You’ve come a long way, baby

“Call me whatever you like: Norman, Norm, Nobby …” Perhaps better known as Fatboy Slim, Norman (born Quentin Leo Cook in 1963) was a student at Brighton Polytechnic from 1982–1985, achieving a 2:1 BA in British Studies. Almost 30 years since graduating,  Norman invited The Brighton Effect to his home to chat about his time as student, his career and his relationship with the city.

Norman admitted that in many ways, he chose the city first and the polytechnic second. As his sister attended the University of Sussex, Norman spent a lot of time hanging out with her, soon falling in love with the city. Norman recalled one of his first discoveries was that The Young Ones wasn’t the reality of student life! He remembered savouring the rush of freedom associated with leaving home and working out what to do with it. He also learnt how to stick with something for three years and he remains justifiably proud of his 2.1.

Norman always wanted to go into the music business but his parents made it clear that they would only support him whilst he was in full-time education. “They just wanted me to have something to fall back on in case the music career didn’t work, but I always knew what I wanted to do.”

Paul Heaton was at the same grammar school and they formed a band together. After graduation, Norman joined Paul in Hull to play bass with The Housemartins. So when did Norman know he’d made it? As with most artists at that time, he cites the band’s first appearance on Top of the Pops, but also recalls when he first heard a Housemartins’ song on the radio. The band were in a chip shop in Edinburgh and suddenly the song Sheep started playing on Radio 1.

After three years, the DJing bug had bitten him and Norman left as he realised it was dance music that he wanted to do: “It was a great time and it was kind of me and Paul’s dream that we used to sit there mulling over in the pub when we were 16 … but musically it wasn’t really my scene and over the years, I’ve realised I’m a much better DJ than I am a bass player.”

Despite Norman’s determination to develop a career in the music industry, he did find his course interesting. What particularly resonated was a final year module in urban settlement patterns in the US. This was the aspect he found most appealing and is still fascinated by it. When travelling across the globe, Norman points out city layouts to his crew: “It was all about the idea of planning settlements rather than letting them grow. I still talk about zones in transitions and central business districts.”

With the focus these days very much upon universities supporting student employability and providing strong careers advice, did Norman receive much careers guidance from his tutors? “To anyone who tried to offer me careers advice, I said ‘come back in three years – I’m giving myself that time to have a crack at the music business’.”

Norman returned to Brighton in 1988 to find that the acid house craze had taken over: “When I came back, everyone was wearing smiley face bandanas and I thought ‘what’s going on here?’” It was at this point that his friend (another Brighton Polytechnic alumnus) J C Reid established the Loaded label.

Norman recorded on the Loaded label under the name Pizzaman, but when Skint was set up as a sub label of Loaded, Norman was asked to create another pseudonym and so Fatboy Slim was born. Norman explained: “It’s just that I really like old blues records and if you were a fat blues singer, you got called Slim. There was Pinetop Slim, Memphis Slim, Bumblebee Slim, so Fatboy Slim was a nice oxymoron.”

Norman is very Brighton-centric: “I’ve always been very proud of the city. I do love it.” He feels it comes back to what he studied about developing settlements – on one hand there is the hedonism, but then also the underlying role of Brighton as a service point for leisure. “The economy of the city depends on visitors – not necessarily tourists – but visitors. Whether it’s stag nights, clubbers, conference guests or language schools – that’s the economy of the town.”

From Norman’s point of view, being allowed to play hometown gigs in recent years has provided the perfect showcase to celebrate the city, its history, its future and its long-standing tradition of inviting people here for a party. 

This year Norman has played 70 shows all over the world – Great Wall of China, Jakarta, Ibiza and Vegas, to name but a few: “So the other half of my life is travelling, being a wandering minstrel, playing tunes to people and hopefully turning them on.”

Being photographed and regular television appearances are both things Norman doesn’t enjoy. In fact, anything which comes with fame is difficult for him to deal with, wanting instead to focus on the music. He laughs about the idea that he might one day be ‘found out’, with everyone realising that he is just a bloke who waves his arms about and plays records.

Looking forward, Norman’s ambition is to produce a full film score. Following his contribution to Baz Luhrmann’s film, Moulin Rouge, he would love to write a score from start to finish, citing films such as Paris, Texas by Ry Cooder and Midnight Express by Giorgio Moroder as examples where the music has become synonymous with the film.

Norman still enjoys DJing, although he does think about the future: “Obviously there will come a point when I’m too old to enjoy it or do it or they don’t want me anymore, so there is plenty of time for me to do soundtracks when I’ve got more time on my hands.”

What advice could he offer new students? Norman wishes Brighton’s new students lots of happiness and success. Coincidentally, his nephew has just started as a student at the university. He lived with Norman and Zoe for a few weeks before moving into halls. Having his nephew stay certainly made Norman reminisce about his student life. “For me, the weirdest thing is that the geography block where I’d spend many an afternoon gazing out of the window at the South Downs, has now been turned into a football stadium.”

Norman’s links with Brighton and Hove Albion Football Club are well known. He feels strongly that people should support their nearest team and it meant a great deal to him that the Skint record label name was on the Albion shirt for several years.

Is there anything Norman knows now that he wished he’d known when he was a student? Obviously a lot has changed since his student days – if only he’d known then how important computers would become. In his words, it was most certainly a case of: “Check these things out, as they might be around for a while.” He might have something there!