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Fatboy Slim Lambasts Labour's Conference Song

Author: Jonty Skrufff
Tuesday, October 5, 2004
PRs for Norman 'Fatboy Slim' Cook issued a statement disowning the Labour Party's decision to use Right Here, Right Now as their party conference them tune this week, describing it as 'particularly galling given Norman Cook's anti-war stance.'

"Fatboy Slim and Skint Records are powerless to stop the Labour Party using 'Right Here Right Now', they explained, "unbelievably they are not required to get any special permission."

"With Blair in charge, you do wonder if Fatboy's remix of Wildchild's 'Renegade Master' would be more suitable in the circumstances," the press release continued.

"It's not the first time that Fatboy Slim's music has been used for political ends. On the other side of the Atlantic, Democrat presidential hopeful Al Gore used 'Praise You' at every opportunity in his '99 campaign. And we all know what happened to Al Gore's election ambitions," they added.

Cook's well known (erstwhile) enthusiasm for illicit drugs also suggests Labour's choice of song was less than inappropriate, certainly judging by a recent Guardian piece, penned by music hack Alexis Petridis.

"He had snorted cocaine from the railway lines near the back garden of his home," Petridis recalled.

"He had never performed his DJing duties 'straight': dancers at the Big Beat Boutique, the club night at which he was the resident DJ, would show their appreciation by feeding him "cheeky halves" of E while he was playing," he claimed.

In more Fatboy Slim news, NME accused Cook of lobbing 'every single dance cliche' into new album Palookaville, and accused him of over-relying on repeating lyrical samples.

"Even more than its predecessors, Palookaville is destined to be an enthusiastic purchase doomed to lurk unplayed at the back of your collection," they sneered.

Palookaville is out now on Skint Records.
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