Norman Cook

Norman Quentin Cook (born Quentin Leo Cook, 31 July 1963), also known as Fatboy Slim, is an English musician and DJ who helped popularise the big beat genre in the 1990s. His music makes extensive use of samples from eclectic genres, combined with pop structures, processed rhythms and "sloganistic" vocals.

In the 1980s, Cook was the bassist for the indie rock band the Housemartins, who achieved a UK number-one single with their cover of " Caravan of Love". After the Housemartins split, Cook moved to Brighton to pursue dance music. He formed the electronic group Beats International, who produced the number-one single " Dub Be Good to Me" in 1990, and played in the band Freak Power. He also released house records under names including Pizzaman and the Mighty Dub Katz.

In 1996, Cook released his first album as Fatboy Slim, '' Better Living Through Chemistry'', followed by successful remixes for Wildchild and Cornershop. His second album, ''You've Come a Long Way, Baby,'' was certified platinum and produced the successful singles "The Rockafeller Skank", " Praise You" and " Right Here, Right Now". ''Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars'' (2000) produced the single " Weapon of Choice", which won six awards at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards. The fourth Fatboy slim album, '' Palookaville'' (2004), was less successful, attributed to the declining popularity of dance music and a more obscure style. In 2009, Cook released an album as the Brighton Port Authority, a collaboration with artists including David Byrne. He collaborated with Byrne again on the album '' Here Lies Love'' (2010), a concept album that was adapted into a stage musical in 2013. In later years, Cook has focused on DJ performances over creating music.

Cook has a Grammy Award, nine MTV Video Music Awards, two Brit Awards, an Ivor Novello Award, and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Original Score for ''Here Lies Love'' in 2024. In 2023, he was awarded the Guinness world record for the most number-one singles by one musician as a member of different acts. Cook's marriage to the BBC presenter Zoe Ball was highly publicised.

Early life and education

Quentin Leo Cook was born on 31 July 1963 in Bromley in Kent, England, the youngest of three. His mother was a teacher in a hospital school, and his father was an environmentalist consultant who was appointed an Order of the British Empire for introducing bottle banks into the UK. His family belonged to the Kosmon faith, an obscure religious order.

Cook was raised in Reigate, Surrey, which he later described as a "suburban hell". He attended Reigate Grammar School, where he took violin lessons alongside the future prime minister Keir Starmer. At school, he became a fan of punk music and edited a punk fanzine. He adopted the name Norman when he was bullied for the name Quentin, which his classmates associated with the gay actor Quentin Crisp. He collected records and began DJing at 15.

At sixth form college, Cook met the songwriter Paul Heaton, with whom he formed a punk band, the Stomping Pond Frogs. He failed his A-level exams as he was focusing on playing music, and had to retake them. Cook moved to Brighton to attend Brighton Polytechnic from 1982 to 1985 and gained a 2:1 in British studies. In Brighton, he worked as a DJ and was taught how to mix by the DJ Carl Cox. He appeared as a porter in the music video for the 1982 song "Goody Two Shoes" by Adam Ant.

Career

1985–1988: the Housemartins

While Cook was in Brighton, Heaton formed a band, the Housemartins. When their original bassist quit in 1985, Cook moved to Hull to join them. Cook said he learned to play the bass guitar in about a week. In 1986, the Housemartins reached number one on the UK singles chart with a cover of the 1985 Isley-Jasper-Isley song " Caravan of Love".

Cook was frustrated playing "white English pop" in the Housemartins. He was interested in hip-hop and dance music, but felt it was inappropriate for a white English man to work in this genre, and that no one would take him seriously. He was uncomfortable with acts such as Level 42 or Simply Red, who he felt "kind of pretend to be black". While with the Housemartins, Cook began working on dance music using a TEAC 144 Portastudio and Roland S-10 synthesiser, with no intention of releasing it. He also created a megamix, "The Finest Ingredients", that was played by the BBC DJ John Peel.

1988–1995: Beats International, Freak Power and remixes

The Housemartins broke up in 1988. Heaton and the drummer, Dave Hemingway, went on to form the Beautiful South, and Cook returned to Brighton to pursue dance music. He invested in further equipment, including a mixing console, an eight-track reel-to-reel, an Atari ST computer, an Akai S950 sampler and, later, a Roland TB-303 synthesiser.

Cook released successful remixes such as "Blame It on the Bassline" with MC Wildski, which reached number 29 on the UK singles chart. He also formed a sound system collective, Beats International, with a collection of MCs and singers. Their single " Dub Be Good to Me" (1990) reached number one, but their second album, '' Excursion on the Version'' (1991), was a commercial failure.

After Beats International disbanded in 1992, Cook's marriage ended and he suffered a mental breakdown. According to Cook, he became a self-destructive workaholic, drank heavily and alienated his friends. When therapy was ineffective, he began self-medicating with ecstasy. Facing bankruptcy, he took work composing for a '' Smurfs'' video game.

Cook formed an acid jazz band, Freak Power, with musicians including the trombonist Ashley Slater, which released the successful 1993 single " Turn On, Tune In, Cop Out" on Island Records. Cook felt uncomfortable in the band, and recalled thinking on stage: "I'm a really crap guitarist. What am I doing here? I've spent the last 10 years getting pissed in nightclubs, learning how to DJ."

In 1993, Cook and John Reid formed the house duo Pizzaman. Their only album, ''Pizzamania'', produced three top-40 singles. Cook also released music as the Mighty Dub Katz, recording two or three tracks a week in his home studio. As Cook's record contract with Island forbade him from releasing or promoting music on other labels under his own name, he released them under aliases including Cheeky Boy, Sunny Side Up, Yum Yum Head Food and the Feelgood Factor, often on his own label, Southern Fried Records. Cook said "the names I choose always reflect the fact I don't take what I'm doing so seriously … I'm not scared to say: 'Look, this is me pretending to be someone else, so let's make this fun.'"

1995–1997: Fatboy Slim and ''Better Living Through Chemistry''

Cook adopted the stage name Fatboy Slim in 1995. He 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." Around this period, the house music label Loaded Records created a new imprint in Brighton, Skint Records. Its first record was the Fatboy Slim track "Santa Cruz" in 1995. It sold only 800 copies, but attracted attention in the underground dance music scene in the UK. Cook was surprised to hear "Santa Cruz" played at an event in London by the Chemical Brothers, then known as the Dust Brothers, and said it was "like meeting the rest of my long-lost family".

Cook co-founded a popular club night in Brighton, the Big Beat Boutique, where he played music from genres including northern soul, acid house, hip-hop and reggae, combined with breakbeats. The scene became the foundation of big beat music. Cook described it as a "very productive time", when acts such as Chemical Brothers, Death in Vegas, Monkey Mafia, Bentley Rhythm Ace and FC Kahuna were "breaking rules and feeding off each other".

Cook's friends encouraged him to make music similar to the style he was playing in his DJ sets. He released the first Fatboy Slim album, '' Better Living Through Chemistry,'' in 1996 on Skint. According to ''The Independent'', by 1997, Cook had become "part of an elite coterie of superstar DJs", who earned large fees to perform at international venues and were "guaranteed to fill dance floors from Manchester to Madrid".

1998–1999: ''You've Come a Long Way, Baby'' and international success

In 1998, Cook's remix of " Renegade Master" by Wildchild reached number three on the UK singles chart, and his remix of " Brimful of Asha" by Cornershop reached number one. Cook said the tracks represented a creative breakthrough: "That's when I was like, I've nailed it now, I've got the formula." He began receiving interest from artists such as Madonna and Robbie Williams. He turned down an offer from the Pet Shop Boys to produce their next album, as he liked their music but felt it did not suit his style.

For his second album,''You've Come a Long Way, Baby'' (1998), Cook aimed to create a coherent album using "all the ideas that had been brewing and fermenting" in the big beat scene. He created three successful singles in one week: "The Rockafeller Skank", " Praise You" and " Right Here, Right Now". "Praise You" was the first Fatboy Slim UK number-one single, and its music video, directed by Spike Jonze, won numerous awards. On 9 September 1999, Cook performed "Praise You" at the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards in New York City and won three awards, including Breakthrough Video. Four days later, ''You've Come a Long Way, Baby'' was certified platinum. That year, Cook won the Brit Award for Best British Dance Act.

Fatboy Slim tracks were used extensively in adverts, film and television. Cook said: "I make a certain kind of instrumental music they like using. You can hear 15 seconds of my stuff and it makes complete sense." In 1999, he married the BBC presenter Zoe Ball, triggering attention from the tabloid media.

2000–2003: ''Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars'' and Brighton beach

In 2000, dance music was at peak popularity, controlling 13.3% of the album charts. Cook was a key figure in the rising popularity of club culture in the UK, along with acts such as Chemical Brothers, Basement Jaxx, Underworld, Groove Armada and Leftfield.

In 2000, Cook released his third Fatboy Slim album, ''Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars'', featuring collaborations with Macy Gray and Bootsy Collins. Cook said he attempted to created a less radio-friendly album, saying: "I'm much happier at number nine in the charts than at number one because you're still top ten but it's a lot less work and stress." The video for " Weapon of Choice", directed by Spike Jonze and featuring Christopher Walken dancing through a hotel, won six awards at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards. Cook earned the Guinness world records for the most MTV Video Awards won by a DJ and the most MTV Video Awards won for a single video. The album also included " Sunset (Bird of Prey)", whose video used the 1964 " Daisy Girl" campaign ad. In the same year, Cook released ''The Fatboy Slim'' ''/ Norman Cook Collection'', a compilation of his remixes from the 1980s and early 90s.

In 2001, Cook held a free beach concert, Big Beach Boutique, in Brighton. It followed a screening of a cricket match organised by Channel 4, and was attended by around 60,000 people. The set was released as the 2002 album '' Live on Brighton Beach''. By 2002, according to the ''Daily Telegraph'', Fatboy Slim was the "world's biggest DJ". That July, he played a second free concert on Brighton beach, Big Beach Boutique II. It was attended by around 250,000 people, four times more than expected. Local authorities were severely underprepared, which led to more than 170 injuries and six arrests. Two people died in the hours after the concert. The cleanup operation lasted days and cost over £300,000, with 160 tonnes of rubbish collected from the beach. However, Cook was supported by Brighton residents. The Brighton newspaper '' The Argus'' printed a supplement to publish the letters supporting him, and BBC Southern Counties Radio received many positive calls.

In 2001, Cook won his second Brit Award for Best British Dance Act. Cook released a live album and DVD of the Brighton beach performance, '' Big Beach Boutique II'', in 2003. He contributed production to " Crazy Beat" and "Gene by Gene" on the 2003 Blur album ''Think Tank.''

2004–2008: ''Palookaville''

By 2004, dance music was in commercial decline, replaced by a resurgence of guitar bands. That year, Cook released his fourth album, '' Palookaville''. It sold far fewer copies than his previous albums, which Cook credited to its more obscure musical style. Cook said he was "happy to take my foot off the gas for a bit" and receive less tabloid attention.

After the ''Big Beach Boutique II'' DVD became a bestseller in Brazil, Cook played to an estimated 360,000 people in Rio in 2004. He returned many times in the following years, and performed on the reality TV show '' Big Brother Brasil'' in 2005. His 2007 tour was released on DVD as ''Adventures'' ''in Brazil''.

In June 2005, Cook filled the Friday night headline slot on the Other Stage at the Glastonbury Festival. In June 2006, he played a headline performance at the RockNess festival on the shores of Loch Ness. '' The Greatest Hits – Why Try Harder'' was released that month, including the new tracks "Champion Sound" and " That Old Pair of Jeans".

On New Year's Day, 2007, Cook held another performance on Brighton beach, Big Beach Boutique 3. Tickets were only available to residents of Brighton and Hove, capped at 20,000. Big Beach Boutique 4 took place on September 27, 2008, with the same ticket procedures.

2008–2012: the Brighton Port Authority and ''Here Lies Love''

In 2008, Cook remixed the track "Amazonas" for the charity Bottletop. That year, Cook formed a virtual band, the Brighton Port Authority, featuring Iggy Pop, David Byrne, Dizzee Rascal, Martha Wainwright and Ashley Beedle. They released an album, '' I Think We're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat'', in 2009. Cook produced two tracks on ''The Revolution'' ''Presents'', a 2009 compilation album by various Cuban musicians. He said later: "I'm not Paul Simon – I'm not the world's best musical ambassador, it wasn't my forte."

In 2008, Cook played at Glastonbury Festival, the O2 Wireless Festival, Rockness Festival and Coachella. He played an unadvertised concert at Glastonbury 2009, and headlined the east dance stage at Glastonbury 2010. Cook collaborated with Byrne again on '' Here Lies Love'' (2010), a concept album about the life of the Philippines First Lady Imelda Marcos. A musical based on the album premiered in 2013 at the Public Theater in New York City, and opened on Broadway in 2023.

In the 2010s, as EDM grew in popularity worldwide, Cook began performing more frequently in the United States. 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. In 2011, he received PRS for Music award for Outstanding Contribution to Music at the Ivor Novello Awards. On 30 May, he was the headliner at Movement Electronic Music Festival in Detroit. He played headlined Bestival on the Isle of Wight on 11 September.

Cook performed "Right Here, Right Now" and "The Rockefeller Skank" at the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony in London. On 1 September, he performed at Brighton Pride. In March 2012, Cook hosted a one-hour radio programme, ''On The Road To Big Beach Bootique 5'', on XFM. It consisted of 10 shows.

2013—present: singles and performances

In 2013, Cook performed at Ultra Music Festival in Miami. On 6 March 2013, Cook became the first DJ to perform at the House of Commons in Westminster, London, in aid of the Last Night a DJ Saved My Life Foundation, which encourages young people to become involved in their communities. Cook said later that it was a "milestone" to perform there years after the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, which clamped down on raves: "Isn't it brilliant that finally we've wormed our way into the public's consciousness to the extent that we're not seen as a bunch of drug-taking anarchists any more? Dance music is here to stay."

In 2013, Cook released " Eat, Sleep, Rave, Repeat", with Riva Starr and Beardyman, which reached number three in the UK and introduced Fatboy Slim to younger audiences. Supported by a remix from Scottish DJ Calvin Harris, it topped the UK Dance Chart that year. Cook contributed to ''Bem Brasil'', a 2014 compilation of Brazilian music remixed by various DJs and producers. In 2015, he received the Alumnus Award from the University of Brighton for his contribution to the music industry and support for the university.

As of 2015, Cook was performing about 70 DJ sets a year, and declined many opportunities to perform more. He said he was not interested in further fame or success, and said: "Nowadays I'd rather go sideways than up. I don't want to do things on a bigger scale. I want to do things that are interesting." On 15 May 2016, he played a private two-hour set "Baby Loves Disco" for preschool children and their parents during the Brighton Fringe. At Glastonbury 2016, he played the John Peel stage for the first time. In 2017, he released the single "Where U Iz".

At a concert in Gateshead, England, in October 2019, Cook performed a mashup of his track "Right Here, Right Now" and Greta Thunberg's speech at the United Nations, which went viral. Cook made a cameo as a DJ in the 2019 satire film ''Greed,'' and played himself in the third series of the Channel 4 sitcom '' Derry Girls'', broadcast in 2022.During the COVID-19 lockdowns, Cook posted mixes online and worked at the cafe he owns in Hove. He said: "It was interesting, because I've never done an honest job for years. It kept me sane, really." In May 2021, he performed in Liverpool as part of the government's trials to restart mass audience events following the COVID-19 pandemic. In June 2022, Cook gave lessons in DJ equipment as part of an NHS initiative to create art events for people with mental health problems. In July, the 20th anniversary of Big Beach Boutique II, Cook headlined the On the Beach festival in Brighton.

Cook collaborated with the British singer Rita Ora on the 2023 single " Praising You", a reworking of his track "Praise You". In June, Cook played again at Glastonbury Festival, and played the song "Insomnia" by Faithless as a tribute to the Faithless singer, Maxi Jazz. That October, he was awarded the Guinness World Record for the most number-one singles by one musician as a member of different acts. He also performed a secret gig at the Prince Albert pub in Brighton to support its campaign against property development in the North Laine.

In June 2024, Cook released a new single featuring the vocalist Dan Diamond, "Role Model". The music video, his first in nearly 20 years, features celebrities edited with deepfake technology, such as David Bowie, Bill Murray and Muhammad Ali. That December, Cook said he had lost interest in creating music and was focusing on DJ performances.

Style

Cook pioneered the 1990s electronic genre big beat, which ''Sound on Sound'' likened to a " pop art-styled collage" of samples. The ''Pitchfork'' writer Brad Shoup described ''You've Come A Long Way, Baby'' as "pure pop", unlike the stranger or harsher music of other big beat acts such as the Chemical Brothers or the Prodigy. Another ''Pitchfork'' critic, Marc Hogan, characterised the Fatboy Slim formula as "eclectic samples, sloganistic vocal snippets, and an all-around drunken good-time spirit". ''DJ Mag'' wrote that Cook created "big brash party tunes for big communal occasions" and was a "showman" and entertainer. Cook said he differentiated himself from other dance musicians by using traditional songwriting structures, such as verses, choruses and middle eights, to arrange "dance floor ingredients ... in a manner that the human brain would associate with pop music".

Cook estimated that most of his tracks contained only 20% original material, with some containing none at all, and said he was proud of creating music that did not resemble the acts he sampled. He avoided sampling hit songs, which he said would be "like shooting fish in a barrel". Instead, he would buy used vinyl records and sample vocal and drum parts, creating a library of sounds. Cook said his approach was to "take the best bits out of all the music you've grown up with – the Beatles, punk, rap and acid house – and you have an attractive and accessible package". He said he was unable to write traditional songs.

Most Fatboy Slim tracks are assembled from samples combined with synthesiser lines from a Roland TB-303 and parts played on a Studio Electronics keyboard. Cook manipulated samples through methods such as time-stretching and distortion. He creates drum tracks by sampling individual drum hits from vinyl break beats, then programming new patterns. On most tracks, he has two drum parts playing simultaneously: one "modern and crisp and clean-sounding" and another "older and dirtier" with less "punch". Cook continued using the same equipment even as more sophisticated hardware and software emerged. He began using a MacBook with Ableton Live, but found the lack of limits and no opportunity to "bend the rules" made the process less exciting.

Cook said he had never created overtly political music, and that when he tried to make "angry" music it "comes out slightly light-hearted ... so it's about the party and the rhythm". He took accusations that he had "made dance music for people who don't like dance music" as a compliment, saying he made it more accessible. He said his music was for "people who do shit jobs all week and on Friday and Saturday nights they get to be glamorous and exciting ... My music is for the hips not the head... It's not supposed to be dissected by journalists, you're not supposed to sit at home with the lyric sheet wondering what they mean, reading the sleeve notes."

Cook performs in Hawaiian shirts with no shoes, and said: "I decided I had to be like James Brown without the band. I started cheerleading the crowd and showing off." He believes DJs should communicate with the crowd through their expressions and body language and respond to them, and said: "The more the crowd give me back, the more I wanna give them and it becomes a cycle of nonsense – sometimes to ludicrous extremes." He described Jon Carter and Carl Cox as DJs he learned from and whose stage styles he adopted. He resisted pressure from record companies to perform with live musicians, as he felt the appeal of his music was in "the grit and character" of the samples, and to recreate them would be "like hearing a wedding covers band".

Personal life

Cook's first marriage, to a nurse, ended in the early 1990s. Cook met the BBC presenter Zoe Ball in Ibiza in 1998. They married in 1999 and had their first child in 2000. Their relationship attracted extensive tabloid attention, and Cook said he was a victim of the News International phone hacking scandal. ''The Independent'' described them as "the It Couple (or, one of them) of Cool Britannia". Cook and Ball separated in 2003, but reconciled and had a second child in 2010. As of 2004, they lived on Western Esplanade in Hove. On 24 September, 2016, Cook and Ball announced their separation after 18 years.

For several years, Cook used drugs including cocaine, ecstasy and ketamine, and performed while intoxicated. After the birth of his first child, he worried that his drug use affected his relationships. On 4 March 2009, Cook checked into a rehabilitation centre in Bournemouth for alcoholism. His performance at Snowbombing, a week-long winter sports and music festival held in the Austrian ski resort of Mayrhofen, was cancelled, with the slot filled by 2ManyDJs. Cook left the clinic at the end of March. As of 4 March 2022, he had been sober for 13 years. Cook said performing sober gave him stage fright for the first time.

In 2002, Cook changed his name by deed poll to Norman Quentin Cook. In the same year, he purchased a 12% share in Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club, which he has supported since moving to Brighton in the 1980s. In June 2013, Cook opened the Big Beach Cafe in Hove in a property previously owned by Heather Mills, and worked there during the COVID-19 lockdowns. He also owned a Japanese restaurant Brighton, Oki-Nami, and the Spotted Pig, a Michelin-starred gastropub in New York City that closed in 2016. He collects objects bearing the smiley symbol, and in 2019 he curated a smiley exhibition in Lisbon with the Portuguese artist Vhils.

Awards and nominations

Discography

* '' Better Living Through Chemistry'' (1996)
* ''You've Come a Long Way, Baby'' (1998)
* ''Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars'' (2000)
* '' Palookaville'' (2004)

References

External links

*
*
*
*

{{Authority control

1963 births
Living people
Astralwerks artists
English electronic musicians
English record producers
Musicians from Brighton and Hove
DJs from Brighton and Hove
DJs from London
English dance musicians
English house musicians
English house DJs
20th-century English bass guitarists
British male bass guitarists
English male film score composers
English football chairmen and investors
People educated at Reigate Grammar School
British trip hop musicians
Alumni of the University of Brighton
Electronica musicians
Brit Award winners
Grammy Award winners
MTV Europe Music Award winners
Ivor Novello Award winners
NME Awards winners
The Housemartins members
English remixers
Musicians from the London Borough of Bromley
People from Bromley
People from Hove
People from Reigate
Big beat musicians
Musicians from Surrey