Norman Cook - AKA Fatboy Slim - will turn 60 later this year.
Despite more than four decades in the music game, the iconic DJ has lost none of his appetite for entertaining crowds of ravers.
During the first of two sets at Manchester's O2 Victoria Warehouse as part of his ‘Y’all Are The Music, We’re Just The DJ’s’ tour, he arrives on stage beaming from ear to ear.
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As he appears, a strobe light burns laser-like on the screen behind him and the crowd lets out its first euphoric roar of the night. The venue is packed out with battle-hardened ravers ready for an evening of hedonistic fun.
It all makes for a joyous and energetic affair from the off as the big beat pioneer opens with Queen before moving into a show full of heady house mash-ups.
An impressive light show provides the backdrop to the performance. Among the many graphics that flash behind Cook throughout are the acid house smiley face, as well as a rotating procession of famous faces.
When an image of Gary Lineker appears, both DJ and crowd cheer and applaud the pundit, who it was revealed just hours earlier the BBC had told to step back from presenting Match of the Day.
It feels more like a massive club night experience than a conventional gig, with Cook saving his most well-known hits until last. Yet he teases snippets of the likes of the Rockafeller Skank and Right Here, Right Now - at one stage using edited footage from speeches made by former US president Barack Obama - throughout.
Ever the showman, Cook knows exactly how to feed the crowd’s insatiable desire to rave right back into the 90s. He has an intense, charismatic presence on stage, spending as much time geeing up the crowd than on the decks.
There are remixes of the Bee Gees and Frankie Goes to Hollywood, as well as covers of 90s dance classics 'Insomnia' and 'Born Slippy'. The lighting and stream of colourful, distorted graphics only add to the chaotic energy of the night.
At one point, a trippy montage of photos of Cook throughout different times in his life appears. Set to a deep house track, his face remains in the same position on screen, only the settings around him changing.
As the show draws to a close, Cook moves straight from Eat, Sleep, Rave, Repeat into Renegade Master. Then it’s time for Right Here, Right Now and Praise You, although neither are played in full.
When the latter ends, the veteran DJ bows before gesturing to the crowd that he has one more in his locker - The Rockafeller Skank.
He leaves the stage with a look of genuine gratitude in his eyes - impressive after all these years. As someone who was too young to experience Fatboy Slim’s late 90s and early 2000s heyday - when more than 250,000 ravers turned out for his concert on Brighton beach - tonight feels about as close as you can get to capturing the spirit of that era.
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