BUG Fatboy Slim special at London Film Festival!

15 Oct 2012 10:32 - posted by David Knight

BUG celebrated the amazing contribution to the artfom of music videos by one Norman Cook – better known as superstar DJ, producer and artist Fatboy Slim, one of the giants of British dance music – in a special show on Tuesday, October 16th.

It was our first ever show at the London Film Festival - and came just ahead of the release of the new Fatboy Slim live DVD.

Fatboy Slim: Big Beach Bootique 5 is the film of Norman's triumphant shows at the American Express Community Stadium, the new home of his beloved Brighton & Hove Albion.

But BUG mainly looked back to the remarkable music videos that emerged from the last Nineties onwards, where Fatboy Slim inspired some of the best directors to make what are regarded as some of the best music videos ever made.

And there was another first for BUG: Norman made a superb contribution to the show himself, discussing the videos and chatting with Adam and our on-stage guests – Skint Records' label boss and fellow DJ Damien Harris, video commissioner John Hassay and director Rob Leggatt – via the wonders of Skype!

BUG Special - Fatboy Slim programme notes.pdf

The Brighton Port Authority - Toe Jam

2008 Norman launched The Brighton Port Authority (or The BPA) with a collaboration with David Byrne and Dizzee Rascal on Toe Jam. And the video, directed by the impishly creative Keith Schofield, was an immediate viral hit. Shot vaguely in the style of a 70s porn movie, it features a group of wholesome all-natural young men and women who completely disrobe, and then make shapes out of the censor bars that cover their personal bits – and Norman turns up to make an all-nude cameo himself.

Fatboy Slim – The Rockafeller Skank (Unofficial)

We focus on two directed by Spike Jonze. Norman’s music provided tremendous inspiration and freedom for Spike to create two of his greatest videos. In fact, before he had even been commissioned to make one, Spike had created his own ‘fan video’ cum pitch to make a Fatboy Slim video, filming himself on a video camera simply dancing manically on a street outside a movie theatre to the tune of The Rockafeller Skank.

Fatboy Slim – Praise You

Continuing from the last 'Praise You' – filmed on the crowded sidewalk outside a cinema in Westwood, Los Angeles. By this point, Spike had created a fully-fledged alter-ego: Richard Koufey, choreographer of the Torrance Community Dance Group, with the help of Roman Coppola. And in one nailbiting 15-minute guerilla style shoot, Jonze not only made a classic video, he revolutionised the medium. And look out for Norman in the crowd…

Fatboy Slim – Weapon of Choice

Our final video is Spike Jonze’s Weapon of Choice – a track that was not intended for single release until Jonze delivered his idea to Norman. The video features a tired businessman in a deserted hotel lobby, in the early morning, who breaks out into a spectacular, joyful, fantasy dance routine. And the real stroke of genius is that the businessman is played by Christopher Walken. Jonze shot the video in two days at the Marriott Hotel in downtown LA – it’s Walken’s brilliant performance, drawing on his pre-movie acting past as a Broadway dancer, which elevates this to the highest level of the artform of music video.

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