Fatboy Slim aka Norman Cook aka Quentin has done a great deal of good for Brighton. So why is he now spinning that goodwill by charging a small fortune for a celebratory gig?
First things first I want to put on record that I love Norman Cook.
I love his dancing in the video for Happy Hour. I love his Hawaiian shirts. I love the fact he let me interview him when I was at college (the first proper celebrity I had ever gone mouth to dictaphone with in fact). I love that when he rang me up to say yes to that interview he didn’t mind waiting ten minutes while I ran home to find a pen to write his phone number down. I love that his real name is Quinten. I love his music. I love his live DJ sets. And, I particular love his big beats.
But, and here is where I get in a confusing little muddle, I do not love the fact that he is charging £35 (£38.50 with booking fee) for his up-and-coming gigs at Brighton and Hove Albion’s new Amex Stadium.
The plan was always thus. He was there when the petitions were handed in at Downing Street. He was there on the protest marches during Labour Party conferences. He - and more importantly, his chequebook - were there when the club needed £500,000 quick-sharp to fend off the need to sell Bobby Zamora as the striker reached the zenith of his goal-grabbing, league-winning-single-handedly prowess.
Now it seems he is going to be there for one almighty pay day.
Albion’s new ground may well hold just 23,000 on match day, but that capacity is going to be upped to nearer 35,000 for his two-night run next year. It is unlikely he will sell-out both nights, despite all-star support from the likes of Carl Cox. But, even if the ground is left with 10,000 less tickets sold over the pair of gigs, he will still be spinning his wheels of steel to around 60,000. At £35 a pop.
My maths is questionable, but my PC’s calculator handily tells me that works out at about £2.1million. Even after running costs are taken into account that works out at quite a wad of wonga to be taking home. He clearly won’t be having to lug any of his old 12 inches down to Cash Converters just yet.
Cook himself was quick to point out that all he got for his £500,000 Zamora cash was a free parking space.
And what, many will ask, is the problem with that? He put his money where his mouth was when former chairman Dick Knight came calling with his begging bowl. Cook himself was quick to point out that all he got for his £500,000 Zamora cash was a free parking space (the story goes that one afternoon over coffee Knight said to Cook, “Either someone gives us half a mil or we sell Bobby,” to which Cook signed a cheque there and then).
His record label, Skint, also sponsored the Albion through the club’s lean years when nobody else would be associated with the struggling outfit. That tie-in also gave newspapers the great shot of the Albion (backed by Skint) playing Barnet (backed by Loaded), although that can’t compare to the time when a tabloid caught a Brighton defensive wall lining up with the players names reading Oatway Rents Cox.
My issue then is not the fact Cook is getting a reward for his efforts. It is that it is at the expense of many of the people who worked just as hard - and in many instances harder - than the superstar DJ to secure the club’s future.
Speaking after announcing the gigs earlier this month, Cook told the BBC, “The club’s been through so much and right now we’re on about the biggest high that I can remember.
“There is a slight pressure, because it is the first gig, that it’s got to be good because the Amex could be a venue for major shows.
“There’s nothing in Sussex bigger than the Brighton Centre. A lot of the big bands just leave us out on the tours, so I’m kind of flying the flag and if it goes well, the Amex will become a venue for big acts to come to.
“It will be total celebration of my relationship with Brighton, the city, the parties we’ve done on the beach, but also a celebration for all Albion fans, that we’ve got this lovely stadium.”
Brighton had always promised him the opening night in any new stadium. It was something the fans were all looking forward to.
Those parties on the beach were mammoth occasions. Tens of thousands of people flocked to see Cook working his magic on Brighton seafront. In fact, one show drew an estimated crowd of more than 200,000.
And, as Cook recently confirmed, the powers that be at Brighton had always promised him the opening night in any new stadium. It was something the fans were all looking forward to.
Nowhere in the mooting though was the issue of stumping up £35 raised. In fact, up until recently the story was very much that it would be a free celebration for Seagulls fans - not a cash cow for a celebrity follower. And a former Palace fan at that.
As far back as that first interview I did with Cook, he was happy to divulge that he was a relatively recent convert to the Good Ship Albion. Having grown up in Reigate, Cook was a Palace fan. He stopped going to Selhurst, he told me, when the hooliganism got too bad.
Years later, living down in sunny Sussex-by-the-Sea, a friend took him to the Goldstone and he has been Brighton ever since. Not a life-long fan then (despite what plenty of papers and websites have written recently) but a valued one nevertheless.
“For me to go in and play a gig in our shiny new stadium,” he told fans, “is the biggest honour of my life.” It might also be one of his biggest pay days and one quite a few Brighton fans may baulk at the cost of joining in with.
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