Fatboy Slim
Norman Quentin Cook, known professionally 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 school friends Paul Heaton and later on became the bassist for his indie rock band the Housemartins, who achieved a UK number-one single with their cover of "Caravan of Love". After he left, Cook moved to Brighton to be part of the dance music scene he loved. He formed the electronic group Beats International with friends from the scene and 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 produced the single "Weapon of Choice", which won six awards at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards. Palookaville 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, 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 and an Ivor Novello Award. He 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 UK 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" reached number one, but their second album, Excursion on the Version, 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 his names reflect the fact that he did not take his work seriously, and that he was not afraid to say "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 later wrote of the "enormous collective pride" in the big beat genre being named after the venue, just as house and garage music were named after venues in Chicago and New York City. Cook described it as a "very productive time", when acts such as the Chemical Brothers, Death in Vegas, Monkey Mafia, Bentley Rhythm Ace and FC Kahuna were "breaking rules and feeding off each other". His 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, 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. He also 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 UK 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. That year, Cook released his third Fatboy Slim album, Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars, featuring collaborations with Macy Gray and Bootsy Collins. He attempted to create 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 ", 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.''