Fatboy Slim Bio: He’s Still One Of The Few Popular DJs And Music Producers In The World
June 13th, 2011
Norman Cook has experienced a remarkably diverse musical career. He has produced or played on records covering a multitude of genres, which includes indie pop, hip hop, house and big beat, as well as being one of the most famous DJs around the world under his Fatboy Slim moniker.
Fatboy Slim was born Quentin Cook in Bromley in 1963, and was raised in Reigate in Surrey.
He was heavily into music from a young age , producing a punk fanzine as a teenager before meeting Paul Heaton at 6th Form College. He attended University in Brighton (There he studied English, Sociology and Politics) and started to DJ around the town where the club scene was booming at that time.
In 1985 he got a call from Heaton asking him to join The Housemartins to replace their recently departed bassist. The group was situated in Hull, and Norman moved north to be with them. They quickly had a hit with “Happy Hour”, and ultimately had a number one single in 1986 with a cover of “Caravan Of Love”.
The group split up in 1988 and Cook came back to Brighton to re-invigorate his passion for the club scene. He partnered with Lindy Layton to create a dub house classic on “Dub Be Good To Me” which went to number one.
Beats International had 2 albums just before disbanding. Norman started to form Freakpower with vocalist and brass-player Askley Slater, and had a massive hit with when it was purchased by Levi’s to be used in a commercial.
Freakpower continued to record albums together, and in 1996 had success with “New Direction”. This track was suitably titled as Norman had just launched a record under what was to become his most well-known alias yet – Fatboy Slim.
Norman teamed up with Damien Harris to produce a new record label located in Brighton, and Fatboy Slim’s “Santa Cruz” was its first release. They called the label Skint Records, and had a mission to release music with massive beats and big bass lines that could be equally popular in house and indie clubs as well.
Fatboy had a further hit in 1996 with “Everybody Loves A 303″, an homage to the classic Roland synth that still sounds fresh today. He went on to release his debut album “Better Living Through Chemistry”, an album that spawned two further singles in “Going Out Of My Head” and “Punk To Funk” and helped to create the Big Beat genre.
Fatboy’s greatly anticipated album, You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby, released in 1998. The album displayed massive international appeal, and went platinum in the United States and included two massive hits, which also boasted a Spike Jonze-directed video that earned 3 MTV Video Music Awards in addition to two Grammy nominations.
The following Fatboy Slim release, 2000′s “Halfway Between The Gutter And the Stars”, showed a bit more diversity and was comprised of tracks with rhythm and blues, hip hop and hard house influences. The massive single from the album, “Star 69″ contained a big sweary vocal and a big kick drum to send the crown mental.
Fatboy went on to release another album, 2004′s Palookaville and a compilation album. He is still one of the biggest DJs and producers in the world.
To locate music websites to listen to his music, and to discover a new rock music artist you might enjoy, search for rock list music.
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