• July 31, 1963
• Fatboy Slim, born Quentin Leo Cook, was born in Bromley, Kent, and raised in Reigate, Surrey. While at Reigate Grammar School, he studied violin alongside classmate Keir Starmer, who would later become British Prime Minister.
• Eschewing his birth name Quentin, he began going by Norman during his teenage years in the 1980s, eventually making it official in 2002. The legal name change can be found in the UK's official public record.
• Before adopting the name Fatboy Slim, Cook played bass for the indie rock band The Housemartins, who had a UK #1 hit with their a cappella cover of Isley-Jasper-Isley's "Caravan of Love."
  
  After the band's breakup, he formed the dance group Beats International, whose hit "Dub Be Good to Me" also reached #1 on the UK chart.
  
  His musical experimentation continued with groups such as Freak Power, Pizzaman, and the Mighty Dub Katz before he launched his solo career as Fatboy Slim in 1996.
• As Fatboy Slim, Cook became a key figure in popularizing big beat, a genre known for its energetic, sample-layered tracks. His debut album, You've Come a Long Way, Baby, propelled this sound into the mainstream.
  
  In a 2017 interview with Sound on Sound, Cook revealed that he created three of the most famous tracks on the album within a single week: "I was just seven days a week, either partying or making tunes. I remember I did 'The Rockafeller Skank' and 'Praise You' and 'Right Here, Right Now' in the same week. I only know that because they're all on the same disk for the Atari. That was a good week."
• In addition to his original material, Fatboy Slim became renowned for his remixes, which often outperformed the originals commercially. His reworks of Wildchild's "Renegade Master" and Cornershop's "Brimful of Asha" were particularly successful, with the latter becoming a UK #1 hit. According to Cornershop, Cook was so enthusiastic about remixing their song that he didn't charge a fee.
• Fatboy Slim's music videos are arguably as iconic as his tracks themselves. The video for "Praise You," directed by and starring Spike Jonze, featured a hilarious flash-mob-style dance by the fictional Torrance Community Dance Group. Set outside a Los Angeles theater, the video went on to win several MTV Video Music Awards in 1999. Jonze also directed the video for "Weapon of Choice," in which Pulp Fiction actor Christopher Walken surprised viewers by dancing through the mezzanine of a Marriott hotel.
• On July 13, 2002, Fatboy Slim hosted Big Beach Boutique II, a free concert along the seafront of his hometown, Brighton, East Sussex. While organizers expected around 60,000 attendees, an astounding 250,000 people arrived, which was double Brighton's population at the time. The massive turnout caused logistical chaos and strained local resources to breaking point, tragically resulting in two fatalities, more than 170 injuries, and six arrests. Since then, similar free concerts have not been allowed in Britain. The story of this event was revisited in the 2023 documentary Right Here, Right Now.
• Fatboy Slim married BBC Radio 1 DJ Zoe Ball in 1999, and their celebrity status soon made them one of Britain's most photographed couples. In 2003, they briefly separated following Ball's admission of an affair, though they later reconciled. The couple had two children, Woody and Nelly Cook. After 18 years together, they announced their separation in 2016.

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