UNITED KINGDOM: DISC JOCKEY FAT BOY SLIM HOSTS CHANNEL FOUR SUMMER TOUR DANCE PARTY ON BRIGHTON BEACH

Record ID: 391671

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: DISC JOCKEY FAT BOY SLIM HOSTS CHANNEL FOUR SUMMER TOUR DANCE PARTY ON BRIGHTON BEACH
  • Date: 6th July 2001
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF GROOVE ARMADA PLAYING VARIOUS,FANS LISTENING TO MUSIC (5 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 21st July 2001 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BRIGHTON, EAST SUSSEX, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Entertainment,General
  • Reuters ID: LVA159YW1P17TAC8N5IHW2X3P9AY
  • Story Text: Around 35,000 revellers packed onto Brighton beach on Friday (July 6) for an unprecedented evening of dancing on the beach, hosted by superstar DJ Fatboy Slim.
    Brighton-based DJ Fatboy Slim (aka Norman Cook) headlined a unique 'dance party' on the beach of his hometown on Friday. Mixing a selection of his own songs with various dance tunes from the past decade Fatboy was awarded a rapturous welcome from his fellow townsfolk.
    Friday's day long event was part of the 'Channel 4 Summer Tour', organised by the British TV channel to help raise the profile of cricket across the UK.
    After watching play from the First Test of the Ashes series between England and Australia live from Edgbaston on a huge TV screen ardent cricket fans were joined by hardcore clubbers for an evening of dance music.
    First to hit the stage were British dance music sensation Groove Armada, currently preparing for the Autumn release of their third album, 'Goodbye Country (Hello Nightclub)'. Duo Tom Findlay and Andy Cato, who mixed records on the beach for an hour before Fatboy Slim hit the stage, spent nine months in a remote cottage in the Lake District recording the follow-up to the highly-acclaimed 'Vertigo'.
    Tom said the pair were "very proud" of the new album.
    He said: "I think it's coming out the first week in September and obviously I'd say this but it's fabulous. We're very proud of it. We've worked on it for about a year now, so hopefully, it feels like it was worth all the effort."
    Explaining their decision to record in the middle of nowhere, partner Andy said it meant they were free from distractions when recording. He said: "We .... spent nine months in a very small room with very small chairs which made it quite difficult to move. So it was quite intense, but a process that we had to go through, I think, because we've really found our sound now.
    "It's just mainly because most of the music you make happens at night anyway so you're not gazing at views all day, but it just means you concentrate. The phone doesn't ring and people don't pop round, you don't end up having loads of beers every night, well you do, but you stay in the studio at least."
    Andy, who once played trombone in a colliery band, said the pair were spending three weeks DJ-ing in Ibiza before touring American and Europe. He said: "We're going to Ibiza next week and.........we're actually going to try and pretend to be pop stars. We've rented quite a flash villa for a couple of weeks, so we're going to try and live out our boyhood dreams."
    But did this mean that the laid-back pair would be trashing rooms and throwing TV sets into swimming pools. "No, (we'll be) very much tidying up after ourselves, and doing the washing up, I think," quipped Andy.
    Fatboy Slim is also off to Ibiza for three weeks and will be accompanied by TV presenter-wife Zoe Ball and young son Woody. "After this I'm playing Leipzig next Friday, so from Brighton to Leipzig, you know what I mean. So I'm playing at weekends, I'll be three weeks in Ibiza, which is great because I can take the whole family and I play and then I get three days off, chill out, then I play."
    After his return to the UK Fatboy will start work on one of his most interesting collaborations to date - he's producing Britpop legend Blur's next album. "We've decided it's an interesting idea. It'll either work or not, so we'll give it two weeks, but we've got a get-out clause that if it isn't working we'll just go 'no no', but depending on how the Gorillaz thing is going I should be producing Blur, that and remixing, but no more Fatboy Slim, not for the time being."
    While his solo work has begun to take a backseat since last Winter's release of the hugely successful LP 'Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars', Fatboy's attention has turned to re-mixing various other artists' work.
    He said: "I did Outcast, I just did Raven Maze, I'm doing Midfield General, but re-mixing you kind of, from the idea to the finished product you turn it around in about two weeks, so you never really know who you're going to be working with next, you don't plan it."
    Before beginning his two hour set as dusk set in on the beach Fatboy confessed to feeling very nervous about playing in front of his hometown crowd.
    "Being a Brighton boy, it means a lot to me playing in my hometown for free. I've a feeling that the crowd are going to be on my side so hopefully we'll have a good time. I'm a bit overwhelmed at the moment. The last couple of days have been. I don't normally get nervous about gigs, but the last couple of days I've been a bit jittery."
    He added: "All my friends are here tonight, people that I share a town with so if I make a tit of myself tonight, I'll have to move, I 'll have to leave town and also passionately want it go well because it's my hometown and I'd like it to be a celebration of Brighton. Some gigs you just play, but this one is quite from the heart."
    As 35,000 clubbers would testify Fatboy put in a superlative performance mixing some of his greatest hits, 'Right Here Now', 'Sunset (Bird Of Prey)', and 'Praise You' with a variety of other dance classics from various artists.
    The evening climaxed with a spectacular firework display from the derelict West Pier before the throngs of young fans resignedly headed off home after an extraordinary night.
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