FATBOY SLIM + GROOVE ARMADA + JAYDA G + HORSE MEAT DISCO + SIMON PEGG + KUUDA – ‘ON THE BEACH’, BRIGHTON BEACH 19.7.26
Without a doubt, the hardest slots of any festival day are the first and the last. With Brighton staple and legend Fatboy Slim – aka Norman Cook – playing hundreds of shows per year in every possible venue, he is accustomed to it all.
Therefore, the most challenging slot of the day falls to Kuuda, setting the tempo for a day that feels like a loose B2B. Playing to an arriving audience is a challenge, yet they honourably play it like a stadium headline. Melodic house blends with crowd-pleasing interpolations of legendary tracks, such as Sister Sledge’s ‘Lost In Music.’ Driving, syncopated bass adds enough nostalgia-bait to the mix to make it memorable without being shamelessly exploitative.
They close on a highlight: a remix of ‘Smalltown Boy’, timed perfectly with Pride weekend around the corner. The iconic falsetto loops over pounding beats, likely the first thing much of the arriving crowd will hear – perfectly blending familiarity with their own take on melodic house. While many artists would take an empty early slot as a knock, Kuuda’s feature on Camelphat’s ‘So Good’ garnered huge Radio 1 support as their tune of the week at the start of the month – the first slot could kill anyone, and Kuuda can comfortably say they came through it intact.
While Kuuda are nostalgic in sound, Simon Pegg reflects something from our childhood – seeing a movie star take on a passion project. His visuals seem aware of this, opening with him being taught by Fatboy Slim in a classroom, as the sample “this is an art… this is a skill to be a DJ” introduces a stuttering ‘Renegade Master’ remix. It’s clear that Pegg has done his homework.
Sunday’s lineup made many people double-take: there’s a worry that Simon Pegg is here as a pure gimmick, a big name to draw the crowd in out of curiosity. This worry is quickly dispelled as Pegg’s stage presence is immediate; goading the audience into cutting shapes early on. Moving from synth-driven cuts to vocal interpolations of ‘Eat Sleep Rave Repeat’, there’s a teasing sense – with Cook himself even joining on stage briefly to show love to Pegg.
Pegg never lets the energy let up for one moment, honouring dance music’s lineage with a pitched-down ‘Bassline Junkie’ vocal jumping into ‘Satisfaction Skank’ as visuals of dancing Cornettos honour his filmography. Pegg firmly eschews gimmickry, coming across as a genuine DJ with respect for those who came before; a post on his Instagram story states, “I may just quit acting.” With the ‘Mission: Impossible’ series wrapped up, it’s difficult to disagree – Pegg should do this more.
Horse Meat Disco’s mission is the same as a Chalk DJ’s on a Wednesday: utter cheese. Adding a stronger bass presence and strings to the opening remix of ‘Never Too Much’ sets this tone – take some of the grooviest tracks of all time, and push them even further. As an ever-present on the Brighton circuit, the DJ collective understands the atmosphere of the day – get the crowd moving. The shortcut to this is familiarity, mixing upbeat disco-fied house of ‘Shined Me’ with crowd-pleasers.
Across an hour and a half slot, there are mixes of ‘Ain’t Nobody’ to ‘I Feel Love’ – the latter barely touched in the remix, only emphasising how ahead of its time the track truly is. Emphasising their nostalgic roots, they close on a double-speed remix of ‘Don’t You Want Me’ – allowing the call and response of the crowd – before the “1234” of ‘Raspberry Beret’ counts the crowd into the shuffle. Spilling slightly into Jayda G’s set, Horse Meat Disco’s set has hit the mark, leaning into familiarity with a focus on pure dance mechanics.
Less seamless than before due to Horse Meat Disco’s dancefloor momentum, Jayda G’s set styles this out – transitioning with vocals of ‘Do You Surrender’ over bouncing piano-driven house. Jayda G’s set is Chicago-style house – melodic, drum machine-groove with soulful hooks. Reminiscent of The Blessed Madonna, Jayda G’s energy is relentless – guiding the crowd from the nostalgic mixes of those on before into her own world; a set mostly comprised of her own cuts from the thumping euphoria of ‘Both Of Us’ to the percussive-led bounce of ‘Uncomfortable.’
Jayda largely refuses to adhere to the day’s throwback feel, trusting that her own tracks have the power to move. However, she closes on a remix of ‘Just Be Good To Me’, erring on the side of reminiscence, without going entirely into crowd-service with a heavy-hitter.
“Shout out Jayda G,” the duo of Groove Armada announce, before the ambitious move of playing the vocals of ‘Superstylin’ over ‘Glue’ by Bicep. Debuted at the iconic 2002 Big Beach Boutique, some 24 years later, the vocals of ‘Superstylin’ serve as the spine across an hour-and-a-half set. Seemingly carrying on Horse Meat Disco’s commitment to mixing the old school, the pumping-piano line of Denham Audio’s ‘Make Me’ meets a ‘Right Here Right Now’ vocal interpolation.
Despite leaning further into the history of dance, there are surprises: ‘The Less I Know The Better’ gets a huge rhythmic presence, mixing the bass and drums to insane levels before ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ excruciatingly teases the chorus before allowing another singalong. With a stuttered teaser of more ‘Superstylin’, the ‘Born Slippy’ instrumental lands with the same cadence: honouring the anniversary of their track, across the entire set.
Teasing it once again, the syncopation of ‘One More Time’ quickly leads to a huge garage mix of ‘Superstylin’ – finally allowing it to play in full. It is a huge finish, detonating a practically rabid audience. As their set ends, a DJ doesn’t jump straight in. We have to wait for the patron saint of Brighton to arrive after Groove Armada have got the crowd fervent.
For the first time today, the DJs stop. There’s a 20-minute break while the speakers are taken over by a playlist. There’s a sense of anticipation building for yet another Big Beach Boutique, and the eventual release to that all-dayer B2B feeling. Fatboy Slim is a master of tempo. ‘Pure Imagination’ mix allows us into his world, tentatively. “I mutate from a reasonable man to a lunatic with the mental age of about 17” finally makes sense; the metamorphosis is slow.
Weaponising a soundboard with teenage glee, he teases ‘My Name Is’ and ‘Funk Soul Brother.’ ‘I See You Baby’ honours Groove Armada, while interpolating Run-DMC’s ‘It’s Tricky’, with the youngest of the crowd knowing it from Uber Eats. Cook launches himself into performance, turning DJing into showmanship as he descends into the Fatboy Slim moniker. “I got some bad habits/I think you should know” of ‘Role Model’ is met with visuals of celebrities lip-syncing from Bill Murray to Muhammad Ali, as drum loops pound and arms get further into the air.
Across 2 hours, Cook’s emphasis is crowd control; he reads it perfectly. Moving from the techno of ‘Sinner Winner’ to ‘Gangster Trippin’’, there’s a complete feel of urgency as tracks are given just long enough for the crowd to react to them before moving swiftly on. The iconic ‘Born Slippy NUXX’ shudders along the beach – in the ultimate crowd-pleasing moment, the vocals for ‘Mr Brightside’ are layered over it. Rocking his signature Hawaiian – today’s is Keith Haring-inspired – Sunday’s curation has led to this point.
Every support artist teases ‘Eat Sleep Rave Repeat’ and ‘Renegade Master’ – when Fatboy Slim unleashes them back to back, the crowd jumps, finally hearing the full versions of tracks teased for that long. With one more audience participation for the synchronised stomp of ‘We Will Rock You’, the vocals of ‘Satisfaction Skank’ linger before breaking out – the long unauthorised remix, released last year, underpins a section that also allows interpolations of ‘Blitzkrieg Bop.’
With a hugely crowd-pleasing set wrapped up, red curtain visuals appear on screen as The Beatles’ ‘The End’ plays for the crowd to exit. Fatboy Slim’s setlist curation is admirable, if slightly safe – sidestepping the obligatory “one from the new album” for fan-favourites, including ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ mixed with ‘Right Here, Right Now.’ It balances the line of pastiche with artistry, for something that feels quintessentially Brighton.
Some might see his constant returns to Brighton Beach as chasing that iconic 2002 moment, yet each of his 4 days ‘On The Beach’ this year offers something different: Thursday’s opening day brings modern Ibiza with Seth Troxler, while Friday’s Bimini DJ set brought in the LGBTQIA+ audience. For a close to weekend one and Fatboy Slim’s residence, Sunday is pure nostalgia – referencing the first Big Beach Boutique and all the artists who pushed dance into the spotlight. It’s a winning mix that flirts with theatricality but never falls into cheap sentimentality – creating a new moment from the memories of the original.
