then Norman founded Skint records - with Skint top dog Damien Harris. Since Loaded-Records owned the name "Pizzaman", Norman adopted yet another pseudonym - Fatboy Slim. Recorded in a week in his converted attic recording studio (the house of love), the album Better Living Thru Chemistry (1997) attracted a great deal of attention, breaking down the genre barrier with "phunky-phat-techno-rock-breakbeat-dance". Fatboy Slim attracted so much attention that Caroline/Astralwerks began distributing Fatboy Slim across the USA, where Skint could only reach Europe. This meant that Skint records could spend more time promoting UK events and other artists on the Skint label than the faor;y unacheivable task of single handedly tackling the US market. Around the same time, Norman put Fatboy Slim (and or Pizzaman) to work on some Mighty Dub Katz tracks. The main performer for this group was the classic Magic Carpet (1997), which was an Ibiza Anthem. Norman went on to produce another Freakpower Track No Way (1998) this time with a fresh record label (Deconstruction), leaving Island records to feel sorry for themselves. Now and Near FutureFatboy Slim However, the Freakpower album was shelved in the 11th hour. With the studio booked for session recordings, a Fatboy Slim fever began to simmer over in the states and the UK as his first album immense attention and his second album was in recording. Very quickly Norman found himself unable to make it into the studio for Freakpower, and initially the album was put on ice for a few months. However, the success of Fatboy Slim meant that (as of yet) Freakpower never happened again. Norman met BBC Radio One DJ Zoe Ball in Ibiza in 1998. Allegedly, Norman was giving an interview with Zoe, and made a jesftul statement to the effect of "I'm supposed to be finishing off my album, but instead I'm... I hope my boss isn't listening".... His boss was listening, and went ballistic. Norman cut short his Ibizian stay and got back into the studio to finish the album But it was around that point that Norman's relationship with Zoe began. Zoe is rumoured to have said something like "His dress sense is crap, but he's an absolute animal in bed" with regards to the Fatboy. Now the two are married, and Zoe is about to (or has just) given birth to their first child.... Ahhhh, how sweet.... The first single from Norman's 2nd Fatboy Slim album You've come a long way baby, was a smash hit the world over. The Rockafella Skank held universal appeal and turned out to be another true anthem for Norman. Additional singles such as Gangsta Trippin' and Right Here Right Now appeared after the album reached the number 1 slot in the UK. Now Norman was in high demand, and would return to his home in Brighton to find messages on his answer machine such as "Hi Norman, this is Robbie Williams. Hope you're doing fine. Oh yes, I wondered if you might be interested in remixing my next single?". Norman has remained very choosy of who he remixes though, having turned down megastars such as Madonna. All the way down Norman's upndown career, his tunes have been used as anthems, jingles and advertistements. Adverts include Levis Jeans (Freakpower), Del Monte Fruit Juice (Pizzaman-Happiness) and one or another sneaker manufacturer (Right Here Right Now). Gansta Trippin was well used as jingles for MTV music awards amongst others, while his joint venture with Freddy Fresh (Badda Badda Schwing) is used endlessly on TV programs (such as the UK national lottery). What next? His own record label Southern Fried launched a cracking dance anthem by Scanty Sandwich based on an old Jackson 5 sample. But now who knows what the future holds?
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