It’s been 40 years in the making, but legendary clubland DJ Fatboy Slim – aka Norman Cook – is finally coming clean about his life in a brand new book. Well, not quite. Rather than a tell-all memoirs, It Ain’t Over ‘Til The Fatboy Sings, is more of a coffee table extravaganza, with at least 1,000 images.
He laughs: “There comes a point in your life when people ask ‘Do you wanna write an autobiography?’ Well, this ain’t gonna happen, as I can’t remember the juicy bits. Firstly, I was so off my nut at the time, and secondly, the bits I can remember, I can’t really tell them while my children are still alive.
“So what I have decided to do is a coffee table visual book about memories from my career. It is good for me, as it is mainly pictures and it is not going too deep.”
So, no indiscretions about partying til dawn with his string of A-list showbiz pals? “None of the stuff that went on in our house in the 1990s is in the book,” he tells The Mirror.
“Any photos that we do have were taken by people who were as off their nut as we were, so most of them are blurry of people wearing stupid clothes.”
The book still offers an intoxicating journey – just like Norman’s life – with personal photos, original artwork, flyers and posters he’s saved since growing up in Redhill, Surrey, and forming his first band, aged just 15.
Everything from pop stardom with The Housemartins, through to clubland infamy is celebrated. Bromley-born Norman, 61, who has a seafront home in Hove, but never swims because ‘it’s f***ing cold” is about to start a mammoth club tour of Australia and Europe and has no plans to turn down the volume anytime soon.
“I will keep going until I drop,” he says. Recalling the enforced slowdown during the pandemic, he adds: ”I could not work for 14 months and it was ugly. I glimpsed at retirement and it was the abyss of golf and endless lunches. Now I cherish work even more having got it back.
“The simple answer is that I have never grown up.” Born Quentin Leo Cook, Norman was bassist for Hull-based indie rock band The Housemartins, famed for their No.1 single Caravan of Love, in the 1980s.
After the band split, he formed the electronic band Beats International, and had a number one single Dub Be Good To Me. But it was as his alter ego Fatboy Slim that he won worldwide acclaim, thanks to his albums Better Living Trough Chemistry and You’ve Come A Long Way Baby.
Success almost derailed him, though. And he credits his ex wife, former Radio 2 star Zoe Ball – who he married in 1999 – with keeping him on the straight and narrow.
Praising Zoe for her lasting support, he says: “In the 90s, I was having too much fun to think about the next day or the next thing. It was like being on top of a big wave and you had to stay on.
“You concentrate on not falling off. It became a whirlwind, but to be honest Zoe helped me through it as she knew that level of fame before. Zoe is a very kind, thoughtful person and she just had this way of just checking my ego like ‘We are still human beings. We are still nice to people.’”
Despite their divorce in 2020, the pair remain close, thanks to their son Woody, 24, and daughter Nelly, 15. Norman says of Zoe: “She brought me through the trickier bits. If you are out with your mates you can’t say to them ‘I am having trouble coping with fame.’ You are not going to get a lot of sympathy.
“But to Zoe I could say ‘I am a bit scared. Is this not scary?’ We could talk about it as we were thrust into the same spotlight. It was nice to have a soulmate in there with you.’
More recently, they have supported each other when they have each lost their mums. And they cherish their lasting closeness and their privacy – one of the reasons why they haven’t made a reality show together, despite many offers.
Norman says: “I would absolutely not do a reality show. I have been invited on most of them like Strictly. Can you imagine me on Strictly? I have been asked to do the jungle too.
“When Big Brother first came out me and Zoe used to really love it. And when there was a celebrity one we talked about it and we decided that the only way we would do it if nobody ever saw it. Because the places where we would go and things we would do would be absolutely hideous. That is why you can’t see it!
“We had the same thing with Louis Theroux. He wanted to do one with Norman and Zoe and we just thought ‘There are so many warts and all you are going to bring out if you interview us.’ We would just shoot ourselves in so many feet. “
Today, Norman sees fame through the eyes of his son Woody, a fellow DJ who has also starred on Channel 4’s Gogglebox alongside his mum. But Norman says his children are not nepo kids, although they have grown up around “hardcore showbiz.”
“If you grew up in our household with me and Zoe as parents there are two things you are not going to be. One is shy and the other is normal,” he says.
“When we had kids we were going through the most mental times of our lives. They have both grown up around showbiz and I mean proper hardcore showbiz.
“When Woody was 10 he said ‘Dad, have you got any friends that are not in the film or music business?’ They did not grow up in a normal environment.
“But despite this, they have grown up quite sensible. They have not got that nepo kid sort of attitude or just completely useless trust fund t*ts or something. I am biased but I am very proud of the way they turned out.
“I do go to Woody’s gigs and he always knows I am there. I will leave all my vinyl to Woody. My son loves vinyl. He devours it,” says Norman.
Reluctant to DJ when he was younger, in case he lived in his dad’s shadow. Woody went to Bristol Uni to study drama.
But two weeks in, the phone rang and Norman says: “He rings up and said ‘Dad, I have started DJ-ing.’ He is a full time DJ and he is very good. He is not shy.
“I must admit he has taken my level of showing off but has put some pizazz into it. Once he did a standing jump over the decks and did not break his ankle. He wont listen to me (over fame pitfalls). He says ’When you offer me advice it comes out of the same mouth that told me to eat my broccoli.’”
Sober since checking into rehab in 2012, Norman says: “When I first got sober I was paralysed with fear. I had been drunk every time I had been on stage, I always had a drink to get rid of the nerves. The worst thing was the stage fright. I could not dance and my legs were just rigid.
“But what changed things was doing a gig in Japan. I played this big festival and they were just a beautiful crowd and I thought ‘That is what it is about. You don’t have to be off your nut to experience this, the love, joy and feeling of community.’”
Happily sober, Norman felt “properly excited.” In the words of one of his biggest albums, it’s fair to say – You’ve come a long way baby!
It Ain’t Over ‘Til The Fatboy Sings is available to pre-order from Rocket 88 from March 12.