Hometown: Brighton, England
Year Formed: 1995

Members:
Norman Cook

Related Artists :
The Housemartins, The Beautiful South, Mighty Dub Katz, Beats International, Freak Power, Fried Funk Food, Wild Child, Cornershop, Beastie Boys, Underworld, The Chemical Brothers, and countless others...

Notes:
Norman Cook, originally with The Housemartins, began dabbling with a series of dance-music alter egos in the early '90s. In 1995 he was commissioned by Damien Harris to record the inaugural tune for Brighton dance label Skint, and Fatboy Slim was born with the "Santa Cruz" single. Cook took up a DJ residency at the soon-to-be-legendary Big Beat Boutique in Brighton, and his "Everybody Needs A 303" broke the Top 10 in Britain. A series of high profile remix jobs and the release of Better Living Through Chemistry saw Fatboy Slim join the Chemical Brothers and Bentley Rhythm Ace as leading lights of the British "big beat" boom.

In Britain, bookmakers will take almost any bet. Last year a new father got 25,000 to 1 odds that his baby boy would one day score a goal in the World Cup. But if he had walked into Ladbroke's in 1988 and asked for odds against someone from The Housemartins becoming the world's most sought-after party DJ, he'd have been laughed out of the place. They don't set odds that high.

The first five songs of Better Living Through Chemistry are Norman Cook (aka Fatboy Slim)'s great triumph over the odds. That the bassist from the world's least funky band could rip off five tunes this wildly, irrepressibly hedonistic is a near miracle. "Song For Lindy" is a hammering hip-house beast; "The Weekend Starts Here" is the most appropriately-titled song ever. The other three - "Santa Cruz," "Going Out of My Head" and "Everybody Needs a 303" - are just stone cold classics. They were among the first songs this side of the Chemical Brothers worthy of the overused "Big Beat" tag, and if you don't already know them, you need to get out more.

And after that? After that, who cares? The rest is "only" the most slamming instrumental acid breakbeat-fiesta since...the first five tracks. Funky, rockin', ready to drink your girlfriend and dance with your beer. Don't bet against it.