Norman Cook aka Fat Boy Slim
Новые поп звёзды появляются
каждый день, когда они держатся на
пике славы годами, то становятся
действительно популярными и получают
огромные гонарары, на которые
покупают дорогостоящие машины и
виллы на морском побережье. Всего
этого не происходит и пока, к
сожалению, не может произойти в мире
сравнительно новой Big Beat музыки
и DJства.
Норман Кук вовлечен в мир Big
Beat'а при этом всё более и более
переходя в разряд поп звезды. Он мог
бы жить как король, но ему этого не нужно, он находится в
мире DJства и ночных вечеринок и больше ему ничего не надо.
Он родился в Брайтоне, и приехал в большой город, чтобы
заниматься музыкой и через 15 лет после упорной и кропотливой
работы завоевал всеобщее признание.
Он начал свою карьеру
музыканта как басист в брит-поп
группе "The Housemartins" в
начале 80-х. В этом коллективе
ему не суждено было долго играть
и вскоре Норман Кук, двигаясь в
электронном направлении, основал
свою собственную группу "Beats
International". Участие в этих
группах его подвело вплотную к
миру танцевальной музыки,
выпустив синглы под именами
"Freakpower", "Mighty Dub Katz",
"Pizzaman", "Norman Cook Presents Wildski", и "Fried Funk
Food". Его композиции становились лучшими в хит парадах, и
каждый раз он выпускал свои синглы под разными именами.
Композиции "Caravan of Love" с группой "The Housemartins" and
"Dub Be Good To Me" c "Beats International" занимали первые
места в английских чартах.
Время шло и в начале 1996го года
Норман Кук выпустил новый альбом "Better
Living Through Chemistry" . Название
альбома было взято из рекламных слов
1950го года, провозглашающих то, что
слишком активные дети должны были быть
успокоены при помощи больших доз валиума.
В создании этого альбома помимо самого
Нормана Кука участвовали также и
легендарные "Chemical Brothers", которые
собственно и собрали из различных разрозненных композиций
Кука полноценный альбом. Этот альбом стал гимном нового
поколения. Он - воплощение мира, теряющего голову,
пробуждающегося посреди ночи, выбивая последние мозги и
поднимающего голову из химического туалета. Композиции этого
альбома были выполненны в различных стилях: фанк, соул, техно
и лучшие джазовые ритмы 60-70х годов. Этот альбом конечно же
вошел в мировую коллекцию электронной музыки, как один из
лучших экземпляров.
В 1998 выходит новый альбом "The
Rockafeller Skank". Он прозвучал, как
гром среди ясного неба, никто его не
ожидал, но он получился, получился так,
что вот уже целый год с мая 98го,
композиции с этого альбома не сходят со
строчек всех без исключения
хит-парадов. "The Rockafeller Skank" -
не просто динамит, который взорвется и
потухнет - это вещь, которая будет
очень долго будоражить умы слушателей
своим качеством и энергетической мощью.
Первоначально альбом был выпущен
преимущественно для танц-полов, но
вскоре превратился в действительно
народный. За всем начиная от "Right
Here Right Now" и заканчивая "The
Rockafeller Skank" стоял Норман Кук и его желание написать
что-нибудь выдающиеся, что-нибудь, что не будет похоже ни на
что. И действительно, Норман создал очень яркий и
экспрессивный диск, который по признанию публики стал лучшим
альбомом года.
Кук и его маленькая студия в родном городе Брайтоне
помогли такому направлению, как Big Beat проникнуть в самые
отдалённые уголки нашего мира и, благодаря ему широкие массы
народа, устремились в ещё неизведанный мир хоповой музыки.
И еще биография с оффициального сайта !!!
"Even 'Norman' is a pseudonym (his real name's Quentin)"
UPDATED APRIL 2000!!!
Who is Fatboy Slim?
Jump
to a specific section, or continue reading
below....
Beats International (1990-92) [Dub be good to me]
Freakpower (1994/5 + 1996/7 + 1998)
Pizzaman (1995)
Mighty Dub Katz (1997)
Fatboy Slim (1997-2000)
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 Ago
Pizzaman / 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 Future
Fatboy 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?
Hope you enjoyed me sharing all this with you guys. This
is all my own personal work, representing a
large amount of effort & research, and as such is protected
under the usual international copyright
laws. Unauthorised copying/retransmission is a violation
of this copyright. If you would like to
add/change anything, congratulate
me, send me money, or just thank me, mail
ash@bedrooms.demon.co.uk. At the mo I need to know whether
the Mighty Dub Katz are Norman
Cook, or whether he just did a remix of the track.......
Any other anecdotes or other info much
appreciated. All my love - trAsh...
Mail ash@bedrooms.demon.co.uk with/for info :)
╘ Copyright Ashley Payne 1997-2000
"I could murder a curry.... (Everybody loves a vindaloo....)"
Lyrics!!
Remember, everyone hears something different....
(+ many more lyrics to come....)
Rockafella
Skank
Right
about now, the funk soul brother. Check it out now, the funk
soul brother
Gangsta
Trippin'
--> On
the Intro - We gotta, we gotta, we gotta, we gotta get dat gangsta shit,
come
on!
We gotta
get dat gangsta shit - come on! We gotta get dat gangsta shit come on,
we
gotta
get dat, get dat gangsta shit
We gotta
get dat gangsta shit, come on, we gotta get dat gansta shit, comeon, we
gotta
get dat shit, get dat shit, get dat shit (woo haa...) come on, come on....
--> Throughout the song - We gotta get dat gangsta shit - come-on!
-->
In the foreground - What we doin' when the? What we doin' when the?
What we
doin'
when the Fatboy's slippin'?
Praise You
We've
come a long, long way together... Thru the bad times - and
the good. I have
to celebrate
you baby. I have to praise you like I should...
Kalifornia
Main chant
= Kalifornia - is Druggy Druggy Druggy Druggy
(this is
actually Norman shouting into a vocoder...)
MANY MORE LYRICS ON THE WAY!!!
Discography
Beats International
"Let them Eat Bingo"
1990 Go-Beat Record
Features Number 1
single "Dub be good to me".
Produced by Norman Cook.
Tracks co-written by Norman Cheesy
late 80's style. Some 'songs', some 'tracks'
Beats International
"Excursion on the Version"
1991
Go-Beat Records
No big hits fromthis album. Big 'ragga' theme.
VERY cheesy. The first 3 tracks on
the album are priceless (but
still cheesy). The rest of the album
is hard to listen to and highly outdated
Freakpower
"Drive Thru Booty"
1994/5 Island Records
Material was allegedly originally written
for a third Beats International album.
Proper 'songs', this album generally found its
way into the AcidJazz arena,
although singer Ashley Slater would
tend to disagree with this category. A good album
Pizzaman
"Pizzamania"
Loaded Records 1995
Norman dons 'house' gear once again to
become 'pizzaman'. This project is possibly well
described as 'Fatboy Slim does Happy House'. Many
similarities to Fatboy Slim, but also v. different
Freakpower
"More of Everything for Everybody"
Island Records 1996
Second album for band Freakpower.
Much more consistent style.
Great songwriting. A very positive album.
Difficultto put in a genre tho.
Norman produces and co-writes the songs.
Fatboy Slim
"Better Living thru Chemistry"
Skint Records 1996 (UK edition)
Off the back of
Skint records,
Norman decides that
no-one is making
the records he
wants to spin at
his notorious
house-parties. So
he goes into the
studio for 2 weeks
and comes out with
this album.
Fatboy Slim
"Better Living Thru Chemistry"
Astralwerks / Caroline
Records 1997 (USA edition)
American version
hits the streets
some time later
(about a year) thru
US distributer
Astralwerks. With
2 bonus tracks for
added value.
Freakpower
No Way (single)
1998 Deconstruction
Records
Potentially
described as
'Fatboy Slim with
proper Lyrics'.
Unfortunately this
single never made
it to the top.
Co-written and
produced by
Norman. Should
have been
re-released more
recently off the
back of the Fatboy
Slim success.
Mighty Dub Katz
1997
(I require more info
on this group, If you
have any, email
ash@bedrooms.demon.co.uk
)
Not sure whether
Norman remixed a
few tracks or wrote
them or even if he
was a 'band
member'. However,
Magic Carpet Ride
was a big Ibiza
anthem.
Remixes:
Wildchild :
Renegade Master 98
Cornershop:
Brimful of Asha
(piccie left)
Freddy Fresh:
Badder Badder Schwing
Bootsy Collins:
Party Lick-a-bles
Groove Armada:
I see You baby (shakin
that 'ass)
Beastie Boys:
Body Movin'
There are a load of
remixes - both
recently and ages
old. I can't
recall the most
recent ones tho.
email me if you
have them...
<picture to be
added>
Fatboy Slim:
"You've come a long way baby"
Skint/Astralwerks
1998
Special edition was
released in the UK
featuring some
'rare B-Sides'.
Special edition in
Australia with
'Bonus Tracks'
The Fatboy
Slim/Norman Cook
Collection
2000
POOR POOR POOR!!
Do not reccomend
you purchase this
unless you
desperately want
one of the tracks
on it.
This disc is
basically made up
of a load of filler
tunes going right
back to Beats
international.
Maybe some of you
will like it, but
its hardly
'ground-breaking'.
TRY before you
buy...
Contact me on ash@bedrooms.demon.co.uk with / for info
When Norman Cook was working on the second Fat Boy Slim
album he called it 'Viva The Underachiever'. Then he
realised he wasn't an under achiever anymore, so he decided
on 'Lets Hear It For The Little Guy'. But he wasn't a little
guy, either, so he ended up with 'You've Come A Long Way,
Baby'. In the months since it was released, he's come a
whole lot further.
Modesty and unexpected success have always gone hand in hand
for Norman Cook. In the middle of the Eighties he became the
bassist for Hull Indie band the Housemartins as a favour. It
turned into
his first taste of pop stardom (number one with 'Caravan Of
Love'), but
his heart, much to his bandmates' disapproval, lay in dance
music. When
the Housemartins split, he formed Beats International and had
another Number
One ('Dub Be Good To Me') in 1990 but they fell apart too.
Two difficult
years later, he had his first taste of clubbing and , high
on hope, tried
again. Freakpower, his acid funk band, scored a top ten
with the Levi's-championed
'Turn In Tune In Drop Out' while away from the
pressures
of touring and chart-watching he reinvented himself again and
again. As
Pizzaman, Mighty Dub Kats and Fried Funk Food he covered
everything
from cheesy house to blunted trip hop, but one thing remained
constant:
it had to be fun.
When Fatboy
Slim's debut single, 'Santa Cruz', kick started the Skint
label in 1995,
Norman wouldn't admit that he was the man behind it. After
all, Fatboy
Slim was just a laugh. Freakpower was his day job. Or so he
thought. The
second Freakpower album was inspired but it was also ignored,
so Norman
gave up trying to be a pop star and retreated to his studio
again. Meanwhile
in London, clubs like the Heavenly Social and Big Kahuna
Burger were
having similar ideas about combining the best bits from house,
hip hop, rock
and soul into a party-rocking hybrid. As Norman discovered
when he drove
to London to investigate, one of the anthems they were
playing was
'Santa Cruz'.
As more Fatboy
Slim records followed - 'Everybody Loves A 303', 'Punk To
Funk' and
the debut album, 'Better Living Through Chemistry' - Norman, his
flat mate
Gareth Hansome and Skint boss Damian Harris decided to give
Brighton's
like-minded party crowd a more permanent venue than Norman's
house (popularly
known as the House Of Love). They called it the Big Beat
Boutique and
as resident Norman played records linked only by their
capacity to
put a big stupid grin on your face.
By the end
of 1997 Norman was the undisputed king of big beat, remixing
everyone from
Jean-Jacques Perrey to Stretch & Vern, making it to Number
33 in the
charts with his sambatastic remix of "Everybody Loves A 303" and
having the
time of his life. But he wasn"t a pop star. Not, that is, until
he remixed
Wildchild's 'Renegade Master' (a tribute to the late Roger
McKenzie)
and Cornershop's 'Brimful Of Asha' (he wanted to DJ with it but
had to make
a dancefloor-friendly version). He didn't charge a penny for
either, but
they put his name on the map nonetheless. Wildchild hit the
top of the
chart and Cornershop (who didn't even make the Top 40 with the
original version)
went to Number One as well. Norman's midas touch
obviously
hadn't deserted him.
You could call
'The Rockafeller Skank' surf-hop. You could, like Norman,
call it 'Hawaii
5-0 on acid'. Or you could just call it the anthem of the
year. Like
so many classic pop records, it never made it to Number One on
its release
last June, but its deliriously infectious refrain - 'Right
about now,
the funk soul brother' - indelibly etched itself onto the
brains of
everyone who heard it. Since then, Des Lynam has recited it on
Radio 1, Ross
has played it on Friends and USA Today has decreed it single
of the year.
Triumphant DJing expeditions to Glastonbury, America and
Ibiza followed
in the summer, and it was in Ibiza that he met, and soon
fell in love
with, Radio 1 DJ Zoe Ball. Their wedding or, as Gareth
Hansome puts
it, 'a big party with a wedding attached', took place this
summer. His
mix album, "On The Floor At The Boutique" was a resounding
success. When
"Gangster Tripping", the second single, went to Number 2 in
September,
its sales outstripped even 'The Rockafeller Skank'.
The album,
meanwhile, became a phenomenon. After weeks in the Top Ten it
finally made
it to Number One in the week of the Brits, fending off golden
boy Robbie,
and has now sold 3 million copies worldwide, 1 million in the
UK alone.
So far this year Norman has won a Brit award for best dance act
and further
gongs from, amongst others, Q, NME, GQ and Muzik. He's also
played in
New Zealand and Australia (where an impressed Courtney Love was
switched on
to dance music by his set) and sold out a headline DJ gig at
Brixton Academy.
'Praise You', the single released in January went
straight to
Number One (and boasting a fabulous video from the legendary
Spike Jonze)
and 'Right Here, Right Now' followed it into the Top Ten in
April, bolstered
by its appearance in an Adidas ad. So let's get this
straight.
Norman is living in a beautiful beach front house and married to
Zoe Ball.
He's the biggest dance artist in the world and he's a pop star
all over again.
Norman was right. "Viva The Underachiever" would have
looked a bit
daft.
BRASSIC 9
Various Artists
On The Floor
At The Boutique - Mixed By Fatboy Slim
CD Brassic
9CD
MC Brassic
9MC
Michael Viner's
Incredible Bongo Band - Apache
Fred Wesley
& The Horny Horns - Discositdown
Clockwork
Voodoo Freaks - Deaf Mick's Throwdown
Jungle Brothers
- Because I Got It Like That
Bassbin Twins
- Vol 1 Side 2 Track 2
Mr Natural
- That Green Jesus
Deeds Plus
Thoughts - The World's Made Up Of This And That (Fatboy Slim
Mix)
Fatboy Slim
- Michael Jackson
DJ Tonka -
Phun-Ky
Cut And Paste
- Forget It
Buzz Thrill
- Everybody In The House
CLS - Can
You Feel It?
Aldo Bender
- Acid Enlightenment
Christopher
Just - I'm A Disco Dancer
Hardknox -
Psychopath
Cirrus - Break
In
Psychedeliasmith
- Give Me My Auger Back
Cut La Roc
- Post Punk Progression
Fatboy Slim
- The Rockafeller Skank
SKINT 1
Fatboy Slim
Santa Cruz
12" Skint 1
Santa Cruz
Weekend Bonus
Beats
The Weekend
Starts Here
Neal Cassady
Starts Here
First heard
very early one Sunday morning round at Fatboy's shack that
backs on to
the railroad, we sat there chewin' bacca as Slim wacked a tape
on. The train
lines hummed as the sublime opening chords drifted over us,
when the thrashing
guitars and beats kicked in we knew we were starting on
a long and
beautiful journey (hello?). As the guitars came out of the
muffled haze
and got closer and closer so did the train, 'Hey, where's
that train
a'headin' Fatboy', he paused for a minute and without taking
his eyes of
the sunrise replied 'Santa Cruz'. We were ready to go.
SKINT 6
Fatboy Slim
Everybody
Needs A 303
12" Skint 6
CD Skint 6CD
12"
Everybody
Needs A 303
Lincoln Memorial
We Really
Want To See These Fingers
CD
Everybody
Needs A 303
Santa Cruz
We Really
Want To See These Fingers
An absolutely
enormous record that was loved and cherished by.....well
everyone and
their auntie really. A "Your money back if it doesn't fill
your dancefloor"
tune with the ridiculously slow Lincoln Memorial and the
ridiculously
noisy 'We Really Want To See Those Fingers' on the other
side. If you're
wondering why the word 'Needs' is underlined on the back
of "Better
Living Through Chemistry" LP, it's because the track was
accidentally
labelled with 'Loves', you see. Old Fatboy got a bit miffed
about this
simple typographical error, so we told him to shut up and get
back in the
studio.
SKINT 12
Fatboy Slim
Punk To Funk
12" Skint
12
CD Skint 12CD
Punk To Funk
Knuf Of Knup
Big Beat Souffle
Third release
from Monsieur Slim had the nation guessing, "where's that
bloody tune
from?", they were asking themselves on street corners and in
laundrettes
across the country. A lot of people thought it was 'The Big
Match', even
more thought it was 'It's A Knockout'. It was actually from
'Young Scene'
by Keith Mansfield, so hopefully the nation can sleep easy
now. On the
other side of the single was the nasty and noisy 'Big Beat
Souffle' that
kicks arse like a donkey on heat . (Now I'm not sure if a
donkey on
heat kicks any harder than a donkey that isn't, but I thought
I'd use some
poetic licence.) This single was also a precursor to 'Better
Living Through
Chemistry' - that wonderful album.
SKINT 19
Fatboy Slim
Going Out
Of My Head/ Michael Jackson
12" Skint 19
CD Skint 19CD
Going Out of
My Head
Michael Jackson
Next To Nothing
This was the
fourth 12" of Normans that we released.. which all appeared
on 'Better
Living Through Chemistry'. Now before anyone pulls us up for
over milking
stuff, this release contained two brand new tracks, 'Michael
Jackson' and
'Next To Nothing' which in our book spells V.A.L.U.E. Just
imagine twatting
Westlife doing something like that, eh? It was about this
time we started
getting paranoid that we might be selling out.
SKINT 31
Fatboy Slim
Everybody
Needs A 303 - The Remixes
12" Skint 31
CD1 Skint
31CD
CD2 Skint
31XCD
12"
Everybody
Needs A 303
Everybody
Loves A Carnival
Everybody
Loves A Filter
Es Paradis
CD1
Everybody
Needs A 303 (Original Radio edit)
Everybody
Needs A 303 (Original 12" Mix)
Everybody
Loves A Carnival
Neal Cassay
Starts Here
CD2
Everybody
Loves A Carnival (Radio Edit)
Everybody
Loves A Filter
Es Paradis
Where You're
At
It was due to massive public demand... no really.
SKINT 35
Fatboy Slim
The Rockafeller
Skank
12" Skint 35
CD Skint 35CD
MC Skint 35MC
12"
The Rockafeller
Skank
Always Read
The Label
Tweakers Delight
CD
The Rockafeller
Skank (Short Edit)
The Rockafeller
Skank
Always Read
The Label
Tweakers Delight
MC
The Rockafeller
Skank (Short Edit)
Tweakers Delight
This was the
first track we released from 'You've Come A Long Way, Baby' .
If you're
interested it went in the UK charts at No 6 on the week when all
the World
Cup singles came out, and was in the charts for 10 weeks or
something
ridiculous, it also set up Fatboy as something of a worldwide
superstar,
what with it being a bit of an international hit and all that.
It's fair
to say that things were never the same after this release...
When the original
tape came in it was fairly obvious that it was a good
song, it only
really dawned on us how good when Norman played an acetate
of it at The
Boutique, people were singing along after 30 seconds and when
it reached
the screech it was mayhem. In a film version of the Skint story
Norman &
myself would have high-fived as we looked over the writhing
masses...
but we didn't.
SKINT 39
Fatboy Slim
Gangster Trippin'
12" Skint 1
12" Skint 39
CD Skint 39CD
MC Skint 39MC
12" & CD
Gangster Trippin
The World Went Down
Jack It Up (Dj Delite)
MC
Gangster Trippin
The World Went Down
The second single
to be released off the album and came in the first batch
of demos for the
album. A bit of a departure in that the tracks relatively
slow. The 'Fatboy
Trippin' sample comes from a tune by the Dust Junkys and
it nearly sparked
concerns that Fatboy was getting obsessed with putting
his own name into
tunes, then I thought about it for a bit and realised
that if found any
references to my name I'd whack them in straight away,
so that was that.
SKINT 42
Fatboy Slim
Praise You
12" Skint 42
CD Skint 42CD
MC Skint 42MC
12" & CD
Praise You
Sho' Nuff
The Rockafeller
Skank Mulder Remix
MC
Praise You
Sho' Nuff
Lovely tune, the
3rd single from the album, and our first ever number one
single. Released
at the begining of 1999 this is a pianoey midtempo
chugger with a superb
piece of singing lifted from an old soul record by
Camilla Yarborough
called 'Take Yo Praise' if you want to track it down -
and it's worth it-
you can find it on a couple of compilation albums of
old soul & funk
rarities. Anyway, there we were thinking this Fatboy Slim
thing was was all
going a bit mad and then this happened...
SKINT 46
Fatboy Slim
Right Here, Right
Now
12" Skint 46
CD Skint 46CD
MC Skint 46MC
12" & CD
Right Here, Right
Now
Don't Forget Your
Teeth
Praise You (Original
Version)
MC
Right Here, Right
Now
Don't Forget Your
Teeth
The joke round the
office is that this is Norman trying to do 'Epic Big
Beat', actually
we only really mentioned that so someone might ask him
about in an interview
in order to watch him wriggle out of it. Obviously
the term 'Epic Big
Beat' offends us greatly but it does have an excellent
epicy string sort
of intro and then guess what comes in, well, fuck me, if
it isn't a big old
beat anyway. It then chugs along, breaks down, builds
up again, kicks
in, chugs along again, ermm you get the idea, in matter of
fact most of his
records do that. This record has been the soundtrack to
many things, ads,
trailers but we got most excited when it was played as
the teams came on
for the England v Scotland game at Wembley, they also
used it for the
Rugby World Cup if you like that sort of thing.
Norman Cook/Fatboy Slim/Mighty Dub
Katz
Norman, a veteran DJ of 16 years started his career
in Brighton clubs playing funk, soul and early rap.
(Planet Rock being his biggest tune back in those
days) after a brief sabbatical in Hull playing bass
for a certain pop band he returned to Brighton and
his roots doing bezerk cut LPs influenced by Double
Dave and Steinski one of which was pressed and
released as the remix of Eric B and Rakim's 'I Know
You Got Soul'. The top ten success of this lead to
many record companies allowing him to re-construct
their tunes and in those pioneering 'Wild Frontier'
days of remixing he butchered many artists including
James Brown, Digital Underground, Kid 'n' Play and
Stetsasonic. He was finally persuaded to produce his
own material and the Beats Intemational project
spanned many collaborations and a global
thermonuclear hit in the shape of 'Dub Be Good To
Me'.
Following the madness of pop stardom Norman laid low
for a few years, travelling the world and dodging
law suits for sampling, resurfacing in 1993 as a
producer with experience and an eve for the bizarre.
His work producing Pizzaman, Jon Pleased Wimmin, The
Mighty Dub Cats, Fatboy Slim and his own band, Freak
Power has achieved great success all over the globe.
Still much respected from back in the days and
retaining a love of partying hard and unorthodox
music he currently plays at the Heavenly Social, The
Big Kahuna Burger and The Big Beat Boutique. Norman
is 32, a Leo and lives in Brighton with his
girlfriend and a small puppy.
"He was there at the beginning, he'll probably still
be there at the end. We love you Norm" DJ Magazine
"Norman Cook is God and everyone else should retire"
MixMag Update.
Ever since Fatboy Slim's 'Santa Cruz' first touched
down and set the ball rolling for Skint, his records
have become sweaty dancefloor classics. His singles
('Santa Cruz', 'Everybody Love A 303' & 'Punk To
Funk') are anthems at every big beat boutique in the
country, and with 'Better Living Through Chemistry'
the Fatboy now unleashes his long one.
It's an eagerly awaited album choc full of dirty new
ideas, a proverbial drumfest of brassie beats and
bazooka belargeness, a complete stunner with 6
cylinders of distorted turbo powered funk, 'Better
Living Through Chemistry' is the soundtrack for the
new skint generation.
Fatboy Slim is of course Monsieur Norman Cook of
Brighton. While he may cut a serious furrow as Freak
Power, mighty Dub Kats and Pizzaman, Fatboy Slim is
a reflection of Norman Cook, the DJ and
multi-purpose party animal. This is the sound of
Brighton getting out of its head, waking up the
neighbours and scooping its brain out the chemical
toilet. 10 tracks that turn all that Brit Pop
bollocks on its head, and has a right old laugh in
the process,
The weekend starts here.