Last 10 Years

Yesterdays post about Fenech-Soler brought back memories of other music I was listening to when I first discovered them. Basically I didn't think I was old enough to reach the 'better in the old days' stage of my life and made an effort to keep my music tastes current.

One thing I did was pick my 25 favourite albums. It was a very biased list favouring the more recent albums though, 17 of them were from the 21st century and the other 8 were from the 90s. It also included an album which had only just come out at the time.

Nowadays I'm at a point where I'm not even up to date with a lot of artists I've liked in years gone by. Some went to to make some truly dreadful music and others I just forgot about. I do sometimes seek out new music from an artist if I'm going to see them in concert, but many don't really bother making new music anymore and stick to the classics.

It got me thinking, what albums have the 25 artists of those albums I picked released in the last 10 years. Well here's the answer:

2 Many DJs - No albums

Norman Jay - 2 albums: Skank & Boogie (2015), Mister Good Times (2017)

Portishead - No albums

Massive Attack - No albums

High Contrast - 2 albums: Night Gallery (2017), Notes from the Underground (2020)

Plump DJs - No albums

Jacques Lu Cont - No albums

Erol Alkan - 1 album: Fabriclive 77 (2014)

Spiritcatcher - No albums

Various Artists - N/A

DJ Shadow - 2 albums: The Mountain Will Fall (2016), Our Pathetic Age (2019)

Tiga - 1 album: No Fantasy Required  (2016)

Air - No albums

Fatboy Slim - No albums

Sander Kleinenberg - No albums

Snoop Dogg - 6 albums: Bush (2015), Coolaid (2016), Neva Left (2017), Bible of Love (2018), I Wanna Thank Me (2019), From tha Streets 2 tha Suites (2021), BODR (2022)

Jurassic 5 - No albums

Kruder & Dorfmeister - 1 album: Johnson (2022)

Zero 7 - No albums

Mylo - No albums

Digitalism - 2 albums: Mirage (2016), JPEG (2019)

Underworld - 2 albums: Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future (2016), Drift Series 1 (2019)

LCD Soundsystem - 1 album: American Dream (2017)

London Elektricity - 2 albums: Are We There Yet? (2015), Building Better Worlds (2019)

Propellerheads - No albums

Just 11 of the artists have released an album in the last 10 years and only 3 of them have released one in the decade so far. Only Snoop Dogg has been prolific with none of the others managing more than 2 albums in a decade.

This leads to another question, are these albums any good?

Just one way to find out. I'm going to give each of those albums a listen and post what I think of them here.

Fatboy Slim

I'm just that little bit too young to remember the Housemartins breaking though in 1986 but the impression I get is they were never considered to be cool. I do remember the Beautiful South forming out of the ashes of the Housemartins in 1989 and they were certainly uncool. It was music for the older generations where you were more likely to hear their new song on Radio 2 than Radio 1.

It's therefore quite astonishing that 17 years after the Housemartins broke through their bass player would be playing a gig to 250,000 people in Brighton, many of whom would have been around my age. Around the time of the Fatboy Slim gig question I found it a little odd that just about the biggest DJ on the planet, the king of cool was nearly 40 and used to play bass in a band known for their dodgy jumpers. 

As someone who thought underground = good and mainstream = bad I was a little skeptical of Fatboy Slim when he hit the big time with his chart topper "Praise You". To this very day I still don't like that record and I find his tunes to be pretty hit or miss. 

However one night I was watching footage from some event on TV which included a Fatboy Slim DJ set. That's when I discovered what all the hype was about. His tunes were big beat which itself was very hit or miss but his DJ set was more house music. There was something about that set which made me want to be there. 

The first Fatboy Slim CD I bought was his set from the first Big Beach Boutique which remains one of my all time favourites. 

By 2008 it seemed like Fatboy Slim was no more. In a way it was a surprise Fatboy Slim had lasted so long given how quickly Norman Cook would change names prior to this. His new name in 2008 was Brighton Port Authority but I think it's fair to say it had little impact.

In 2012 it had been a decade since 250,000 people had come to see him play in Brighton. This year he would play at the newly opened Amex stadium. I was there and the reaction I got from several people was is Fatboy Slim still going. He was still popular enough to play a stadium though so whilst not as popular as he once was he still had a sizeable following. I also stayed in a hotel in Brighton that night for a pretty reasonable price as I recall.

In 2013 he was back in the Top 40 with "Eat Sleep Rave Repeat" which is fuckin dreadful. Like I said though his strength is in his DJing not his tunes.

I've seen him play a few times now and it's been great fun though admittedly I did start to tire of it last time I saw him.

In 2022 he was back on Brighton Beach to mark 20 years since that infamous gig. I thought enough time had passed since I'd last seen him play and considered going to Brighton. The tickets weren't a bad price for an event of that size, but the hotel prices were extortionate so I decided against it.

Another thing that occurred to me was that I was getting older but the average age of an attendee at a Fatboy Slim gig wasn't. 

This year he played at Glastonbury and I've just watched his set on iplayer. If I'm honest I didn't particularly enjoy it. There's still some similarities with his sets of old but what's changed has changed for the worse in my opinion.

He opened with "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen, or more specifically the vocals to "Don't Stop Me Now" to get the crowd singing along with a generic dance beat behind it. Then he did similar with "My Name Is" by Eminem. This was a recurring theme including some of his own material.

Worst of all though was the remake of "Praise You" that he did with the god awful Rita Ora. She appeared on stage to sing it. This more or less confirmed that I'm too old for the modern day Fatboy Slim.

It's strange to say that about someone about to turn 60, but then again he was able to cater for the 20 somethings when he was almost 40 so why not do the same at 60. Maybe when he's 80 the 20 somethings of now will be disillusioned 40 somethings like me and those being born around now will be loving it.

My 25 Favourite Albums: Fatboy Slim - Live On Brighton Beach

In the mid-80s when the Housemartins were around, few would have predicted the bass player would go on to become one of the biggest acts in the country at the start of the 21st century, but that's exactly what did happen.

Norman Cook never really went away following the break up of the Housemartins having hits with Beats International, Freak Power, Pizzaman and Mighty Dub Katz. He became Fatboy Slim in 1996 and I first came across him in 1997 when he released "Everybody Needs A 303". It was in 1999 when he really hit the big time with "Praise You".

By the turn of the century, few, if any DJs in the dance music were bigger than Fatboy Slim. I always liked "Right Here Right Now" and "Gangster Trippin", but still to this day I don't like "Praise You", and "The Rockafeller Skank" used to annoy me but it's grown on me since. I also don't like "Sunset (Bird Of Prey)", the first single off his next album.

A mixed bag hit's wise then so initially I didn't really get the hype. But then there is Fatboy Slim the DJ. Although you're likely to hear some of his music in his sets, Fatboy Slim as a DJ is a different concept. I saw him doing a DJ set on the TV and realised just how good he was as a DJ.

His music is big beat, but his DJing was more of the house music variety. My first understanding of what makes a good DJ was ability to mix, but I knew that was a load of nonsense really, nobody really cares if the beats match up perfectly when mixing. Instead myself and a lot of other people agreed that track selection is key to being a good DJ. But actually, it isn't that. What really makes a good DJ is the ability to play any old rubbish and still make it sound good, and Fatboy Slim is just that.

This album was recorded in 2001 at the first Big Beach Boutique in Brighton. It wasn't the one where 250,000 people turned up, that was the following year.

Around the time both events took place, I was listening to more Rap and R&B music than I was dance, so I wasn't at either gig. I was living the other end of the country too at the time.

I bought the album 2 or 3 years later when Fatboy Slims popularity had dwindled and think I only paid £2 for it which was pretty much unheard of at the time. On listening to it I wished I was there.

The 3rd and 4th Big Beach Boutiques were for residents of Brighton only, but I managed to go to the 5th one (and last to date) which was in the Amex stadium as opposed to the beach. It was a great gig.

Fatboy Slim is still very much around today, but his last studio album came out in 2004. Maybe the fact he plays gigs instead of making records is a good thing, that "Eat Sleep Rave Repeat" tune he did a few years ago was dreadful.

He does come under criticism for playing the same set for the last 20 years. Whilst you're pretty much guaranteed to hear "Right Here Right Now", "Praise You" and "Star 69" in his sets, I wouldn't necessarily say they're all the same. Besides, more often than not when you go to a gig, the act you're seeing will play their big hits, this is no different.

Fatboy Slim @ The O2

So I began the year going to Fatboy Slims smile high club without actually seeing Fatboy Slim. I end the year going to see the man himself at the O2.

To give you the best idea of how the gig was, at the time of writing you can still watch the set here

If you read my review on the Four Tops and Temptations gig at the O2 a couple of months back, you will see me saying how the price of beer at the O2 has gone up, and the quality has gone down, therefore the best thing to do when going to the O2 is to drink as much beer as you need beforehand. That is exactly what I did. On arrival at the O2 I was greeted by a huge queue waiting to get through the airport style security. Despite stepping off the tube some 30 minutes prior to Fatboy Slim being due on stage, the set had just began when I finally got in.

He was playing "Eat Sleep Rave Repeat" as I entered the arena, a tune that is very much one to hear out loud rather than at home. Instead of being on the usual stage, he was in the middle of the arena with the crowd surrounding him, which worked as despite being near the back I could properly see him.

Being stood not far from the bar I discovered that a pint of beer there has now gone up to £6 and if you want Stella it's a whopping £6.50.

A lot of his famous tune were played in some way or another, some of them just being the vocal sample being mixed with other tunes. The about 30 minutes in the sound went for around 5 minutes and the boos started ringing out, not that you can blame Fatboy Slim for that.

As with all Fatboy Slim sets I've ever seen, there was the inevitable sing a long to "Star 69" which is always good fun.

As always, he ended the set with "Praise You". I read a review from his Glasgow set who put that he mixed this tune up with "Crazy In Love" by Beyoncé. But those who know a thing or two about music will know it was actually "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" by the Chi-Lites.

Smile High Club

Smile High Club is an event run by Fatboy Slim which debuted at SW4 and Creamfields festivals back in August. On January 2nd a Smile High Club event was held at Tobacco Dock in London which I went to.

The DJs I particularly went to see were Erol Alkan, 2 Many DJs and Fatboy Slim himself. It was also an all day event running from 13:00 - 23:00.

Annoyingly they didn't announce the set times prior to the event. In their own words - Set times TBA on the day – arrive early & enjoy the event! However, I had no intention of arriving early as 10 hours in the same building is too long for my liking and £5 for a tin of beer is too expensive to not having cheaper beer from home beforehand.

Fortunately somebody tweeted a picture of the set times an hour or so after the event began. There I discovered there were two rooms with Fatboy Slim playing the last set in one room and 2 Many DJs playing the last set in the other room therefore I had to choose between them. As I've seen Fatboy Slim before but am yet to see 2 Many DJs I went for the latter.

Arriving at the venue early evening time I first took a look around the venue which was quite interesting. I then went to find the cloakroom to find there wasn't one, instead you had to pay £5 for a locker but there wasn't any lockers left. Then I found the toilets only to find they were VIP toilets and instead had to go to the other end of the venue and queue for a ridiculously long time to use the normal ones, though I did get to hear some of SecondCity during this time which was ok.

Heading to the second room where I would spend the rest of the evening, this was actually an indoor car park and in my opinion much better than the other room and quite possibly bigger too. It was also much cooler in there which was handy given I still had my coat.

PBR Streetgang were playing an enjoyable set of house music at the time. Then Erol Alkan came on with lots a smoke going off such that anyone could have been playing and I'd be none the wiser. It did sound very much like Erol Alkan though with his usual blend of Electro House music. Towards the end of his set there was a mass exodus of people presumably going to the other room to see Fatboy Slim.

Then 2 Many DJs came doing plenty of mashups mixed in with House music. As the set went on the room started to fill up again with people who presumably couldn't get into the other room. Towards the end of the set they went old skool playing tunes like Pump up the Jam, House Nation and Blue Monday. All in all a very good set and the right decision to see them.