Zoe Ball, the radio presenter, has announced that she is expecting her second child with her DJ husband, Norman Cook.

The Radio 2 Breakfast presenter announced the news on her radio show on Saturday morning. She told listeners: "I've got some lovely news for you all actually. I'm having a baby." Ms Ball, 38, a former Radio 1 DJ whose father is the veteran TV science presenter Johnny Ball, married Mr Cook, who is better known as Fatboy Slim, in 1999. The couple have an eight-year-old son called Woody. Their marriage suffered a rocky patch in 2003 but the couple have since been trying to rebuild their relationship. Ms Ball initially found fame as a TV presenter on Saturday morning children's show Live and Kicking.
She was then recruited to co-host the BBC Radio 1 breakfast show in October 1997 with Kevin Greening. She eventually became the first female solo host before leaving the BBC in 2000.
Since 2006, Ms Ball appeared on Radio 2 as a presenter and was recently appointed as the presenter of the weekend breakfast show. Radio 2 controller Bob Shennan offered his congratulations to Ms Ball and her family. He said: "Congratulations to Zoe and Norman in light of the fantastic news that Woody is soon to have a little brother or sister."

source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Norman Cook claims to have won his battle with booze but wife Zoe Ball is now urging him quit DJing too.

The superstar DJ, better known as Fatboy Slim, returned from a month in rehab a fortnight ago after a successful bid to stop drinking.

But pals say former Radio 1 presenter Zoe is worried he could slip into old habits on the DJ scene.

She is trying to help get Norman, 45, get back on track but believes he can only stay away from alcohol by changing his lifestyle.

And it seems Norman is willing to do anything to save his marriage, which hit a rocky spell in 2003 when she admitted having a brief affair.

One friend told Closer magazine: ‘Zoe thinks Norman’s love of drinking comes from the DJing scene.

‘She wants him to stop DJing at clubs and concerts and produce music at home instead. She thinks it’ll help.

‘Norman hopes to turn things around, but he knows he needs to do what Zoe says.’

Zoe, 38, who has been married to the Praise You DJ for 10 years, also wants him to change his lifestyle by getting fit and eating better.

When she fell pregnant with their son Woody, now eight, she gave up drinking and gave up partying.

‘She stopped being the wild party girl that she was in order to get pregnant with Woody and then become a mum,’ the source told Closer.

‘Now she feels it’s Norman’s turn to knuckle down.’

DJ ban? Zoe has reportedly asked Norman to quit the DJ circuit

Zoe wants him to produce music at their £2million home in Hove and to stick to the good work started at the Providence Project clinic in Bournemouth.

He checked in there at the beginning of March after battling alcoholism ‘for some time’.

But while he was there, she donated his collection of hip flasks to charity shops and he was more than miffed that his ‘drinking memorabilia’ was missing when he got home.

As she filled in for  Ken Bruce on Radio 2, she told told listeners she tried to buy them back.

She added: ‘If anyone has any trinkety hip flasks they no longer need, could they send them?’

The star has made no secret of his love of alcohol in the past, and confessed he does not like being sober on stage.

‘Fatboy Slim is my alter ego – he’s confident, a bit of a show-off,’ he once said. ‘It takes me until midnight to psych myself into him. The difference between me and him is a bad Hawaiian shirt and half a bottle of vodka.

‘I’ve tried going on stage sober and it wasn’t much fun.’

In February, he admitted some of the collaborations on his new album, recorded under the alias The Brighton Port Authority, had been recorded during drinking sessions.

He is not due to perform now until after June.

source: www.dailymail.co.uk

A newspaper claims…

by Jamie Milton 04 August 2008

Mercury Music Prize nominee Burial’s real identity is rumoured to be that of Norman Cook.

In an investigation by the Sun newspaper, the dubstep-pioneer’s true identity is being attempted to be unmasked prior to the Mercury Prize ceremony in September.

Alongside the alter-ego of Fatboy Slim, the paper also claims that the “musical equivalent to Banksy could also be the more experimental artist, Aphex Twin.

Artists who attend the ceremony are required to play one of their songs live ahead of the revealing of the winner.

There has never been a case before in the ceremonies sixteen-year span in which the winner has not been there to pick up the award.

Burial is the bookies  favourite to win the prestigious prize next month, ahead of Radiohead and The Last Shadow Puppets who are also among the likely winners.

source: gigwise.com

Legendary British DJ and pioneer of the “big beat” movement Fatboy Slim is experiencing serious back pain as the result of “lugging heavy records round the world in a bag slung over his shoulder,” the Daily Mail reports. Slim, born Norman Cook, told a passenger on a recent flight that “All the long flights and all the gigging have taken their toll…I had almost forgotten the back problem, but it’s been worse than ever in recent weeks. It’s getting worst and worse and I can hardly bend down.” The paper even saw him arrive at the airport, seeking help from his wife Zoe as he was unable to load his own luggage.

Cook, who turns 45 this month, most recently released the Adventures in Brazil DVD and a best-of compilation last year. According to a video posted to the mess of HTML and Flash coding that is his Myspace page , he is “seven-eighths” finished his next album, which is rumoured to include an Iggy Pop collaboration.

source: exclaim.ca