Fatboy Slim

About Fatboy Slim

Quentin Cook AKA Norman Cook AKA Fatboy Slim is the king of big beat techno and helped bring electronic music into the mainstream. His style blends repetitive samples, huge drum tracks and driving synths to make a style of music as much fun to listen to as to dance to. Unlike harder, earlier techno produced exclusively for the enjoyment of the underground rave scene, you don't have to be on drugs to enjoy Fatboy Slim's DJ records. Norman Cook was always interested in music, spending time playing bass in his friend's critically acclaimed pop-rock band The Housemartins and his own anything-goes electrofunk outfit Freakwater. To study for his BA in English, Cook went to Brighton Polytechnic, home of a thriving dance club scene. Since hitting the big time, Fatboy Slim still loves Brighton and its infamous beach-front dance parties and he returns to play locals-only shows. After forming a loose electronic music collective Beats International and having a minor, though legally contentious, hit with "Dub Be Good to Me," Norman began hanging out and DJing at Brighton's world famous club, The Big Beat Boutique. The Chemical Brothers were also active there at the time, and they convinced Cook to cut a solo disc-the resulting Better Living Through Chemistry was a club favorite and the cut "Everybody Needs A 303" broke huge in the UK. But it was in 1998, with the release of You've Come A Long Way Baby and it's unstoppable, body-rocking hit "The Rockafeller Skank" that Fatboy Slim became a household name. His innovative Spike Jonze video for the track "Praise You"-featuring an amateur dance troupe nailing a routine in one take-earned him an MTV award. Subsequent hits included the Doors-sampling "Sunset (Bird of Prey)" and "Slash Dot Slash." And if it weren't for Fatboy Slim, we wouldn't have the sublime "Weapon Of Choice" video starring Christopher Walken incongruously dancing around a hotel lobby.