Fatboy Slim, Russell Brand Share ‘Bromance’ at Olympic Ceremony

Fatboy Slim says he enjoyed a “bromance” with Russell Brand during their starring roles at the Olympic Closing Ceremony.

DJ Norman Cook followed Brand on the August 12th show, performing “Right Here, Right Now” and “The Rockafeller Skank” with a giant, glowing octopus, immediately after Brand had sung the Beatles’ “I Am the Walrus” and “Pure Imagination” (from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory) from the top of a psychedelic bus.

“I spent most of the rehearsal time stuck on that bus with Russell, which is an experience I’d recommend to anybody,” said Cook with a laugh. “It was like going into battle in a tank. We had a bit of a weird bromance in that bus.”

Despite criticism of the closing ceremony in some sections of the U.K. media, Cook said appearing was “a total mindfuck and an honor.”

“I felt I was representing Team G.B. for club culture,” he said. “Although when you embark on a career as a DJ, you never really envisage yourself on top of a psychedelic bus, being engulfed by a 40-foot-high fluorescent octopus. That wasn’t what I was thinking of when I was learning to beat match!”

He does, however, admit that there was one more legendary rock band he’d have liked to see on the bill.
“I was a little disappointed the Rolling Stones weren’t there,” he says. “Because when it was first talked about, they were definitely in the frame.”

As with the other performers, Cook was paid just a token £1 for appearing.

“That’s £1 more than the athletes got,” he said, laughing again. “But there was this feeling that we were representing our country in the way the athletes were. It’s not about the money, it’s about national pride.

“It’s rare for me to talk about things like that,” he added. “But this was a real Great British patriotic moment. We were expecting to cock everything up – nothing would work, transport would be screwed up and we wouldn’t win any medals. But we surprised ourselves by pulling it off, both on the track and the logistics of it.”

Fatboy Slim’s new film, Live: From the Big Beach Bootique, premieres in movie theaters August 31st.