Oh

i should point out, for the 2 people that care, a bit of John Peel was used on a version of "Let Them Eat Bingo" that no-one actually has. I was only reminded on this tonight, ooops, the version that came out had DLT on it instead. Of course, all these years I've been listening to my version, not the commercial one. Eeek.

Haha, getting old, memory fading....

Posted By Simon Thornton @ 1:58:43 AM  trackback []  comment(s) []  

Happy Birthday

To my ever-lovely girlfriend.

And that's, well, about it really. I'll tell the zoo story tomorrow ;)

[OMG, she's blogged again. Wow]

Posted By Simon Thornton @ 6:32:12 PM  trackback []  comment(s) []  

A random collection of stuff

Been a bit of a grim week, all in all. One of those 'should have stayed in bed for 5 days' type events. Hey ho. Onwards and upwards. So I'm told.

As my brother James posted in comments a bit further down, this site explains the rules of poker. It does actually help to have read this when watching it on TV, I'm slowly tuning in to it, I think. It's all a bit complicated to be called 'a game' though, frankly.

Will be spending the weekend with The Missus, which is very nice. No thinking about other stuff etc. We're planning to do a few fun things. It's her birthday over the weekend - Hurrah! - so lots of celebrating as well, I predict. And, hopefully, seeing cute little animals at London Zoo at some point too.....

And my mobile will be off until Tuesday....bliss!

We're going to watch the recording of Jonathon Ross on Monday evening at the Beeb it seems too, cool.

Posted By Simon Thornton @ 12:14:24 AM  trackback []  comment(s) []  

To try and brighten my mood....or not...

There's a new Colour Picture-Capable iPod just announced, for anyone that hadn't noticed it....

I won't be buying one, but still, it looks nice.

OK, it didn't brighten my mood that much.

But I did listen to the tribute show hosted by Steve Lamacq tonight (actually I'm still listening to it as I type this). Yeah, that helped.

As so many other people have said, it was a 'teenage dream' to have a record you'd made played by John Peel. I had it just as many thousands of young, enthusiastic teenagers did. Just the one play would do. However, I never managed that totally through my own lack of actually doing it. Hang on, that sounds selfish now, I mean does it mean I'm sad because the chance of that ever happening disappeared today? Well, that's not quite the way I meant it.

I do hope that one day his autobiography is published, although it seems it wasn't finished before his untimely death. It would be an amazing read, I'm sure.

I even had a glass of red wine tonight, and I don't like red wine very much at all. But it seems like the only thing to do, given the circumstances.

As Steve Lamacq (who I really didn't used to like, but tonight has really brought me around to him) said earlier, John Peel would probably hate all this attention and bother. In the nicest possible way, tough, we have to.

And even listening on into 'The Radio 1 Rock Show' it's all full of related stuff. You think I'm overdoing all this? Not even close....

I really don't have much time for Paul Morley, never have, never will, but one thing he said in his John Peel tribute is right on the button: "He hadn't even started, surely". Indeed.

A nice touch, I thought.....

There will be lots more of this, pay attention.

Posted By Simon Thornton @ 12:22:13 AM  trackback []  comment(s) []  

A John Peel Evening

Tonight I will be...

a) Drinking many a toast to John Peel.

b) Listening to the Adam And The Ants Peel Sessions. This session changed my life. No doubt about that. I used to have it on a cassette from when I was about 11 (so 1981 then). I went on to have it on a bootleg vinyl album, still containing his deep voice introducing "Zerox". Then it eventually was released officially on CD, as most of the Peel Sessions where. So pretty much all formats covered, then.

c) Listening to the bit of him we sampled and used on "Let Them Eat Bingo". Just because.

Not sure if I'll listen to the tribute show (11pm Radio 1) tonight or not. I might record it and listen another time...

Am feeling more gutted than I expected about all this. Funny how things are, eh?

Posted By Simon Thornton @ 5:13:25 PM  trackback []  comment(s) []  

A very very very very very very very sad day.

I am not overstating that.

As most will know by now, John Peel has died.

The best radio DJ there ever was. I'm not overstating that either.

Posted By Simon Thornton @ 3:00:16 PM  trackback []  comment(s) []  

10 Things I Like At The Moment.

1. The "Wonderful Night" video. Most Excellent. We are slightly chuffed with it.
2. William Shatner's "Has Been" album. Well I guess it's kind of a Ben Folds album too. Due to some of Shatner's 60s stuff, many might assume it's a kind of comedy album. Whilst it has amusing moments, it's definitely a proper record, if you will.
3. The prospect of seeing Ben Folds (him again) live twice next month.
4. Mixing records. I'm currently in the studio mixing a couple of tracks for someone, as an experiment. I'm enjoying it lots.
5. Have I Got News For You is back.
6. Having a working Tivo again. It became unwell...I took it to bits and made it feel better.
7. The girlfriend being featured in Media Week. She's gonna go far, I predict...
8. Reading No Rock&Roll Fun. Constantly entertaining at the moment.
9. The possiblity of going up to see the Jonathon Ross show being recorded.
10. The Late Night Poker stuff that's shown on Home and Leisure. I've no idea why, I'm not the gambling type, and I don't even understand the complicated rules of poker. But it's still fascinating nevertheless.

Posted By Simon Thornton @ 5:10:13 PM  trackback []  comment(s) []  

First Tour Review...

Published today in The Independent, all about the Newcastle gig last night.

Just so you all know where this perhaps is all going etc...

[addition: Oh, and fuck them with their whole "adsa at 2.99" comment re: Gutter And Stars - everyone ends up in that situation if the warehouse has stock to get rid of. It's called 'business'. Get A Life etc.]

Posted By Simon Thornton @ 2:32:55 PM  trackback []  comment(s) []  

It is all supposed to be about the music....

...that is something worth remembering, and something that is all too easy to forget when, like me, you get surrounded by all the other stuff that comes with making music. You know, all the promotional plans and marketing budgets and politics and stuff that doesn't look like much fun. It reminds me why being a 'back room boy' suits me just fine, thankyouverymuch. I get to make music, and I have so much fun doing so, without all the other, well, what's the word....bollocks....yeah, that's the one....that can come with it these days.

Anyhoo, the point of all this was just to say that I've been lucky enough to hear the new album by The Free French and I love it. This sort of stuff might not quite fit into the charts these days (but then what does? I mean look at it! Yeah, Girls Aloud are top, but even so...) but it doesn't stop it being excellent music, and - back to the real reason for this post now - has been great at reminding me that the reason I wanted to get into all this in the first place was because of a love of music, not a love of the promotional machine behind it....

Mind you, saying it might not 'fit' as such these days, I have ideas that might actually change that a bit...

Nice one, Rhodri.

And, in a very roundabout way, I should mention that the latest FBS album is about the most fun Norman and I have ever had making a record, and we've been making records together a very long time now (like 16 years+)

To still be having this much fun after all we've done is a great thing.

Posted By Simon Thornton @ 12:12:11 AM  trackback []  comment(s) []  

I love this....

So, Neil Young is releasing a DVD-Audio disc, and the visuals that come with it are simply images of the vinyl version playing. Excellent. Why bother to, you know, create something new and flash to try and keep up with 'the kids'?

Could end up being as popular as those videos of a raging fireplace or a fishtank that you can buy to watch at those, um, quiet moments....

[via No Rock&Roll Fun]

Posted By Simon Thornton @ 7:32:47 PM  trackback []  comment(s) []  

Oh yeah, album stuff...I guess I should mention it....

We charted at number 14 in the Official UK album chart today (er...just about yesterday I suppose).

In a totally personal comment, I think that's good. The album is not quite the Fatboy Slim of 'old'- as many people will have noticed by now - and it is gonna take people a little while to get used to the slight change of direction that "Palookaville" presents to them. It was a conscious change, it's not an accident the way it all came out! And we still can't help being very happy with what we've done.

I know exactly how many copies were sold, even though I don't ever like to think of this thing we do in those terms, and - without getting all soppy about it - am kind of chuffed that so many people would go out and buy it over a period of just 6 days (the charts really only run Mon-Sat, despite what others may say)....thanks to anyone that reads this that made the effort. I can't promise to buy all of you a beer (that would make me very poor!) but "cheers!" anyway.

I mean, charts are so confusing these days. SDD was number 8 in the 'dance singles' last week. And, as I type this, "Palookaville" is number 2 in the 'dance album' charts. What does it all mean? etc....

Ignoring all that nonsense for a moment there's some top new (re-)mixes ready for the next single release. Lots of variations on the theme. And keep yourselves glued to your TVs over the next month or two. The video sounds bonkers, though I haven't seen any of it yet.

In a more immediate topic, anyone 'ooop north' in the UK that is going to be going along to any of the FBS gigs that start on Wednesday (see fatboyslim.net for the exact dates, though I should mention that most, if not all, are sold out now)...well....I know what's gonna be happening and I hope you'll be very entertained. There's a couple of surprises in-store - to which I was witness to at a rehearsal tonight - and it looks like lots of fun. Hope you enjoy it all too.

So in summary, I'm quite a happy bunny, all in all.

Posted By Simon Thornton @ 12:04:55 AM  trackback []  comment(s) []  

Oh, a bit of politics there....

I love this whole "is G.W.Bush wearing an earpiece and being told what to say?" stuff. It's top fun. It's even just been picked up by the BBC in this story. Coming off the back of websites such as this one [having server load problems as I blog this], no doubt.

I so want it to be true. It would explain so much.

Posted By Simon Thornton @ 12:01:13 AM  trackback []  comment(s) []  

Thanks for the laughs.

I'm sad to read that Pete McCarthy has died. He was a friend of a friend and I met him a few times, and he was a very charming and entertaining man. I'll never forget the speech he made at a friends wedding many years ago, as it was perhaps one of the funniest things I've ever heard. He also, of course, made some excellent TV programmes, and was a face often seen around Brighton.

Cheers Pete.

Posted By Simon Thornton @ 6:11:39 PM  trackback []  comment(s) []  

Watch out, watch out, there's some guitars about....

I've been playing guitar again. Norman has been playing bass again. On Fatboy Slim-related material. Ooops. Be warned :)

Tell you more when I can...

Posted By Simon Thornton @ 12:30:03 AM  trackback []  comment(s) []  

New Fatboy Slim album time.

In the shops now and all that.

(well, perhaps Tuesday depending where you are in the world)

Woo! Yay! Eeek Etc Etc

Posted By Simon Thornton @ 11:47:59 PM  trackback []  comment(s) []