Fatboy Slim

Fatboy Slim is the alter ego of the musician Norman Quentin Cook (1963- ). He was bassist with the Housemartins, who recorded several sessions and were frequently played on Kat's Karavan, and sang a capella with them under the name Fish City Five. When the band split amicably in 1988, Cook went on to form Beats International, which had a number one in 1990 with Dub Be Good To Me: he also participated in a variety of other acts with varying degrees of success.

However, his career was truly revivified in 1996 when, under the name Fatboy Slim, he made the critically acclaimed LP Better Living Through Chemistry and followed this up with a series of commercially and critically successful albums and singles, achieving another UK number one in 1998 with Praise You. His single The Rockafeller Skank ran to nearly seven minutes on the version from the album You've Come A Long Way, Baby: edited down to under four (and including a remarkable vocal sample slowly speeded up to resemble an air raid siren), it peaked at number six in the UK charts in the summer of 1998. (One of the other samples was from Duane Eddy's Peter Gunn: Cook had to sign away his entire royalties from Rockafeller Skank in order to get all the samples legally cleared.) Though Peel seems to have had no time for Cook's work after the Housemartins (nor indeed for that of any of its other members), this track hit the 1998 Festive Fifty at 28.

Cook's skill as a remixer propelled Brimful Of Asha by JP favourites Cornershop to number one in the UK charts the year after it had hit top spot in the 1997 Festive Fifty. In 2002, Peel was a host at Glastonbury when Cook appeared. In a Forbes interview published in 2012, Cook said that "John Peel gave me my musical education". 

Festive Fifty Entries

 * 'The Rockafeller Skank'' 1998 Festive Fifty #28Rockafeller Skank by Fatboy Slim Official Video

Sessions

 * None

Other Shows Played

 * 23 December 1998: 'The Rockafeller Skank (CD-You've Come A Long Way, Baby)' (Skint)
 * 15 November 2001: 'Badder Badder Schwing (with Freddie Fresh) (unreleased Japanese edit) (7"-Have Some Faith)' (Howlin')