Guestlist
☰
NEWS
EVENTS

Fatboy Slim Interview

House | Thursday 16th May 2013 | Osh

Set to be honoured at The IMS Legends Dinner at the sixth International Music Summit in Ibiza on 23rd May we caught up with the legend, UK DJ and figurehead Norman Cook. Celebrating his long-standing career at the dinner he will then go on to host an exclusive free party at the UNESCO world heritage site Dalt Vila with pals Pete Tong and DJ Driis (Idris Elba).

 

You are to be honoured at International Music Summit Legends Dinner IMSD) which is a free party hosted by yourself. You have Idris Elba, Pete Tong along with many others. Did you have an input into the artists playing?

 

I didn’t, no. It’s kinda Pete's show, he runs it. The Idris Elba thing, I'm bemused! My wife has gone absolutely gaga over it, she loves him. I think the reason she's coming to Ibiza is not to watch her husband get inducted into the legends hall of fame, it’s so she can letch at Idris Elba!

 

I take it you're looking forward to that then?

 

What, watching my wife letch at Idris Elba? Getting awarded is great, maybe a couple of years ago I’d have seen it as the 'Thank you very much and goodnight' award, but now I kinda feel that at this stage in my career things like that sort of seal my role as a legend, which I'm feeling more comfortable with as I get older.

 

It must be an honour to be picked to play and be awarded?

 

Yeah, previous winners are Carl Cox and Pete Tong, so very esteemed company. And very seasoned campaigners of the scene, so I feel happy to be in their company.

 

Are there any particular shows that you’re crazy hyped about over the next few months?

 

I've got some very interesting plans for Glastonbury! Which I can't tell you about, but I'm very excited about them. I'm doing something I've never done. The things I get excited about at this stage in my career are things I've never done before, boxes I never thought I could tick like the Olympics last year, playing at the House of Commons, things like that – and I'm doing something at Glastonbury that has NEVER been done before.

 

I see you have a few European dates next month before jetting off to Japan, I guess travelling the globe and playing for fans all over the world never gets boring, right?

 

No, unless you go back to the same places over and over. But as long as you pace yourself then no, it never gets boring because you're always playing new tunes to new people. When you're in a band and you go on tour for 5 months playing the same songs every night you might get bored. But when you're a DJ , you nip home for a couple of weeks then your back out again, it’s a continuous series of arrangements rather than a tour and you get to see some amazing places. It never gets dull.

 

So, I hear you're the first DJ ever to perform at the House of Commons how was that, it must have been crazy?

 

It wasn’t the most rocking rave that I've ever performed at! But it was an interesting atmosphere because it was half my mates that were freaked out about being in the House of Commons,and half a load of MP's, researchers and politicians that just thought it was hilarious that I’d came and played in their midst. It was like playing at a wedding, like playing a wedding where nobody knew each-other and they weren’t quite drunk enough yet!

 

It's quite rare you playing such a small intimate show like that?

 

Yeah, also we had to keep the music down! It was weird on every single level. People were voting downstairs in the Commons and people were leaving to go downstairs to vote and then come back up... So I was actually shouting louder than some of the records. But it was just the fact that I was there, 19 years after the Commons tried to ban rave music with the criminal justice bill, it was kinda nice that over those 19 years that we have wormed our way into their culture that they now accept us in.

 

How did it compare to playing in an igloo or the Great Wall of China?

 

The big ones are always a big thrill and the little strange ones. I compare the House of Commons similar to the one in the igloo, similar kind of size, similar temperature of the audience.

 

Do you get to spend much time in Brighton these days?

 

I do about 75 shows a year, so if you double that it’s roughly how much I'm away but it’s spread out all the way through the year. I'm never away for more than 10 days as a rule, so I tend to do 10 days on and 10 days off all through the year which is perfect.

 

It looks like you're enjoying your shows now just as much now as you ever did. Do you plan on releasing anything new soon or are you just loving and enjoying what you have at the moment?

 

I'm absolutely loving what I'm doing at the moment, the way things are at the moment it takes up the whole year. When I was younger I could juggle three careers at once and now there just doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day. With the global explosion of dance music, the world has just became such an exciting place and there is so much to see, that really takes up all my year and most of my enthusiasm.

 

Going back to the IMS Legends Dinner, the award really establishes you right at the top of your game. Where do you go from here?

 

I don’t know every time I think I’ve been to the mountaintop something beats it, I remember when we did the first Brighton beach gig, when me and my manager came off stage we were like “That’s it, we gotta retire now, how are we ever gonna top that?”. Then the next year we did it and five times as many people came. I've kind of made my mark, and if you took it away tomorrow I'd be happy that I had fulfilled all I could.

 

You obviously love all those early Brighton shows, are you planning any more of those or can you see something happening like that again?

 

I will definitely carry on doing things in Brighton yeah. It’s obviously closest to my heart. I want to keep them there, the thing is my relationship with the residents and the Brighton council is that I don’t do them every year, because it does create quite a lot of mess! It’s nice to do something really big and you can't do that every year – it has to be something special.

 

It must be so amazing playing in your home town, everybody turning out on the beach and in the stadium?

 

Absolutely yeah, it was fantastic to do it on the beach and to do it in your own football stadium that’s like... beyond the home town gig, playing a hometown gig and you're playing on the pitch on your own stadium is amazing!

 

For more information check out:

 
 

LATEST INTERVIEWS

Follow GUESTLIST