FATBOY SLIM is looking forward to returning to play the 25th anniversary Pride event after announcing he will play for free.

The Hove-based DJ has been announced as the first headline act for this year’s Pride Brighton and Hove, to be held over the weekend of August 1 and 2.

The news is set to boost ticket sales, which are already selling at a record pace.

The DJ, also known as Norman Cook, will play the Wild Fruit Big Top tent during the Saturday event in Preston Park.

He returns for the first time since 2012.

Norm said he was only too happy to play again at the festival to show his love for the LGBT community in the city.

The DJ said he “cut his teeth” as a DJ playing in the gay clubs in Brighton when he first moved to his adopted home 33 years ago while his style of music originated from the black and gay underground music scene from the United States.

He said: “Pride is just one of the many things about Brighton I just love, it’s part of the history of Brighton and part of its present culture.

“It’s a great way to show political support for the LGBT community in Brighton and a great excuse to hang out with all my old friends.

“I’m quite happy to have all the trannies on stage with me, they are always all over me and I love it.

“I’ll camp it up a bit but I’m not going to start playing Kylie “We have our big shows like we have at the Amex with the big production which I enjoy but I also enjoy getting down and dirty in nightclubs or in a tent.”

It is three years since Norm answered a late-call to play Pride as it struggled to stay afloat.

He said he had repeated requests over the years to play the popular event but was always booked up on one of his most in-demand weekends of the year.

This year, he was able to say yes to his “good friend” and Pride director Paul Kemp and has also agreed to waive his fee.

As well as playing in 2012, Norm joined the Pride party in Preston Park 20 years ago when he lived nearby.

He said: “You could hear it from the back garden, you could hear someone was having a good time in Preston Park.

“I remember in the late 90s and I was still up from the night before and went to Preston Park and the first tent we wandered into was the line dancing tent.

“It was quite surreal seeing that in the park where you usually walk your dog.”

Nowadays his involvement is a little more restrained, taking his daughter to see the parade every year. He said: “Last year, she was only four and she said let’s go and see the men in dresses.

“For the council and community it’s a big political gesture to say we accept the LGBT community within our community.”

‘I’m not playing second fiddle to Rudimental’

ANOTHER Fatboy gig at the Amex is on the cards – but only when the time is right.

Norm made history when he played the first ever gig at the American Express Community Stadium in June 2012.

He said he had held discussions with the club about a return but was waiting for the right time – potentially to celebrate Albion’s promotion to the Premier League.

He said: “I have a very good relationship with Albion and every year we have a little chat should we do it again.

“It’s such a big undertaking, there’s a lot of work and a bit of risk in selling 40,000 tickets, and so I have to ask myself: ‘Have I got the fire in the belly to do this?’ “The gigs on the beach, we never intended them to be every year. So I’ll do the next one when it feels right, maybe when we get promoted, when we have something to celebrate.”

Norm said he had “a very brief discussion a long time ago” with organisers of the new Wild Life festival coming to Shoreham Airport this summer but he decided it was not for him.

He said: “If I do something in the Brighton area, I would want it to be at the Amex or Pride.

“I would want it to be all about me, I don’t want to play second fiddle to Rudimental or Disclosure.”

Event has a long a history of facing up to adversity

THIS year is being celebrated as the 25th anniversary of Pride in Brighton and Hove but as always with Pride – things are never simple.

The first event was actually held in 1973, organised by the Sussex Gay Liberation Front.

It was quite a different event from the Pride of today, which sees 160,000 people line the streets to cheer on the parade and more than 30,000 people in Preston Park.

In the first year about 100 people are believed to have taken part in a march from Norfolk Square to the fish market at the bottom of Ship Street, according to Pride historian Alf Le Flohic.

He said: “Homosexuality between two consenting men was only legalised six years earlier so people were still quite scared to come out at that time.

“I’m not sure that many people attended the events and they probably didn’t go down that well.”

Also on the Pride menu that year was a disco at the Stanford Arms, a dance at the Royal Albion Hotel, entrance fee 50p, a beach picnic and a midnight “gay wedding” down on the beach by the West Pier.

The 1973 event was a one-off until Pride reappeared in a new guise in 1991. The LGBT community had been fired up in the meantime by the introduction of section 28 in 1988 – which banned local authorities from promoting homosexuality.

The 1991 Pride included pavement drawings by Guardian cartoonist David Shenton, a march between Hove Town Hall and Brighton Town Hall, a special screening at the Duke of York’s, a cabaret show at the Sallis Benney Theatre, a women only barn dance at the Nalgo club in Edward Street and a pink picnic in Preston Park.

That year Pride was held in May and was incorporated within the Brighton Festival.

Events included an Alternative Miss Brighton show in the Brighton station car park, hosted by Lily Savage and Simon Fanshawe.

Mr Le Flohic said: “I was at the 91 Pride, people were sworn at and spat at in the street.

“In the early days, the organisers did not know from one year to the next if it would go ahead, there was no money, it was done on a shoestring.

“It would be nice if we were in a position where Pride wasn’t necessary in terms of social acceptance and people having to fight for their rights globally.”

A hectic schedule

DESPITE being 51-years-old and the father of two young children, Norm shows no signs of slowing down from his hectic globetrotting DJ schedule.

He currently plays around 70 shows a year in all corners of the world and says he has no plans to retire or cut back on work.

This summer he will play a host of British festivals including T In The Park and Glastonbury as well as taking eight trips to Ibiza.

He has just returned from gigs in Costa Rica, Puerto Rico and a three day rave cruise with 40 DJs and 3,000 partygoers out of Miami.

He said: “With the current climate in electronic music, there has never been a better time to be a DJ and I feel I am getting the rewards from all the work I put in over 30 years to help build up the status of a DJ “I think with bands, their audience grow old with them, but with a DJ, there’s a never ending supply of fresh young fans out there.

“I’m like a vampire and I’ll keep on going as long as I am enjoying it or as long as they keep turning up.

“I had a five-year retirement plan to make the most of it before 40, then 45 and then 50 and then ripped them up.”

No restaurant plans

A RENOWNED foodie with two Michelin-starred restaurants in New York, Norman Cook said he has no plans to bring fine dining to Brighton.

He currently has two city eateries, Big Beach Cafe in Hove Lagoon and Oki-Nami in New Road, but said that he has no plans to bring a fine-dining experience to the city.

He said: “It’s not like I have always wanted to be a restaurant owner, I have just had three friends who wanted to open a restaurant and said would I go in with them.

“Whenever I had time off in New York I used to go and work in the Spotted Pig kitchen but stopped doing that when they got the Michelin star, I was worried they might get the star taken off them.”

Norm said that the second winter has been a great success with the cafe bringing in ten times the business they had in their first winter.

He said: “I wanted to establish it as part of the community and so that’s why I wanted to make sure it was open all year round.

“I’m always tasting a new recipe for it but I leave the running of it to my friend Danny, although the music, that’s my domain.”

Tickets snapped up

TICKET sales for this year’s Pride are already on record-breaking pace even before today’s Fatboy announcement.

All 5,000 early bird tickets have already been snapped up.

Organisers said the sales are “amazing” for this time of year and put the event on pace to smash even last year’s record numbers.

Partygoers from across the globe are hoping to join the 25th anniversary party with tickets already snapped up by customers in the USA, Canada and Australia.

This year’s event will feature all the usual favourites with the Pride Community Parade, Party in Preston Park and the Village party around St James’s Street.

Pride director Paul Kemp said: “Norman’s always been a great supporter of the city and Pride.

“The 25th Anniversary Pride is a landmark year for Pride and we’re thrilled he’s agreed to waive his fee to help support the community and celebrate Pride in our City.”

Advance tickets are now available at £16 with joint tickets available for the festival and village party. For ticket details visit brighton-pride.org