Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
DJ and musician best known as Fat Boy Slim.
On the island
Eight records
The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
This is a really pivotal record in my development from wanting to be in a pop band to wanting to be a creative DJ. … when I heard Grandmaster Flash DJ, he was doing stuff with the records that I'd never heard done before.
Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight
this record will always remind me of my parents. And I was born in 1963, which is when they started. So literally that was the soundtrack of my early years. And then thought my uncle, Dennis, was in the Beatles.
a very beautiful, soulful song. I can imagine it lifting my spirits on those days when I realise that I am on my own and I've got no one to show off to.
White Man in Hammersmith Palais
this is the sound of my young rebellion. The Clash still are my favourite band ever. They just, they had everything. … White Man in Hamsmith Palais, that would have been just when I started DJing.
I Feel LoveFavourite
there was this one record by Donna Summer called I Feel Love that spoke to me. … there was something about the electronics of this record. Beautiful, soulful song, but also acid house being invented 10 years early by Giorgio Amoroda. So this record, again, just has changed my life and has been a blueprint of me liking electronic music.
This would just remind me on the desert island of every lover that I've ever had, everybody I've ever fallen in love with. I've put this on their mixtape, I've sung it to them. … All the lovers and partners and wives I've had, I'm pretty much friends with still, and I love them still. And so I would dedicate this to this. This would be my memory of all the good times.
if I'm feeling a little bit anxious and angsty about being on a desert island, then I must be in a good place now would be a good mantra to have. … Turning your desolation and your loneliness round into a positive thing.
it had to be something that would remind me of the clubbing experience. … On the desert island, there must be some kind of room for a bit of a jump around. … this is one of the best records of leap around that has ever been invented.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:27How has it been for you narrowing down your music choices to just eight?
It's a bit like saying, which of your children would you like to kill first? So there's so many tunes that I would love to have. But I think these are I've kind of picked eight that would endure and they would have some purpose rather than just…
Presenter asks
4:00Has it been a nice part of the challenge that there is no crowd to please on the island?
No, no, that would be probably my worst nightmare about it. I mean, you know, I had a little of that during lockdown. … not being able to show off and perform and share my music was like that. It's kind of like this abyss of nothing. So, I know, I mean, I am a performer, I'm a show-off, and that defines me. So, I'm going to really struggle. … without an audience, I'm sort of not quite myself.
Presenter asks
17:49You were in the same class at school as Keir Starmer and took violin lessons together. How did that go?
I think I did it for one term until my parents couldn't stand the screeching noise any longer and I switched to piano. But yeah, no, it's quite funny because some people say, when they say, oh, you know, I was at school with so-and-so. It means like they were in a different year and, you know. But me and Keir were actually in the same form for five years. … I remember I saw him on TV when he was director of public prosecutions. … there can't be more than one person called Keir Starmer. … Bizarrely enough, there was somebody in our school who was a real SWAT and he was brilliant. He was gifted and talented. And when you asked him what did he want, he said, I want to be Prime Minister. And no one laughed. We were like, yeah, you probably will. And we didn't realise that there actually was a future Prime Minister sitting right next to him.
The keepsakes
The book
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
Robert Tressell
I'm going to choose The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressel. … it's a kind of introduction to socialism. … I read it when I was 18, and that politicized me and set my political beliefs in action. … when the other people arrive, I can get them to introduce them to the book, and then we can build this utopian socialist society where we're all equal.
The luxury
There's peace and order and compartmentalizing. … I would just label everything on the island just to make me smile every time I walk past.
Presenter asks
35:31How did you handle the transition from being music nerds famous to being tabloid famous?
I only negotiated that change really with Zoe's help because there's one level of fame where you get recognised by people who like you. And then there's another level where you get recognized by people regardless of whether they like you or not. So if they don't like you, they still shout things at you. … It was weird, but Zo had been used to it. She'd been sort of tabloid famous for a few years before that. And she sort of walked me through it. … Things went really crazy when we got together. We became more famous than some of our parts.
Presenter asks
36:25What was the tipping point when you realized you needed to sort out your drinking?
I was kind of aware for about a year before that that it wasn't fun, so much fun anymore and it was beginning to hurt. … And in the end it was just one comment from Zoe and I realized that she was going to leave me unless I stopped drinking. … All she said was, oh, Norman. But she said it in such a way, it's like, oh, my God, you're going to leave me and take the kids unless I get sober. So yeah, that was my wake-up moment.
Presenter asks
38:36You've been sober for over fifteen years. How long did it take to get used to DJing when you were straight?
It took about five shows. For the first five shows, I was so paralyzed, rigid with fear that I couldn't dance and I couldn't enjoy it. … Thinking, what are you actually doing? Why are you going to play that record next? … instinct of DJing that just went out the window and I just had to fight for each new tune. … And then one night I had this beautiful night in in Japan where the crowd were just so beautiful and so into it. … And I just thought, oh, that's all, that's what it is. It's just making them happy. And everything sort of fitted into place.
“She was very open, very loving, very inquisitive and playful. She was an amateur dream analyst.”
“Hands-off, lovely religion that just believed in unity and getting on with your fellow human being rather than starting wars.”
“instinct of DJing that just went out the window”
“All of those feelings that you just came crashing down on me in one go.”
“I enjoy my this DJing side of my job more than ever.”