The air was buzzing, the energy was high (thanks to openers DJ Seinfeld, CC:Disco! and Jennifer Loveless) and the crowd was eager to keep dancing the night away.
Walking in, over the top of the hill at Mt Duneed Estate, we were met with the sight of 13,000 people swarming around the stage – a stage that would soon welcome the iconic party starter Fatboy Slim.
As we joined the edges of the ebb and flow, a lilac sunset turning the clouds into natural disco lights overhead, I could see a mix of generations wasting no time in sharing a laugh, grinning big and just plain happy to be there.
This is the essence of Fatboy Slim.
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From his early days as the bassist in The Housemartins, to becoming one of the most iconic figures in electronic dance music, Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim) has never been afraid to evolve.
Drawing inspiration from an eclectic mix of genres, his sound is a fusion of funk, soul, punk rock, and house, all blended together with a unique personal touch.
Over the years his appeal to such large audiences surely must be in part to his own enduring happy nature. You never doubt his earnest need to entertain his crowd, and seeing the man spinning wax for your enjoyment, also enjoying himself up there, is the key to keeping all that goodness going.
As he told me back in February, for the cover feature of our March edition of Forte Mag, his energy is deeply connected to performing on stage.
“The energy of the crowd truly fuels me,” he said. “People ask, ‘How does a 61-year-old have such energy?’ I get it from the crowd. I get so overexcited watching them. They’re a part of it—it’s a conversation that goes on. And that influences the music as well because you spend thousands of hours onstage watching people react and seeing what gets them going. A lot of the time, I try out new stuff on the crowd and figure out what works.”
Needing no introduction, wasting no time, Fatboy Slim sent the crowd into a sea of whoops and whistles as his beats filled the evening air. I could have sworn there was a slight chill when we arrived, but after 5 minutes of head-shaking, feet-kicking tunes from Mr Slim, our blood was pumping and jackets were stuffed in bags.
Slim of course played the dance-floor bangers everyone asks for; ‘Right Here, Right Now’, ‘The Rockafeller Skank’ and ‘Eat, Sleep, Rave, Repeat’ and ‘Praise You’ – tracks that had even the sorest of feet back up and boogie-ing. Mixed in with some Talking Heads, Underworld’s ‘Born Slippy’, Bodyrockers ‘I Like The Way You Move’, The Doobie Brothers ‘Long Train Runnin’ and The Killers ‘Mr Brightside’, Slim continues to prove that he knows what good music sounds like.
After two hours of joyous jubilation, it seemed he was gone as quickly as he appeared and we all screamed our appreciation as the legendary dance master left the stage.
Thank you Norman, you’ve done it again.
