Interview: Common People headliner Fatboy Slim

If he’s not headlining the world’s biggest music festivals, he’s carrying out charity work and supporting his beloved Brighton & Hove Albion.

And, with 90 worldwide live shows under his belt last year, no one can argue that he’s one of the hardest working men in dance music.

With his headlining appearance at Southampton’s Common People just two months away, Seven Days caught up with Fatboy Slim, whose real name is Norman Cook, during a period of rare down time.

“My wife (Zoe Ball) has been involved in Strictly and has finished her 98th show, so I have been the primary parent since then!”, he said from his home in Hove, West Sussex.

“I cannot wait to get out on the road again. I’m gunning to get outside – I’m champing at the bit.”

Cook’s first port of call will be performing in front of 30,000 ravers on a cruise ship in Fort Lauderdale for the Holy Ship festival.

Then he will be heading to Southampton to headline the Saturday night of the city’s inaugural two-day Common People festival on May 23.

He said: “Living just down the road, I have an affinity with Southampton. It’s (Common People) run by the Bestival crew, and I did their inaugural festival ten years ago.

“It’s nice to be at this part of career and do things that haven’t been done before. Glastonbury and Bestival are great but you never feel like you are breaking new ground.

“If Common People becomes part of the furniture over the years, it would have been great to have been part of the inaugural one.”

Fatboy Slim joins a stellar line-up of talent at this year’s event, including Clean Bandit, De La Soul, Band of Skulls, George the Poet, and Slaves.

This is what you can expect from Fatboy Slim's headlining set at Common People

“Rob da Bank knows what the people want.", he said. "|He’s grown up being a party animal and puts a lot of love and care into building the party.

Common People organiser Rob da Bank

“It’s run for the people by the people.

“There is attention to detail on a wonderful sense of the absurd. There will be crazy things going on, hi-jinx, and sense of humour. That’s why we get on.”

Cook was originally a member of the socialist band The Housemartins before reaching mega-stardom as Fatboy Slim following the release of his debut album Better Living Through Chemistry and the subsequent You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby, which spawned the massive Rockafeller Skank and Right Here, Right Now.

In 2013, Eat, Sleep, Rave, Repeat, quickly became a dance anthem despite it being Cook’s first release under the moniker in five years.

These days, the 51-year-old is more interested|in DJing to thousands of people rather than producing his own material.

He said: “I’ve got to that point in my career where I am not so passionate about making music as I am about playing it.

“I’ve fallen out of love with the process of making music and selling it to people. But DJing I have a lot of passion for.

“When I started DJing it was as a hobby.

“There would be people you’d hang around with that would listen to music, and if you heard a record you really liked you had to share it with other people.

“That’s my drive at the moment. I spend two or three days a week on the internet listening to new music and weeding out the rubbish to find what goes into my set.

“Now everything is accessible we have to be curators. We trawl through the rubbish so you don’t have to.

“And when you play it to a crowd, it’s the greatest satisfaction that you can get.”

Cook, who married television presenter Zoe Ball in 1999 and with whom he has two children – Woody and Nelly – is formerly from Bromley in Kent but moved to Brighton for college.

The seaside town is where he has lived ever since and it has become one of his true loves.

“It’s something to do with the sea”, Cook admits. “It attracts certain people. For me, no matter how much stress, trouble and noise there is, you can always turn to the sea and there is tranquillity.

“I never thought I would crack it. When I was growing up, I wanted to be a pop musician and |I never thought I would achieve that, and certainly didn’t think I would be doing it 30 |years later.

“I came to Brighton to go to college and never left. I am so proud of where I live. Whether it’s about the Albion or charity things, I really love being part of Brighton culture.”

Fatboy Slim honoured at the University of Brighton

The University of Brighton honoured him earlier this month with the Alumnus Award for his contribution to the music industry and work with the institution, and he is also a 12 per cent shareholder of Brighton & Hove Albion.

He is philosophical over his side’s chances |for survival following the appointment of Chris Hughton and hopes the team will be on the same level as Saints in the near future.

He said: “At New Year we hit rock bottom. |We have been on such a long, upward rise since we moved to the Withdean that we realised that there is still down times.

“We are with a new manager now and I think this is as bad as the spell goes.

“We are still basking in the fact we have a stadium – we are still living the dream that we|are solvent.

“I have quite a few friends who are Saints fans, and a few years ago we were ribbing each other on our positions.”

And his final message for the thousands of people heading to Common People this May?

“Come prepared to party. Bring your dancing shoes and if you can’t find them, bring your dancing feet.”