Cook can’t wait to be right here
FATBOY SLIM IS BRINGING HIS BAG OF HITS DOWN UNDER
Even as he entertained his legion of fans around the globe from his UK home with his Fatboy Slim weekly mixtapes, Norman Cook felt his soul ripped out of his chest during the pandemic shutdown of gigs.
“I kind of had this sort of deal with whoever it is who’s in charge of these things. I’m like, ‘Look, please give me this back. I promise I’ll never moan about an airport ever again,” he says.
The deal worked, with Cook heading back to Australia next month for arena concerts and the Groovin The Moo regional festival.
Australia has been a happy place for Cook since the ’80s. His band the Housemartins had a hit with their cover of Caravan Of Love in the mid 1980s and then his next musical incarnation Beats International were inescapable on the airwaves here with Dub Be Good To Me in 1990.
But it has been his identity as the pioneering electronic artist, DJ and remixer Fatboy Slim that he has built an enduring community of fans in Australia via visits that ran like clockwork every two years before Covid.
The weird thing is that this time he is coming in autumn, when Cook has been an inveterate sunseeker on tour for decades.
“Normally I do one year in New Zealand and then the next year in Australia but that got out of whack (because of Covid),” he says.
“New Zealand was due next and you would have had to wait another year, so we decided to do both. And because I don’t want to be away from family too long, I’m doing them in two lots.”
The gypsy nature of being a DJ almost destroyed Cook in his hedonistic years. He had his problems with substance abuse but his dedication to family – now ex-wife, British radio personality Zoe Ball, and their children Woody and Nelly – prompted him to enter rehab in 2009 and he has been sober since.
“It was ritual self-abuse but I just did the drugs and rock’n’roll not the sex part – I was married for 18 years,” he says.
Cook was an instant club hero with his 1996 debut album Better Living Through Chemistry but it was his second record, You’ve Come A Long Way Baby, released in 1998, that made him a global pop star.
That album launched three monster hits that continue to soundtrack everything from sports matches to television commercials and are guaranteed to instantly fill a dancefloor – Right Here, Right Now, Rockafeller Skank and Praise You.
Evidence of their enduring appeal can also be found in the streaming era, where Praise You has more than 200 million streams on Spotify and is slated for a 2023 remake featuring Rita Ora for the TikTok generation.
His third record Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars, released in 2000, kept the hits rolling with Weapon Of Choice, the song propelled to classic status in popular culture courtesy of the video, directed by Spike Jonze and starring actor Christopher Walken dancing through a hotel.
Cook’s last Fatboy Slim “pop” album was Palookaville released almost two decades ago in 2004.
And while he still gets countless approaches to do remixes of the big hits, Cook is reluctant to do studio work, preferring the tour and gig life.
But he will do a remix for friends, like Idris Elba and Lime Cordiale – he did one for their single Holiday – or fellow veteran DJ Carl Cox, who is another honorary Australian, living half the year on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula.
“(Holiday) was just a labour of love for my old mucker Idris because when he calls, you don’t say no. He’s very persuasive that way,” Cook says.
“I tell most people that I’ve kind of retired now from production and remixing but every now and then, if it’s a mate I really love, I’ll do it. The last three things I’ve done have been for Idris, who’s a mate of mine, Carl, who’s one of my oldest friends and Dan East Everything, who’s sort of my current bromance.
“So, I’m only making tunes with friends that I love rather than doing it as a career. I kind of fell out of love with making records. Now my passion is DJing.”
As anyone who has ever been to a Fatboy Slim gig can attest, this madly energetic performer possesses the power to not only ignite a dancefloor into a sweaty, bouncing frenzy but to unite the musical tribes.
He remains in awe of the fact electronic music, which was a wholly underground scene when he first fell in love with playing and making it, has become one of the dominant pop genres.
“Back in the old days when we were playing small little clubs, that sense of tribe was possibly stronger because we were kind of outside normal society; when everybody sensible had gone to bed, we were these people who just stayed up late listening to this weird music which you couldn’t hear on the radio and back then there was no internet,” he says.
“Now, on a good night, there’s times on stage when I just feel the power of the unity and community in the crowd. And that is a very powerful thing.”
For all Fatboy Slim show and ticket details, visit frontiertouring.com
For Groovin’ The Moo tickets, visit gtm.net.au