Fatboy Slim

Quentin Leo Cook was born on 31 July 1963 in Bromley in Kent, England (now part of Greater London), the youngest of three. His mother was a teacher in a hospital school, and his father was an environmentalist consultant who was appointed an Order of the British Empire for introducing bottle banks into the UK. Cook was raised in Reigate, Surrey, which he later described as a "suburban hell". At school, he became a fan of punk music and edited a punk fanzine. He adopted the name Norman when he was bullied for the name Quentin, which his classmates associated with the gay actor Quentin Crisp. He failed his A-level exams as he was focusing on playing music, and had to retake them. In Brighton, he worked as a DJ and was taught how to mix by the DJ Carl Cox. He appeared as a porter in the music video for the 1982 song "Goody Two Shoes" by Adam Ant. == Career ==

1985–1988: the Housemartins While Cook was in Brighton, Heaton formed a band, the Housemartins. When their original bassist quit in 1985, Cook moved to Hull to join them. In 1986, the Housemartins reached number one on the UK singles chart with a cover of the 1985 Isley-Jasper-Isley song "Caravan of Love". Cook was frustrated playing "white English pop" in the Housemartins. He was interested in hip-hop and dance music, but felt it was inappropriate for a white English man to work in this genre, and that no one would take him seriously. 1988–1995: Beats International, Freak Power and remixes The Housemartins broke up in 1988. He also formed a sound system collective, Beats International, with a collection of MCs and singers. Cook's marriage ended and he suffered a mental breakdown. Cook formed an acid jazz band, Freak Power, with musicians including the trombonist Ashley Slater, which released the successful 1993 single "Turn On, Tune In, Cop Out" on Island Records. 1995–1997: Fatboy Slim and Better Living Through Chemistry Cook adopted the stage name Fatboy Slim in 1995. He said it was a meaningless oxymoron that suited him as it was "goofy" and ironic, and could not remember its origin. Around this period, the house music label Loaded Records created a new imprint in Brighton, Skint Records. Its first record was the Fatboy Slim track "Santa Cruz" in 1995. Cook described it as a "very productive time", when acts such as the Chemical Brothers, Death in Vegas, Monkey Mafia, Bentley Rhythm Ace and FC Kahuna were "breaking rules and feeding off each other". He created three successful singles in one week: "The Rockafeller Skank", "Praise You" and "Right Here, Right Now". At the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards in New York City, Cook performed "Praise You" and won three awards, including Breakthrough Video. Four days later, ''You've Come a Long Way, Baby was certified platinum. He also married the BBC presenter Zoe Ball, triggering attention from the tabloid media. That year, Cook released the third Fatboy Slim album, Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars, featuring collaborations with Macy Gray and Bootsy Collins. Cook earned the Guinness world records for the most MTV Video Awards won by a DJ and the most MTV Video Awards won for a single video. The album also included "Sunset (Bird of Prey)", whose video used the 1964 "Daisy Girl" campaign ad. In the same year, Cook released The Fatboy Slim / Norman Cook Collection'', a compilation of his remixes from the 1980s and early 90s. In 2001, Cook held a free beach concert, Big Beach Boutique, in Brighton. It was attended by around 60,000 people. The set was released as the 2002 album Live on Brighton Beach. By 2002, according to the Daily Telegraph, Fatboy Slim was the "world's biggest DJ". That July, he played a second free concert on Brighton beach, Big Beach Boutique II. It was attended by around 250,000 people, four times more than expected. The cleanup operation lasted days and cost over £300,000, with 160 tonnes of rubbish collected from the beach. However, Cook was supported by Brighton residents. The Brighton newspaper The Argus printed a supplement to publish the letters supporting him, and BBC Southern Counties Radio received many positive calls. He contributed production to "Crazy Beat" and "Gene by Gene" on the 2003 Blur album Think Tank. 2004–2008: Palookaville , 2006 By 2004, dance music was in commercial decline, replaced by a resurgence of guitar bands. His 2007 tour was released on DVD as Adventures in Brazil. In June 2006, he played a headline performance at the RockNess festival on the shores of Loch Ness. The Greatest Hits – Why Try Harder was released that month, including the new tracks "Champion Sound" and "That Old Pair of Jeans". On New Year's Day, 2007, Cook held another performance on Brighton beach, Big Beach Boutique 3. Tickets were only available to residents of Brighton and Hove, capped at 20,000. Big Beach Boutique 4 took place on September 27, 2008, with the same ticket procedures. 2008–2014: the Brighton Port Authority and Here Lies Love In 2008, Cook played at Glastonbury Festival, the O2 Wireless Festival, Rockness Festival and Coachella. In 2009, he released the album ''I Think We're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat as the virtual band the Brighton Port Authority, featuring Iggy Pop, David Byrne, Dizzee Rascal, Martha Wainwright and Ashley Beedle. Cook also produced two tracks on The Revolution Presents'', a 2009 compilation album by various Cuban musicians. He later expressed regret about the album, saying: "I'm not Paul Simon – I'm not the world's best musical ambassador, it wasn't my forte." and headlined the east dance stage at Glastonbury 2010. He collaborated with Byrne again on Here Lies Love (2010), a concept album about the life of the Philippines First Lady Imelda Marcos. A musical based on the album premiered in 2013 at the Public Theater in New York City and opened on Broadway in 2023.In the 2010s, as EDM grew in popularity worldwide, Cook began performing more frequently in the United States. On 18 June 2010, he performed at the Cool Britannia FIFA World Cup music festival at the Cape Town International Convention Centre in South Africa. In 2011, he received PRS for Music award for Outstanding Contribution to Music at the Ivor Novello Awards. On 30 May, he was the headliner at Movement Electronic Music Festival in Detroit. He headlined Bestival on the Isle of Wight on 11 September. Cook performed "Right Here, Right Now" and "The Rockefeller Skank" at the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony in London. On 1 September, he performed at Brighton Pride. In March 2012, Cook hosted a ten-part radio programme, On The Road To Big Beach Bootique 5, on XFM. In 2013, Cook performed at Ultra Music Festival in Miami. At Glastonbury 2016, he played the John Peel stage for the first time. In 2017, he released the single "Where U Iz". At a concert in Gateshead, England, in October 2019, Cook performed a mashup of his track "Right Here, Right Now" and Greta Thunberg's speech at the United Nations, which went viral. Cook made a cameo as a DJ in the 2019 film Greed, and played himself in the third series of the Channel 4 sitcom Derry Girls, broadcast in 2022.During the COVID-19 lockdowns, Cook posted mixes online and worked at the cafe he owned in Hove. He said he had not done "an honest job" for years and that it "kept him sane". In May 2021, Cook performed in Liverpool as part of the government's trials to restart mass audience events following the COVID-19 pandemic. Cook collaborated with the British singer Rita Ora on the 2023 single "Praising You", a reworking of his track "Praise You". At Glastonbury 2023, Cook played the song "Insomnia" by Faithless as a tribute to the Faithless singer, Maxi Jazz. That October, he was awarded the Guinness world record for the most UK number-one singles by one musician as a member of different acts. At the 77th Tony Awards in June 2024, Cook and David Byrne were nominated for the Tony Award for Best Original Score for Here Lies Love. That month, Cook released the single "Role Model". The music video, his first in nearly 20 years, features celebrities edited with deepfake technology, such as David Bowie, Bill Murray and Muhammad Ali. In July, Cook joined his former bandmate Paul Heaton to play bass on the 1986 Housemartins song "Happy Hour" at Glastonbury 2024. Cook estimated that his performance at Glastonbury 2025 was his 100th Glastonbury performance, including performances on large stages and small tents. On 11 December, Cook released "Satisfaction Skank", a remix of "The Rockafeller Skank" incorporating elements of the 1965 Rolling Stones song "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction". Cook had played the remix in his DJ sets for years, and it became one of the world's most bootlegged recordings. It was blocked from release until the Rolling Stones' management agreed to license its sample after several refusals. As he grew older, Cook lost interest in creating music focused on DJ performances, which he said he still had "100% passion for". He said in 2025: "If I did make a new record then it would be a very average record. I prefer not to waste mine or other people's time with that. I feel like I've made enough records and there's a body of work there that's good enough." == Style ==

Cook said he combined breakbeats from hip-hop, the "anarchic rebellion" of punk, the energy of acid house and the hooks of pop music. Cook pioneered the 1990s electronic genre big beat, which Sound on Sound likened to a "pop art-styled collage" of samples. He believes DJs should communicate with the crowd through their expressions and body language and respond to them. "The more the crowd give me back, the more I wanna give them and it becomes a cycle of nonsense – sometimes to ludicrous extremes." He aimed to energise the crowd like James Brown. He described Jon Carter and Carl Cox as DJs he learned from and whose stage styles he adopted. He resisted pressure from record companies to perform with live musicians, as he felt the appeal of his music was in "the grit and character" of the samples, and to recreate them would be "like hearing a wedding covers band". He performs in Hawaiian shirts without shoes. == Charity work and activism ==

In 2008, Cook remixed the track "Amazonas" for the charity Bottletop, which funds educational projects in deprived areas. In June 2022, he gave DJ lessons as part of an NHS foundation trust initiative to create art events for people with mental health problems. That November, the project received the gold award in the Sussex Partnership Trust Positive Practice awards. On 6 March 2013, Cook became the first DJ to perform at the House of Commons in Westminster, London, in aid of the Last Night a DJ Saved My Life Foundation, which encourages young people to become involved in their communities. Cook said later that it was a "milestone" to perform there years after the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, which clamped down on raves: "Isn't it brilliant that finally we've wormed our way into the public's consciousness to the extent that we're not seen as a bunch of drug-taking anarchists any more? Dance music is here to stay." Cook is an ambassador for Martlets Hospice in Brighton. In October 2018, he walked 26 miles, the length of a marathon, to promote the Snailspace public art project, which raised money for Marlets. He changed his name to Fatboy Slow for the event. In April 2025, he opened Marlets' refurbished charity shop in Brighton. == Personal life ==

Cook's first marriage, to a nurse, ended in the early 1990s. For several years, Cook used drugs including cocaine, ecstasy and ketamine and performed while intoxicated. As of March 2022, he had been sober for 13 years. Cook said performing sober gave him stage fright for the first time. In the same year, he purchased a 12% share in Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club, which he has supported since moving to Brighton in the 1980s. Cook also owned a Japanese restaurant in Brighton, Oki-Nami, and the Spotted Pig, a Michelin-starred gastropub in New York City that closed in 2016. He collects objects bearing the smiley symbol, and in 2019 he curated a smiley exhibition in Lisbon with the Portuguese artist Vhils. == Awards and nominations ==

Studio albums • Better Living Through Chemistry (1996) • ''You've Come a Long Way, Baby'' (1998) • Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars (2000) • Palookaville (2004) Collaborations • Here Lies Love (2010) • ''I Think We're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat'' (2009) == References ==