Fatboy Slim

mackie's world presents

FATBOY SLIM NORMAN COOK

MIGHTY DUB KATZ FREAKPOWER PIZZAMAN

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biography

Fatboy Slim (AKA Norman Cook) has had numerous hits, from The Housemartins to Beats International to Freak Power to (more recently) The Mighty Dub Katz. His remixing skills are legendary (Especially the mixes of Stretch & Vern's two massive hit singles - I'm Alive & Get Up, Go Insane, and, of course, Pierre Henri's Psyche Rock). The Fat Boy Comes Alive mix of the first one is one of the coolest mixes ever. He has one of the coolest DJ names in the world. Freak Power's hits include 'Turn On, Tune In, Cop Out' and the cool Can You Feel It. Magic Carpet Ride is one of the best singles this year, and was a hit all over Europe. Everybody Needs A 303 is a classic, as is the superb Everybody Loves A Carnival Mix.

Fatboy's amazing debut LP, Better Living Through Chemistry is available on Skint Records, as is his new album, You've Come A Long Way, Baby. The NME gave away a free 60 minute Fatboy Slim mixed tape earlier this year, entitled Beat Up The NME (NME NORM 1). The tape features Pierre Henry, Death In Vegas, Bassbin Twins, Psychedeliasmith, Basement Jaxx, Elite Force, Monkey Mafia, Double 99, Old Skool Flavas Vol III, CJ Bolland Vs Hardknox, EPS & 2-Vibe, 175, Latryx, Kaleef, Mr Dan, Overseer & Sensateria.

Norman Cook has had massive chart success recently, with Cornershop and Wildchild - two of the biggest singles in the UK this year. He gets 15000 UK-pounds per remix (Though he remixed Cornershop's Brimful Of Asha for free), and is offered 4 remixes a day (Though, wisely, he only remixes the tracks he loves. If he wanted to, he could easily get 50+ grand a remix). He has had two top ten singles - the phenomenon that was The Rockafeller Skank and Gangsta Trippin', plus another big hit with Freak Power - No Way. His fab new album has just gone top-ten, and he has remixed the Beastie Boys brand new single, Body Movin' and produced some of Beautiful South's current number one LP. If there anything left for him to do? Well, he has just swapped remixes with Deep Dish (Praise You for Stranded)

discography

Title	Artist	Format	Year	Label
Right Here Right Now	Fatboy Slim	Single	1999	Skint
Praise You	Fatboy Slim	Single	1999	Skint
Rockafeller Skank	Fatboy Slim	Single	1998	Skint
Gangsta Trippin'	Fatboy Slim	Single	1998	Skint
You've Come A Long Way, Baby	Fatboy Slim	Album	1998	Skint
Everybody Needs A 303	Fatboy Slim	Single	1997	Skint
Going Out Of My Head	Fatboy Slim	Single	1997	Skint
Better Living Through Chemistry	Fatboy Slim	Album	1996	Skint
Santa Cruz	Fatboy Slim	Single	1996	Skint
Magic Carpet Ride	Mighty Dub Katz	Single	1997	Southern Fried Rec.
Just Another Groove	Mighty Dub Katz	Single	1996	Southern Fried Rec
Son Of Wilmot	Mighty Dub Kats	Single	1995	Southern Fried Rec
Turn On, Tune In, Cop Out	Freakpower	Single	1995	deConstruction
No Way	Freakpower	Single	1998	deConstruction
Can You Feel It	Freakpower	Single	1996	deConstruction
Sex On The Streets	Pizzaman	Single	1995	Cowboy Records
Happiness	Pizzaman	Single	1996	Cowboy Records
Trippin On Sunshine	Pizzaman	Single	1995	Cowboy Records
Hello, Honky Tonks	Pizzaman	Single	1996	Cowboy Records
Won't Talk About It	Beats International	Single	1991	Go!Beat
Dub Be Good To Me	Beats International	Single	1991	Go!Beat
Brimful Of Asha	Cornershop	Remix	1998	Wijja
Absurd	Fluke	Remix	1997	Inferno
Body Movin'	Beastie Boys	Remix	1998	Grand Royale
Psyche Rock	Pierre Henry	Remix	1997
Renegade Master	Wildchild	Remix	1998
Turn Around	Phats & Small	Remix	1999	Multiply
Ride The Pony	Peplab	Remix	1999
Friday (Going Out)	Skinny	Remix	1999	Cheeky
I Left My Wallet In El Segundo	A Tribe Called Quest	Remix	1999
I'm Just A Disco Dancer	Christopher Just	Remix	1997	Slut Tracks
Party Lick-A-Ble's	Bootsy Collins	Remix	1999

live

[5/5]

A Date With Destiny - Fatboy Slim vs Armand Van Helden

Big Beat Boutique

Brixton Acadamy - Friday 11^th June 1999. Cut La Roc Support

The camera crews at the door indicate that something very special is happening tonight, as you walk upto Brixton Acadamy past hundreds of fans desperate to get their hands on the last few tickets for a once in a lifetime opportunity to see two of the worlds biggest DJs in action - at the same time. Cut La Roc is already entertaining the quickly expanding crowd on the dance floor (there is no stage or anything like that - just a full scale rotating boxing ring, with a huge rig of video screens hovering above it. Throughout the night these screens are filled with live streams of the DJs in action, and the resultant ker-azy dancing from the people lucky enough to be ring-side. Like me. Full shots of my face were subjected to the thousands of die-hard fatboy-fans, at least twenty or thirty times we looked up to see our faces the size of a two story building - it pays to get there early for a gig like this. Cut La Roc seemed to have a great time warming the crowd up - he’s one of the friendliest DJs I have met in recent times - it was strange that I was one of only a handful of people interested in talking to him as he was packing his gear up, as he has the world record breaking talent to be one of the big stars of the future - from Skint’s beginnings he’s always been second only to Fatboy Slim as far as I’m concerned, and his new mix album FSUK4* reiterates this.

To much applause and cheering, Armand Van Helden enters the ring from one side, accompanied by an understandably large group of security men, and a geezer wielding the star-spangled banner. The unexpectedly short Van Helden drops his silk gown and removes his boxing gloves to reveal he’s dressed up for the part - customised basketball top, loads of jewellery - everything about him says ‘I’m trendy, me’. On the giant video screens we now see Norman Cook entering the ring from the other side of the arena. The crowd goes radio rental. Norman disrobes to reveal.. a Hawaiian shirt and jeans… and no-one bats an eye-lid. Norm and Armand start the theatrics at the front of the ring - forehead against forehead they stare each other out during the coin-toss to decide who will attempt to win over the crowd for an hour with their Dj-ing skills first. Armand wins the toss and elects to go first, and immediately sets about playing an impressive hour-long set of new york house an garage, starting with his forthcoming single The Boogie Monster. However impressed the crowd is with Armand’s DJ antics, they don’t really get going until he plays his number one hit single You Don’t Know Me, then die down again until Brixton boys Basement Jaxx’ Rendez-vu is dropped as a set closer.

To yet more applause Norman Cook arrives, and thrusts a litre bottle of vodka in the air - the crowd respond to every action he makes - Fatboy Slim is the Robbie Williams of the DJ world - a natural performer, with heaps of talent. On the dance-floor a whole different mood has been created just by Norman’s appearance - everyone spent the whole hour jumping up and down like an extremely happy yo-yo. Tracks incorporated in probably the best hour of live mixing I’ve heard all year, included that Des Lynam cover of Rockafeller Skank, Fucking In Heaven, Chemical Brother’s Hey Boy Hey Girl, Leftfield’s Phat Planet, Everybody Needs A 303, Right Here Right Now, Fatboy Eminem (Hi My Name Is The Funk Soul Brother), Satisfaction Skank (I Can’t Get No Funk Soul Brother), Kung Fu Fighting, and even the Kinks made a much welcomed appearance towards the end of the set.

After 4 hours, what we’d all been waiting for began - Ambidextrous - Armand Van Helden on the right deck, Fatboy Slim on the left deck for two hours, non-stop tunes from the likes of Bob Marley, plus many other peculiar choices including TLC - No Scrubs, Jungle Brothers - I’ll House You ‘98, Tori Amos - Professional Widow, Wildchild - Renegade Master (Original), You Don’t Know Me (Again), and Praise You as a very fitting finish to the event of the year. Although most people considered it to be Norman’s night, it wouldn’t have been half as fun without Armand (With his endless supply of tricks, including slowing down one record to about 10BPM, then speeding it back up to 300BPM or so, whilst mixing it with another top track) or Cut La Roc for that matter - as there was effectively two hours of Fatboy Slim, we didn’t get bored for one minute.

reviews

[5/5]

Fatboy Slim - Right Here Right Now

Skint

Single

Album opener, and adidas advert tune, with the best promo video ever

Here we go again - every month or so since we began there’s been a Norman Cook related record topping our charts - from Santa Cruz ‘back in the day’ all the way to Right Here Right Now - with loads of Mighty Dub Katz, Fatboy Slim and Freakpower releases in between - not to mention countless remixes. This could well be his biggest hit to date - after Praise You’s number one entry in January (plus top 100 in the ‘States) the Fatboy is looking for another chart topping hit - only this time he has real competition in the form of Armand Van Helden. The two are doing a traditional Blur-Oasis type battle and both releasing their new singles on the same day - though the result is difficult to predict as both have had chart topping hits this year - with the New York house master’s U Don’t Know Me considerably outselling Praise You - though Fatboy Slim’s track must have been given much more radio airplay. Although both Right Here Right Now and Flowerz are fantastic tracks one assumes more people will support Norman Cook as he’s British, and you know what we’re like! Also Norm has much more fans here than Armand does - he’s the epitome of trendiness at the moment, and has managed to stay cool even though he’s sold out - as nobody takes his music seriously anyway, it’s OK for his records to sell everything from Coca Cola in the ‘States to both Adidas and Nike over here (The first artist ever to soundtrack adverts for the two rivals). The main problem for Fatboy Slim in this war of singles is that he is too popular! Unlike Armand Van Helden’s new 2Futur4U LP, You’ve Come A Long Way Baby has spent 4 weeks at the top of the UK chart and gone double platinum - if everybody has the album, relatively few will buy the single, right? Well, you would have to be a fool not to buy this extended play record - the B-sides are amazing! Don’t Forget Your Teeth is one crazy track which should really be a double A-Side, but the real gem on the record is the original version of Praise You. Written in the pre-Fatboy Slim, pre-Big Beat days and is so not Fatboy Slim! It has a woman on single the lyrics and you can hear Norman trying to get that weird vocal effect he achieved on Praise You ’99 but he can’t quite manage it. A must for anyone with good taste in music, and a perfect taster for A Date With Destiny - Norman and Armand in a boxing ring decking it out of each other - loads of trick and scratches are inevitable and a fantastic couple of dates which millions of clubbers from all over the world will want to attend (those that can’t will be able to watch on Sky pay-per-view and listen to on Radio 1). The event takes place on the 16^th and 17^th of April, with warm up dates before and after featuring other acts to mark the Big Beat Boutique’s third birthday. Expect lots of hype!

[5/5]

Fatboy Slim - Praise You

Skint

Single

Classic single with a superb video, that will probably crack the states

From Fatboy Slim's number 2, 150,000+ selling album You've Come A Long Way Baby, which has already spawned two of the coolest singles of 1998, and definitely the best record of 1999... so far. Praise You - a song about Norman Cook's immense vinyl collection, which appear on the record sleeve - "We've come a long, long way together/Through the hard time times and the good/I have to celebrate you baby/I have to praise you like I should" - Admittedly the song could apply to a woman, but in Norman's mind it is most certainly about records, and is certainly a refreshing change to a chart dominated by Steps and Spice Girls, and of course the artist who will be known throughout 1999 as Prince thanks to Warner Brothers. The lyrics to Praise You (Yes, I said lyrics - in a Fatboy Slim song! Now we have seen everything!) are by some bloke called Camile Yarborough, who sounds spookily like Paul McCartney - so much so that even the biggest Beatles fans have come up to me and asked "Which Paul McCartney song did you just play?!" The EP is backed by Sho Nuff - a brand new song, which is surprisingly good. I am not usually that impressed by Norman Cook's b-sides, with the obvious exception of fantastic track Michael Jackson. Then,the superb third track is the Urban Takeover remix of Rockafeller Skank - already a contender for Remix Of The Year, Aphrodite & Mickey Finn never fail to supply top notch remixes - Jungle Brother, Raw Power, I Got Five On It, and their own fantastic single, Rock Da Funky Beats. The Rockafeller Skunk, as it has been called, is nothing compared to the original 12", but brings a new lease of life to this way overplayed masterpiece. 11/1/99 Update: On 10/1/99 Praise You became Fatboy Slim's first ever number one single, going straight in at the top of the CIN UK chart. This also pushed the second album, You've Come Along Way, Baby, back up to number 6 in the album charts. Although Fatboy Slim's recent singles have peaked at 6 and 3, Norman Cook is not a stranger to the number one spot with chart toppers throughout the 1990's - Beats International's Dub Be Good To Me in '91, Freakpower's Turn On, Tune In, Cop Out in '95 and more recently his remix of Cornerhop's Brimful Of Asha in February 1998. There is another sure-fire number one coming in the near future - Following on from Todd Terry & Tin Tin Out, Norman Cook has remixed the Corrs! Cor Blimey Gov'nor! In the past few months Norman Cook has had lots of Tabloid coverage, culminating in appearing on Page 3 of The Sun on Saturday 9/1/99. Today he is in The Sun yet again, with news of his new 500,000 pound beach "hideaway" - HMS House - in Hove, next door to Nick Berry and Derek Jameston! Most of the immense tabloid attention has centred around him dating hideous Radio 1 DJ/kids TV presenter Zoe Ball - her only saving grace is that she described his Ibiza set "F*cking Cool!" live on Radio 1 and got into serious trouble - now even in Virgin Megastores, Reading a home-made sign above the Fatboy Slim display reads "He's On The Ball"! and Ministry of Sound website thinks that maybe now Fatboy Slim is F*cking In Heaven!

[5/5]

Fatboy Slim - You've Come A Long Way, Baby

Skint

Album

The best big beat album of all time - set to conquer the whole world

This is such a cool album - it's all very, very cool (With the exception of F*cking In Heaven, which contains the word F*ck 111 times - the whole of Trainspotting says F*ck or F*cking the same number of times, and everyone said that was full of swearing - this is just a 3minute song, not a 2 hour film!). The album has lots of different styles of big beat, but it's all unmistakably Norman Cook's work. There's a superb introduction to Rockafeller Skank, which is a real radio excerpt from the 'States. There are loads of potential singles in there too - it is a fair bet that Praise You will be the next single off the album, to prove to everybody that he can do something different, and if that is released it will be a very big hit indeed. The album is much better than Beastie Boys' Hello Nasty and Faithless' Sunday 8PM, but I still prefer Asiandubfoundation's Rafi's Revenge

[5/5]

Fatboy Slim - Gangsta Trippin'

Skint

Single

Dust Junkie sampling epic new song

Fatboy Slim (Norman Cook, Freak Power, Mighty Dub Katz, Pizzaman, Beats International, Housemartins) is back with his brilliantly cheesy Big Beat track Gangsta Trippin' (With a video featuring an exploding toilet). If you look at the CD single as a whole, it's poor - the two B-sides are not of typical Fatboy Slim quality - the previous single all had excellent remixes or B-sides. This does not. But Mr Cook couldn't really release an EP full of great songs, as he'd loose all his credibility for being too good. The thing is, the underground critics criticise him for making some of the best dance records of all time, but as far as I am concerned, that's great - and I cannot wait to get my hands on the new LP. Anyway, the A-side rules, and is almost as good as Rockafeller Skank, but is the poorest of all the Fatboy Slim single releases, yet the fact that it's brand new, and it has not been played hundreds of times (yet) makes it more enjoyable to listen to.!

[5/5]

Fatboy Slim - The Rockafeller Skank

Skint

Single

Probably Norms' greatest triumpth and the song of 1998 (Officially)

Without doubt, this is one of the best singles of 1998. This is so funky! There isn't much in the way of lyrics in this record 'Right About Now, The Funk Soul Brother/Check It Out Now, The Funk Soul Brother... Rockafeller Skank'. It's a brilliant single, and it's paired with 'Always Read The Label', and the ludicrously similar to last year's 'everybody needs a 303' - Tweakers Delight. Fatboy Slim is a genius - this better go UK top ten, or else!

[5/5]

Fatboy Slim - Everybody Needs A 303

Skint

Single

The song that led most of us to the wacky world of norman cook

Norman Cook, the man behind Mighty Dub Katz, The Housemartins and Freak Power, returns under the name of Fatboy Slim, with his cool, cool remixes of his new single. This is really Cook at his very coolest. There are also two new songs on CD2, plus the original versions on CD1.

[5/5]

Mighty Dub Katz - Magic Carpet Ride

Southern Fried Records

Single

Ibiza's ultimate anthem which will live forever in the balerics

This rules! This is the sound of the summer. The Fatboy Slim remixes are very very good. This track is loved by clubbers and indie fans alike, and has already been massive all over Europe. My only complaint is that it is almost identical to the1995 single Son Of Wilmot

[5/5]

Freakpower - No Way

deConstruction

Single

Freakpower have moved on - this will take Ashley from Levis legend

Not to be confused with No Way No Way (Manna Manna) by Vanilla. This single is from the group whose career started with a single called Turn On, Tune In, Cop Out, which was featured on a Levis advert (I think it was the one with a girl shaving in a taxi). Can You Feel It was another great single in 1996, but that was not a hit. Now Freak Power (Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim) and bald-headed Ashley Slater) return with the epic 'No Way', which features Norman Cook remixes and an extremely catchy chorus.

links

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