Fat Boy Slim

"Fatboy Slim is F***ing in Heaven"

Here is a guy who is all about the party. We'll come onto his music in a bit. The guy has a lot of personality, he's not po faced, he is a great showman. Hell, some of the shirts he wears have more personality than some of his DJ peers. As a DJ, he is very, very good. He's not cool, not upfront or up himself and he's not that amazing technically - but who cares? He just plays records to make people dance and usually himself too. He was particularly mindblowing in the old Big Beat Boutique/Heavenly Social days (he used to be resident there with the Chemical Brothers - whom he inspired! - also, imagine having those as your residents!!!) when the whole "big beat" sound was big around 1998 time. Recently, i feel he's not as fresh as what he was however.

His music? Well, up until "Halfway Between The Gutter And Stars" LP, his music was great. After that, he kinda doesnt know what he wants to do with himself. He's trying to follow the trends.

On his early work he's kinda like DJ Shadow, only not as serious. It's that old British sense of humour shining through which seperates them. You have to hand it to Fatboy, he certainly knows his funk and obscure rock. He definately has an ear for a nice sample. His early remixes he did and the first 2 LP's were fantastic. I think the best tune he ever did was a b-side though - "Sho Nuff" (b-side to "Praise You"). I heard this on a live broadcast from Radio 1 in 1999, i had to smile to myself, and the tune always does make me smile. It's such a great dance tune, and just leaks what to me, Funk is all about.

I think you'd be hard pushed to find anyone who's attended a Fatboy gig and not had laugh, a bit of a dance and acted a bit silly and had a damn good time - which at the end of the day, is what this dance malarky is all about isnt it?

Right About Now, The Funk Soul Brother!

Fatboy Slim (Norman Cook) is probably the most well-known DJ/Dance Producer to the average joe, and one of the longest-running too. Started DJing in the late 1970's, but began his mainstream success in Indie group, "The Housemartins", as the Bass Player. As he was crap at playing traditional instruments, Norm dumped the bass for the turntables, doing various remixes, and later formed Beats International around 1990. He was also in other outfits including Pizzaman, Mighty Dub Catz, Freakpower etc.

But his main success has been the super-popular sample-heavy Big Beat madness, that is Fatboy Slim. Tunes full of silly vocals, heavy drums, acid squeaks, and riffs from obscure Rock and Funk records.

As a DJ, he is pretty good (Amazing during 1996-1998, AKA the Boutique days), and his "On The Floor At The Boutique" CD is highly reccomended.

His productions however, While Better Living Through Chemistry is more underground-y, his most (in)famous album, You've Come A Long Way Baby is a must have for good crossover dance music.

As Big Beat's popularity declined when the 2000's kicked in, Fatboy became a refugee of the genre, and is one of the few artists (one of the others being collabarator Freddy Fresh) still making Big Beat today.

Overall, Nice guy, Good DJ and Great Producer

I remember seeing a Channel 4 show that featured the Housemartins in 1986, a band that norman cook played bass for (and had the top hit 'Happy Hour'). In the show Norman was always DJing in his bedroom and scratching and playing records, so i'll give him credit for his genuine interest.

When he ended up being Fatboy Slim i hated most of his shite, but i will say his remix of E.V.A. and Psyche Rock on (Métamorphose - Messe Pour Le Temps Présent) both are very good. Yeah sure the popular loop laden tracks aren't 'clever' or 'artistic' but they move something. And thats good.

I agree with the shameful graverobbing comment though - there are very few artists with the skill to take an old funk or soul sample and use it well, but then again, there are so many collectors out there with rare tracks that they've done nothing with except play them for their collector mates.

Why all the discussion about "You've Come A Long Way Baby"? Has everyone forgotten about "Better Living Through Chemistry"? In my opinion that was his best album. It seemed that each one after that became a little less listenable than the previous, mainly because the same type of formula/sound was used in each song. You knew pretty much what to expect from him, and what the song would sound like before you listened to it. Before anyone blows their stack, I'm not saying he's crap; Just past his sell by date. "Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars" and "Palookaville", pretty much sounded like weak rehashes of earlier albums with a slight attempt made to sound different, that just didn't, for lack of a better term, sound different... Although I still look forword to hearing his remixes, I can honestly say that I've purchased my last Fatboy Slim full lenght album.

The end goal of every artist is to be successful; unfortunately alot of people equate success to selling out. Well if your selling out every show you play then your doing something right. Good and bad are opinions, in my opinion Norman Cook is great at what he does and I for one like his music. In the end if you like what you hear you'll listen if you don't like it you can always turn the channel or turn it off.

I agree that 'You've Come A Long Way, Baby' is an excellent album. If people can't appreciate the talent of Norman Cook, and just what it takes to have the ability to make this music, that's their problem, not the artists'. Not everyone has the same taste in music, but to say that music is no good just because you don't like it is shameful in itself. Fatboy Slim is a great artist, producing a wide variety brilliant music.