Fatboy Slim

Fatboy Slim is the pseudonym of Quentin Leo Cook, also known as Norman Cook, an English DJ and musician from Bromley, United Kingdom, born in 1963. He is associated with big beat and electronic music, and his career develops from earlier work in bands, clubs and studio projects before his solo success under the Fatboy Slim name.

Early life and first music work

Cook is educated at Reigate Grammar School. While still at school, he starts a punk fanzine called Peroxide with his neighbour Andrew Thomas and art student Ian McKay, later known as Laidlaw. Around the same period he plays drums in Disque Attack, a British new-wave-influenced rock band, and later takes lead vocals for them. At Reigate College he meets Paul Heaton. At 18 he goes to Brighton Polytechnic to study English, Politics and Sociology, and while studying there he develops his DJ skills on Brighton’s club scene, having already begun DJing some years earlier.

Band projects before Fatboy Slim

In 1985 Cook joins The Housemartins after the band’s bassist leaves just before their first national tour. He moves to Hull for the role, despite having little interest in rock and limited instrumental ability. The Housemartins soon score hits with “Happy Hour” and a number one version of “Caravan of Love”. The band splits in 1988. Paul Heaton and drummer Dave Hemingway form The Beautiful South, while Cook returns to Brighton to focus on the music he prefers.

Back in Brighton, he begins working with studio engineer Simon Thornton, a collaboration that continues across his later records. Cook’s releases from this point involve Thornton to varying degrees.

Beats International, Freakpower and Pizzaman

Cook forms Beats International, a loose group of studio musicians and vocalists including Lindy Layton, Lester Noel, D.J. Baptiste, rapper MC Wildski and keyboardist Andy Boucher. Their debut album, Let Them Eat Bingo, includes the number one single “Dub Be Good to Me”, which later becomes involved in a copyright dispute because of its use of unauthorised samples, including material from The Clash and the S.O.S. Band. The follow-up album, Excursion on the Version, appears in 1991 and explores dub and reggae rhythms, but does not repeat the earlier success.

He then forms Freakpower with horn player and singer Ashley Slater. The duo’s debut album, Drive Thru Booty, appears in 1994 and includes “Turn On Tune In Cop Out”, later used by Levi’s in a major advertising campaign. Freakpower also releases material under the name Fried Funk Food. In 1996 Cook and Slater reunite for Freakpower’s second album, More of Everything for Everybody.

In 1995 Cook works with producers Tim Jeffery and JC Reid on a solo house project under the name Pizzaman. The album Pizzamania produces three UK Top 40 hits: “Trippin’ on Sunshine”, “Sex on the Streets” and “Happiness”. “Happiness” later features in a UK fruit juice campaign for Del Monte Foods.

Fatboy Slim and the big beat breakthrough

Cook is also part of The Mighty Dub Katz with Gareth Hansome, also known as GMoney, Cook’s former flatmate and the person credited with inventing the name “Big Beat”. Together they start the Boutique Nightclub in Brighton, previously known as the Big Beat Boutique, in imitation of the Heavenly Social in London.

As Fatboy Slim, Cook releases Better Living Through Chemistry through Skint Records. The album helps establish him as one of the early names associated with big beat, combining retro samples and funk-based grooves. It produces the UK Top 40 hit “Everybody Needs a 303”. After his remix of Cornershop’s “Brimful of Asha” reaches the top of the charts, artists including Madonna and U2 seek his production work.

Main solo success

Fatboy Slim’s single “The Rockafeller Skank” and the album You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby both appear in 1998. The album receives strong reviews and also includes “Praise You”, which becomes a major dance hit and gives Cook his first UK solo number one. The video for “Praise You”, directed by Spike Jonze, wins multiple awards. Cook’s later videos often feature him in some form, and his work appears in films, television and advertising. “The Rockafeller Skank” is built around a Lord Finesse vocal sample.

Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars follows in 2000 and includes two collaborations with Macy Gray. It also features “Sunset (Bird of Prey)”, based around a sample of Jim Morrison from The Doors, and “Weapon of Choice”, whose video stars Christopher Walken and also wins awards.

Performances, collaborations and later releases

In 2002 Fatboy Slim performs large free open-air shows on Brighton beach. One of these draws a far larger crowd than expected and ends early because of safety concerns and overcrowding, with traffic problems affecting the wider Brighton area afterwards. Cook receives a star on Brighton’s Walk of Fame and continues to be closely linked with the city. He also owns a 12% share in Brighton & Hove Albion, the club he supports after moving to Brighton in the late 1980s.

Cook marries television personality Zoë Ball in 1999, and they have one son, Woody. He is also a regular presence in Ibiza club culture and meets Ball there. In 2002 he appears at Space and Privilege, including sets for the We Love Sundays closing party and Manumission.

Palookaville appears in 2004 and marks a shift towards more conventional song structures and more live instrumentation. Cook himself plays bass on some tracks, while Simon Thornton contributes several other instruments alongside guest musicians such as Justin Robertson. The album includes “Slash Dot Dash”, “The Joker” with Bootsy Collins, “Jin Go Lo Ba”, and further collaborations with Lateef, Brighton band Johnny Quality and Damon Albarn. Cook also works on remixes in 2004, including versions of Max Sedgley’s “Happy” and Black Alien & Speed’s “Follow Me Follow Me (Quem Que Caguetou)”.

“Wonderful Night” appears on Dance Dance Revolution Extreme 2 in 2005. That year he headlines Glastonbury’s Other Stage and also performs on Bondi Beach in Australia on New Year’s Eve. He and Talking Heads singer David Byrne announce plans for a musical about Imelda Marcos, which premieres at the Adelaide Festival of Arts in 2006. Later in 2006 he releases the greatest-hits set Why Try Harder, which collects eighteen tracks including ten UK Top 40 singles, a pair of number ones and two new songs, “Champion Sound” and “That Old Pair of Jeans”.

Recent festival work and other appearances

In 2006 Fatboy Slim headlines Rock Ness and Global Gathering, and later in the year he is allowed to play Brighton again after a period in which he is kept from performing there. On 1 January 2007 he plays to more than 20,000 people along Brighton seafront at a residents-only event. In the same period he performs in Brazil on a version of Big Brother. Big Beach Boutique 3 is later described as a success, with support from Sussex Police, Cook and the crowd.

He returns to Glastonbury in 2007, including a headline set in the East Dance Tent and a secret Lost Vagueness ballroom performance with Madness, and also performs in Ibiza with the Manumission crew at Amnesia alongside Arctic Monkeys and Zane Lowe. “The Rockafeller Skank” is later used in television and dance-game settings, including So You Think You Can Dance and Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova 2. Cook also appears in the Closing Ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.