Hear the globe-trotting DJ’s new album, and the myth behind his project with David Byrne and Iggy Pop
CHRISTOPHER R. WEINGARTEN
Jan 28, 2009
According to legend — or the story Norman Cook is spreading — the Brighton Port Authority were a loose assembly of likeminded musicians recording in the 1970s whose tapes were recently discovered and dusted off for release. "It’s sort of like the Traveling Wilburys but good," says Cook, best known as globe-trotting DJ and producer Fatboy Slim. In truth, Cook assembled the tracks on the BPA’s debut I Think We’re Gonna Need A Bigger Boat from informal collaborations with artists like David Byrne, Iggy Pop, U.K. rapper Dizzee Rascal, Canadian folkie Martha Wainwright and a bevy of up-and-coming British singer-songwriters. "The basic scenario is that someone comes to my house, we get quite drunk and go, ‘Let’s go into the studio next door and make a tune,’ " says Cook. "And then we completely forget about it the next day."
