Fatboy Slim — Big Beat DJ & Dance-Pop StarFatboy Slim
Norman Quentin Cook, known as Fatboy Slim, is an English DJ raised in Reigate, Surrey. He learned to mix from Carl Cox while studying at Brighton Polytechnic in the 1980s, after which he developed experience across bands and dance projects before adopting the Fatboy Slim name in 1995. He released Santa Cruz through Brighton's Skint Records and established a big-beat DJ identity built from breakbeats, samples and dance-pop hooks.
His first Fatboy Slim performance at Glastonbury came in 1996, and the 1998 album You've Come a Long Way, Baby delivered the club-focused hits Praise You, The Rockafeller Skank and Right Here, Right Now. His Brighton connection runs through more than Skint: he co-founded the Big Beat Boutique club night at the Concorde. The free Big Beach Boutique concert on Brighton beach in 2001 drew about 60,000 people, while its 2002 follow-up brought an estimated 250,000, far beyond the expected turnout.
Cook received Brit Awards for Best British Dance Act in 1999 and 2001. Praise You won three MTV Video Music Awards, and Weapon of Choice won six, setting Guinness World Records for a DJ and for a single video. As a DJ, Fatboy Slim has repeatedly turned compact sample-based tracks into large collective moments, from Brighton beach to Glastonbury.