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Written by Adi Vaughan - Article added by AdiVaughan on 10-06-2012
After a 4 year hiatus Fatboy Slim held his fifth Big Beach Bootique over two nights in Brighton, this time at Brighton & Hove Albion FC's Amex Stadium. The first party was held on Friday 1st June, and the second on Saturday 2nd June 2012.
Fatboy Slim appeard headlined both nights and also featured Carl Cox on the Friday, along with Luciano, 2 Bears, and Maya Jane Coles. The Saturday featured Nero, plus Annie Mac, DJ Fresh, Jaguar Skills, Doorly, and Union.
XpressDJs went along to both events and managed to get a quick chat in with Norman before his set on the Saturday night.
AV: So how do you think yesterday went?
NC: Great! Spotless, couldn't fault it, yeah there was a lot of pressure and there were a lot of things we didn't know if they would work or not and they all did, from the screen to the general vibe moving it from the beach to indoors might have lost some of its kind of flair, we thought people might take it a bit more seriously but they didn't, ha-ha!
AV: Yes, we were here yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! So how does it feel to do the first concert at the Amex at the home of the Brighton and hove Albion the club that you love?
NC: Really proud, really proud, the amount of blood, sweat, tears and the money I have put into making this stadium exist and then the crowning thing to then christen it I wasn't going to let anybody else do the opening show, I was just not having it! It was really quite emotional if you think about the times we've dreamed about it, also if you think I went to Brighton University and the only bit they had to knock down to build this stadium which was the Geography block which is where I sat for 3 hours staring out at this field just like, bored, and if someone had said that by the way, in 20 years time they are going to dig this field up, knock this building down build a HUGE stadium for YOUR football team and you're going to get to play in it! Quite emotional!
AV: It's certainly epic! Was there any part of yesterday’s gig that really stood out for you at all?
NC: Errrm... the walk on stage, the long walk on stage and just thinking, yep, this... is.... real!
AV: everyone is essentially there for you...
NC: Yeah! And some of the hugs from some of the people from the football club and Paul Rogers, he really stuck his neck out to say look, we promised Norman, Dick Knight promised Norman that he can do this opening show and Tony Bloom was like, do we really want pop concerts? They said “look, it’s good for Brighton, it's good for the team, it all ties in because Norman is the conduit of all of it”. So we really stuck our necks out and didn't know if we were going to pull it off and there were times when we were thinking this isn't going to work so there were some very emotional hugs at the end of the show last night
AV: You must have been buzzing after that so how did you unwind afterwards?
NC: I went home, there were a few people having a bit of an after party at my house when we got back, to be honest I just ran round and said hello to as many people because all my guests are kept this side opposite the stage because if they are that side it's just too much, my concentration goes when I've got my sister, my son, my wife and things like that so I purposely kept them all out of the way so I had to run round and see all of them, we all had a big hug and a cheer, just lots of hugging and back clapping and “YES” (punches the air), and then, I didn't have a lift home! (roars of laughter from everyone) My sister had borrowed Zoe's car but then she got a migraine so she didn't bring Zoe's car so we were a car down but while we were talking about it everyone else just left in all the other cars!
AV: So was it the last one out switch off the lights was it?
NC: Yeah! It was only because Abbas' car was there but he'd had a drink so I had to borrow Abbas' car and drive home
AV: Should have taken the Camper van!
NC: There were no cabs to be had!
AV: Yeah, you don’t want to trek it back! So are you looking forward to tonight's set after yesterday’s success?
NC: Yes! I'm looking forward to tonight because we did it last night and I won’t be so nervous because we did a lot of things last night I know that I won’t be concentrating on so much so I can actually stand back and enjoy it more, last night I couldn't allow myself to enjoy it tonight, especially the last 20 minutes if you fuck up you fuck up. I'm going to take a mental snap shot of this moment and take it to my grave with me
AV: So with the visuals, fireworks and the lasers do you have any creative input in those?
NC: Yeah, not so much with the lasers I don't really know how they work, it all bubbles down to how long we've got to put up enough mirrors, there are 80 mirrors around this stadium and they have 2 hours or something to put them up so not creative in the lasers, fireworks we've never done before until last night and I just said press bang on the big bits but with the video side of things I work with Tim Fleming who is a really good mate of mine and we have a lot of fun and a lot of hours inventing things, what about this and it’s all about evolving the process, change it, what about this and the perfect platform for it is to have it on the biggest screen ever made in England, we even had a bit of fun with the ones we normally use we've then got to stretch it, do something different with so we spent a lot of time and had a lot of fun making the visuals
AV: You could have put the football on that couldn't you?
NC: We were considering putting the England game on because when Annie Mac is on she would never know the side screens are showing the football! But I'm joking of course!
AV: Excellent, thank you Norman for taking time to speak to us, we're looking forward to your set tonight along with the fireworks and lasers.
NC: Thanks guy's, it's been a pleasure.
Both nights were a overwhelming success with Norman putting a special thank you on his Facebook page:
“Every one of you is part of making history and the success of the shows will surely lead to the stadium becoming a regular gig venue. You came, you raved and you behaved. No tabloid headlines saying we are a bunch of drunk louts just happy party people and I will remember the sea of your smiley faces until the day I die...”
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