“That was probably the opposite to playing a pumped up crowd in Australia that have had a few drinks,” Cook laughs. “It was like playing a wedding where no-one really knew each other and aren’t drunk enough. It wasn’t a classic set, and it wasn’t a classic crowd, but it was the fact that I was there – especially because 19 years previously the Commons had been trying to ban what we did, through the Criminal Justice Bill. It was deliciously surreal from start to finish.”
Many years before he set up his decks in the English parliamentary chamber, Cook was playing drums in a band called Disque Attack (“it’s the first thing that comes up on Wikipedia, but it’s the least important thing about my career,” he laughs). Even as he had his first brush with fame as bass player in the Christian-Marxist rock band The Housemartins, Cook had a sideline hobby playing as a DJ in local clubs. By the late 1980s Cook had become a professional DJ and recording artist in his own right, an occupation that not long before would have been unfathomable.
“When I started out I didn’t expect to be taken seriously as a DJ, because no one did in those days,” Cook says. As the notional leader of electronica band Beats International, Cook found himself at the vanguard of the dub scene. But, as a result of sampling other artists in his own compositions, Cook found himself the subject of the occasional testy legal letter.
“With the hits came the writs,” he says. “In England people were very excited by it, but the lawyers and some of the artists who were sampled didn’t have the same [view]. It was like a frontier spirit – no one really knew what the rules were. And you can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs. Now it’s recognised as a legitimate way of creating records, but you still have to be very careful. And you’ve got the whole Robin Thicke case setting new precedents about what you can get away with, and you’ve got Uptown Funk which has about seven lawsuits going.”
Cook’s reinvention as Fatboy Slim, and the release of Better Living Through Chemistry in 1996 and You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby in 1998, catapulted him into popular view. The title of the former album was a nod to Cook’s indulgence in amphetamines, hallucinogens and other sundry recreational drugs that initially helped him through a difficult period in his personal life, and subsequently became part of his professional existence.
“Absolutely drugs helped my creativity,” he says. “But one piece of advice is: kids, don’t take drugs while you’re making records – take drugs the day before and try and remember that feeling, and not while you’re making records. If you’re off your nut, the sound of the fridge can sound amazing.”
Having checked himself into rehab around ten years ago to curb his booze habit, Cook now lives a comparatively abstemious existence, punctuating his life as a married father of two with periodic festival shows. Cook’s recent performances have included the creation of a human smiley face at the Creamfields dance festival in England last year. While the smiley face is typically associated with acid house culture, it was the iconic graphic’s appearance on the 12” of Talking Heads’ Psycho Killer in 1977 that first drew Cook’s attention.
“The smiley works on so many more levels than acid house. For me it’s this eternal icon of unconditional, goofy happiness. It’s been assimilated by counter culture and fashion, and it’s subversive without being offensive to anyone.”
Cook also concedes that the smiley face reflects his own positive attitude to life – a perspective that’s even more resolute at the age of 51. “Whether I’m drinking or not, I’m generally a positive person. And I was brought up as a pacifist and a smile is a very welcoming and disarming way of communicating.”
Next week Cook flies out to Australia to play DJ sets in Perth, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. With temperatures currently below zero in England, Cook is looking forward to a climatic reprieve. In an interview last year, Cook referred to the “five Fs” that influence his choice of shows each year – a first, a favour for a friend, fun, finance and food. For each gig, three of the five Fs must be met. Cook’s trip to Australia is partly a favour for a friend – a promoter who supported him early in his DJ career – and he’s also looking forward to the food, the fun of the Australian crowds and the finance is taken care of. “So the only ‘F’ that’s not taken care of is that it’s a first – and I can’t do much about that.”
BY PATRICK EMERY
