What’s On and Hype profile Fatboy Slim and hear from Norman Cook for his appearance at Dubai’s May installment of Sandance, Atlantis, The Palm.

Fatboy Slim heads to Sandance armed with his big beat bombs. One of the UK’s most instantly recognisable DJs, Fatboy – aka Norman Cook – is known to bring the party with hits such as Praise You, Right Here, Right Now and last summer’s smash Eat Sleep Rave Repeat, a collaboration with Riva Star. All you need to bring is a smile and your dancing feet. Norm chews the fat before kicking up a sandstorm…

“I’ve been a vinyl junkie since I was about ten so I really love my records and really love playing them, but as a DJ there is just no room for them.”

“DJing was what first got me into dance music. The only reason I started making my own tunes was because I couldn’t find stuff that I actually wanted to play.”

“In the old days, it would take two years of hard work and gigging to get noticed by a record company, whereas now it takes about ten minutes. With word of mouth, within a week you can become an internet hit.”

“The Olympics [in London] was a really bizarre show to do. I don’t know if you’ve ever DJed inside a 40-foot high giant inflatable octopus on top of a bus? It’s quite a surreal feeling.”

 

“This is the greatest job, because you get paid to watch people enjoying it and dancing and smiling every night, which is more instantly rewarding than sitting in a studio for ages with an infinite amount of noises trying to work out which ones sound good together.”

“I’m always searching for new tunes. And when you find them, all you want to do is play them for everybody. Some people can throw on headphones when they find new music but my love of music is through sharing it with other people.”

“A lot of DJs, when performing they’re only looking at the records. I’m always dancing at the crowd and jumping about. No matter how great the gig is, I’m always enjoying it more than crowd and I think they notice that.”

“The first bit of writing an album is we go to a thrift store and just buy up tonnes of albums. And just going through and finding little bits and snippets of vocals or music that make me laugh.”

“It’s gone from it being an investment to buy a record, saving up your pocket money and going out and buying a piece of plastic that you would treasure and hold on to, to the point now where music is effectively free and accessible to everybody all the time.”

CRUNCHING THE NUMBERS
12%
Shareholder in his favourite English football team, Brighton & Hove Albion.

02
Brit Awards

34
He holds the Guinness World Record for having the most hit records under 34 band names and pseudonyms, including Pizzaman, Biggie Slims and Beats International.

 

2012
The year he DJed at the London 2012 Olympics closing ceremony, playing The Rockafeller Skank on top of an inflatable octopus.

$800
The cost of the award-winning video for Praise You. It was voted the best video of all time [in 2001] by MTV viewers.

250,000
People turned up to his Big Beach Boutique II party in Brighton in 2002. Only 60,000 people were expected.

2.1
Degree from Brighton University.

4:53:10
Norman’s time in the Brighton Marathon in 2010

10
MTV Music Video Awards

100%
All the royalties he receives from the Rockafller Skank go to the artists sampled on the track

01
Star on Brighton’s Walk of Frame in England, next to the star of Winston Churchhill

March 6, 2013
The date Norman became the first DJ to ever perform in the UK’s House Of Commons, playing a charity event for the Last Night A DJ Saved My Life organisation.

5,000,000
Copies of his second album, You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby, sold worldwide.

WHO ELSE IS PLAYING?

Find out more about Arrested Development here.
Find out more about Pet Shop Boys here.

Omar Basaad
The Saudi DJ and producer has the honour of performing the closing set of Sandance. Omar’s influences include Steve Angello and Daft Punk, as well as Khaleeji rhythms.

Goldfish
The Cape Town dance act are well-versed in working an outdoor crowd with live instruments, samplers and special effects. They have the likes of David Guetta and Fedde Le Grande demanding remixes, and have sold out shows from Amsterdam to Miami, and from Sydney to São Paulo.

Hollaphonic
Dubai’s own Hollaphonic step up to the decks after Pet Shop Boys. The first electronic dance duo to be signed by a major record label in the Middle East, their debut single I Don’t Want It To End went straight to No 1 on iTunes.

Scouting For Girls
Alternative rock band Scouting For Girls became radio favourites with songs like She’s So Lovely, Elvis Ain’t Dead, Heartbeat and Love How It Hurts. Their upbeat blend of guitar and piano has resulted in sales of more than two million records, and justified a greatest hits album and tour. Not bad for a band that only formed in 2005.

Sandance, Atlantis, The Palm Jumeirah. Friday, 3pm to 3am, from Dhs300. Taxi to Atlantis. sandance.ae