Recorded at his request at HMS House at his spiritual home in Brighton, this was the first A Little Moore Conversation podcast. Sitting down in Norman's kitchen with fellow pop art fan and artist Mark Vessey, as well as comparing notes on Kate Moss and Keith Haring; Norman also discusses his love of collecting/ hoarding whilst routing through his legendary record collection.
Recorded at his request at HMS House at his spiritual home in Brighton, this was the first A Little Moore Conversation podcast. Sitting down in Norman's kitchen with fellow pop art fan and artist Mark Vessey, as well as comparing notes on Kate Moss and Keith Haring; Norman also discusses his love of collecting/ hoarding whilst routing through his legendary record collection.
Ralph: 0:00
Welcome to a Little Moore conversation. Get closer to the biggest names in electronic music. In this episode, Ralph gets closer to the original superstar DJ Fatboy Slim and U K pop artist Mark Vessey at Norman's home in Brighton.
Ralph: 0:28
This is the very first in a brand new podcast series called A Little More Conversation. We are sat in the kitchen off HMS house with Norman Cook.
Norman: 0:38
Good Afternoon
Ralph: 0:38
And Mark Vessey,
Mark: 0:39
Good afternoon
Ralph: 0:41
We are here to talk music, art, pop art, pop culture and all other geekery.
Norman: 0:47
In that strict order?
Ralph: 0:49
Definitely not in a strict order. Well, before I got here, I couldn't remember. Obviously, Norm, I've got quite a lot of memories of this house with you and one of things I couldn't remember was the exact answer to the question which can be shown by me bringing my Keith Haring Hoody, which I've had a while I bought in New York. But unfortunately, as usual, you can better me.
Norman: 1:08
. Yeah, well, no, we're not waving our dicks around here. No, I'm glad you mentioned Keith Haring, Ralph, because that was my introduction to art Really? That was when I first got the bug. So I didnt have an art background but I loved records and I love hip hop. And then Malcolm McClaren had a record sleeve Keith Haring designed and that got me into it. And then I was in America somewhere and saw some Keith Haring stuff. Or they persuaded me to buy my first numbered prints. And that's when I kind of what got me got me into it. But yes so Keith Haring was by my introduction to the art world from an absolute pleb's point of view just being a punk rocker and a B boy.
Ralph: 1:51
And can you talk about the one that's framed on the wall for a second?
Norman: 1:55
Yeah, it's just Ah, I bought off eBay and er somebody was walking through New York and bumped into Keither Haring in 1984. I think, got chatting to him and because selfies hadn't been invented, and he wanted an autograph he got Keith to sign his shirt. So he drew a little picture which the guy had framed as lovingly kept. And have you noticed that is out of direct sunlight just to make it last a little longer. Pride of place in the house but out of direct sunlight.
Ralph: 2:26
I'm assuming really that Keith is probably quite a key touch point for you guys, as friends. Can you? Can you explain how you became friends and what point Keith came into the conversation?
Mark: 2:38
I think Keith came into the conversation pretty early on when I first came round to Norman's house, and I think you took me up into your bedroom to show me you of stack of Keith Haring books that you've collected, remember?
Norman: 2:49
Yes, I just like to say that there was a reason for this. I don't take every guest up to my bedroom straightaway because when basically a mutual friend puts in touch, and then when I checked out is where I got a really kind of like somebody walked over my grave because the week before, I've been doing something very similar with my wrist bands trying to make art out of the wristbands that I collected. And then I looked at all the stuff that Mark did. He's got the same idea, and he done it better and done it first. But one of the things he'd done was this stack of Keith Haring books, and I was like, That's really freaky because I've got pretty much the same collection of the same books stacked up in my bedroom.
Mark: 3:27
It was really kind of, like, strange like, and I'd kind of photographed this collection of Keith Haring's books, probably about nine years ago. Now it's quite a long time ago on that he was such a massive hero of mine in terms of being when I was in art school. I loved that. Just how simple and sort of non pretentious his work was and how he just I kind of like the Energy of getting it out on the New York Underground and the whole kind of pop art scene. So that's why I kind of did a homage to him through photographing the spines off different books I collected, um, which Norman had seen.
Norman: 4:03
Yeah, so it was. It was just spooky how similar our tastes in in collectives off the fetish, like sort of collecting an arrangement of things. Keith Haring Music, art, pop art every thing, but that idea of collecting as a kind of art form was the thing that I think rang true the most.
Mark: 4:28
I think its all these things. It's like they're sort of tangible things that are in our world that we may be take slightly for granted or but they're sitting around us all the time. And then for me, it's squaring it up into a camera andreally sort, making us focus on it as an object and then enlargeing it to show the importance of it, you know? Well, you know, to me the importance to me anyway, of records and books and magazines.
Norman: 4:52
I like the way you elevate it, you make it into art what was a part of something old. If you get enough of the same thing and arrange them right and put it on that pedestal or, you know, take take the photo in such a classical away and frame it, it becomes art. What what was
Norman: 5:09
thank you
Norman: 5:10
Remnants for you. Yeah, that was definitely what attracted me to it
Mark: 5:13
Kind of brands, whatever subject I'm doing or it's definitely just by squaring something up in the simple lines, the repetition. I photograph them all with medium format camera a camera with the negative film, and then you actually can see that with the quality of the print, could actually see the print on the actual items I'm photographing. So it's that much detail that I'm getting, which I get excited by, a detail of it. But that's my job as follows And i. So that the whole with Norman's record stuff, vinyl collection, it was that the whole that journey that it's had with Norman. So whatever part it's entered into your kind of life, you've got this working thing. That's talk you've used and you've taken to different geeigs, and it's, you know, it's it's not. This precious thing that's been kept it is this precious thing, but it's not been kept that untouched because sometimes if I get collections like that, I feel like for me, this is lacking in something. It's just pristine, and it's never had a life of its own. It's had a life.
Norman: 6:21
Yeah, that's interesting, because during the process of doing this, it made me re-evaluate my record collection because at first I was like, No, I don't do the records, do the wrist bands because that was kind of what I was excited about, and I think he's where he could take it further. And then when we started talking about the record collection. We're talking about the fact he's this next door. It's sort of their as this, uh, archive rather than being used anymore. But we're talking about what I would do with it, and I've left it to my son that Christ knows what he'll do that. But the main most important thing for me was they stayed together and it stayed in our position on one day. There will be a reason for it, and again when you think about my relationship, with records I started as a collector first and it was being the reason I became a DJ was because I was a collector. I got. I got asked to bring my records, to the parties, because I was the only one who had all the records on that. That's how the DJing came about. So I've always DJ'd with them. I'm always sampled them, I ended up making them, and so they're a well, yeah, it's not just something that you have in the corner to play to guests when they come around. For me, it's a working library.
Mark: 7:28
It's a possession that grows as well, because literally it's gone. Probably like you said early years, it might have been off. No, not 50 records that started you off. And then it's just become this obsession of yours. Then keep on buying. Keep some kind of
Norman: 7:44
A relationship which I lapsed on until you kind of really got me where you got well, you you could see from when we went in there to get you to see that there's furniture piled up down there into the studio and that they don't get you. Don't get out often these days. It's nice to get them out and have a sniff of them. Love them feel them!
Mark: 8:04
It's so geeky But even down to the fact that you, the prices on them with the record shops I remember I grew up with them. Turntable was the record shop that you'd go, and you kind of pick out CDs. And I know like those stickers on them in the price and I don't know, It's just It's so geeky but it excites me
Ralph: 8:21
one of the things about collecting. If you're an uber uber collector in this sort of, this might be worth money type sense. We touched on this before. You might buy two copies of a record because you might play one and keep one shrink wrapped
Norman: 8:34
Or if you're a hip hop DJ you buy two records so you can rip them up.
Ralph: 8:36
indeed.
Norman: 8:38
important reference. And if you look at them, there's two in their collection that there's two copies off, and I insist to mark that there had to be two copies of them. And so there's two copies of Bob James Two, which only anyone who is a B boy in the late in the mid eighties were to pick up on the reference of that. Cause there's a tune on that called take me to the Mardi Gras, which is a version of a paul Simon song. But it's got a really well known but well well known to those in the know Drum break on it. So you'd have to had and he had to have two copies of it because that way you could go from deck to deck and keep the drumbeat going on. Similarly, with ultimate beaks and breaks that's bit more well known. But that was kind of the staple of the break beats from those compilation album. So you had to have to couple that. I see I'm so geeky. I have three copies because I have two copies to play to DJ out with, but you would nacker them up. I script by Ripper scratching on them over and over again. So I have a clean copy if I ever needed to sample it so that they're one of them would be called clean Copy and the other two be the ones that would play out with
Ralph: 9:38
an uber collector, would literally buy a record. If they're not a DJ, they would. They like I said they would buy one or two. One maybe to play or at least look at and one to keep in absolute pristine condition. But actually, the point of looking at this and what you do is a DJ once said to me, You need you need to have a relationship with your crate. So in other words, if you are only keeping records to hold on to, you know, you're not actually having fun with them, it's It's not a tangible thing that it's a bit like having a kettle or something that you just don't use. What's the point of it?
Mark: 10:07
It's like stagnant, like I'm not a `DJ, but I get that when people are too precious with stuff. I'm like, I have a friend that he had a camera, and he had used the same camera the same time as him. My camera's bashed around. It's been used Ive created work from it. I think he sold his on the second hand market made a bit of money, but he never used it as much as I did. And it's like what the point in having it? You've gotta use these objects, to grow and live with. That's what they're there for and to keep everything perfect. And to think that in 10 years time it will be worth a bit of money. I just think it's very sad kind of story, so,
Norman: 10:41
yeah, I think collecting for money is missing the point of it. There's so many other reasons or something. Other joys you could get out collecting things. And some of the best ones probably are just the sheer joy of collecting something that no one else is collecting because it's much easier to collect it. And if it isn't, isn't valuable. Um, I mean, ah, you obviously, you know, they can go to either end of the spectrum where you're just collecting, you know, cheap stuff for making art yourself, you know, on the other end you've got I'm sotherby's but I was thinking about the nature of collecting this morning. Well, so mentally, preparing myself, thinking about Paul Heaton's crisp packet collection, Pauls an old friend of mine and all those through his adolescence. He always collected crisp packets, and he collected one of everyone that he didn't have, and he's still as far as I know. He still got the collection, which must be immense by now. And I think it's just like those crisp packets were rubbish until you got enough of them, like probably 200 of them on that they became impressive. And now they're historical. He's been doing that for 35 years. So now the old ones, and probably are almost collectors, owns not actually, really worth. And he's never gonna make any money out of it. But it's the nature, something becoming. If you hang on to things long enough and you've got enough of them, it becomes a collection. And then the interest comes with the age of them and where they all came from, not just purely that said, Wave your dick around. You know,
Ralph: 12:07
The only thing that you can take beyond the crisp packet, though, is when you grow up and you get a family and kids, And real life kicks in. Your wife may call you hoarder!
Norman: 12:18
I say bring it on. I take the obsessive and compulsive, but it's not a disorder.
Ralph: 12:25
Do you ever worry that you have too many things that make you become a hoarder? I mean, if you have a record, for example, it's never it's you're not hoarding your collecting, but I don't know where crisp packets sit on the spectrum because no girlfriend is going to sign of on 20,000 crisp packets in the kitchen.
Norman: 12:41
It's not. It's not interfering in your relationship. It's not like, oh, is taking up too much room, you know, crisp packets have gotta go or me. It's not like he's gonna take up all your time that you longingly getting him out and polishing them every night. They're just they're You're either there.
Ralph: 12:54
Where does he keep them?
Norman: 12:55
And crisp packets last longer than most girlfriends.
Ralph: 12:57
But where does he keep them in the house?
Norman: 12:59
I don't know. That's another. That's another podcast.
Mark: 13:03
You know, I think I think separating it from your life is a good thing, a little bit for me anyway. For work. I have to, I've got, I live quite minimalistic I suppose, but I have a big loft, that's full of stuff that evolves. And I have to kind of, like, move things on. Otherwise I'll stop in a way you sort of stunts the work in a way I have to kind of keep things moving collections. And I think it's nice to have a door that you can open it up like, I guess your studio kind of you can you can go and have that space for your collection.
Norman: 13:32
Yeah, I think the rest of my family were definitely happy that the record collection stayed in the studio next door and doesn't it didn't go over the house the same with Smiley's. Because I'm also collecting Smiley is quite vehemently on. There was a point in my life where it's like, you know what we've just got containing because the whole house is just this big, yellow, grinning, cheesy thing which again makes it from he's got a lot of smileys lying around the house, too. It's a collection now boxed it, boxed in one shelf and is now concentration smileys, which I think makes it more as more impact on it is the way you arrange it again. That's what I love about you. You kind of you make things important just by arranged them alll together in a nice way, whether it's squaring them up or just, you know, collecting Kate Moss, tell us about the Kate Moss covers.
Mark: 14:18
And I started doing Vogue magazines and then Vongue kind of had, like, a bit of a kind of took off, and then they said, or what are you gonna do next. I really would like to start looking at how many I didn't even know how many times Kate Moss has been on the front cover of Vogue. So I researched that started buying them on eBay. Kind of, my friend said, I've got the first ever one. That was in 1993 that she was on, so I started to kind of like collect them and then one of them Nick Nights' Millennial issue is gold spine, so it's sort of this picture starts building up I photographed them all together on then produced three editions that we were launched in London, and she saw the work and loved the piece then a friend of hers said, All right I'm going to the launch of this photographer, Mark Vessey, he's photographed you. And she she said, No, no, he's never photographed me, which I haven't and she was getting confused, then came back and went to launch and saw the work and bought a copy of it. Then explained that she'd never actually collected any of the magazine's herself so I said I've got a box in my loft. I'll send them up to London to you. So she was really pleased with it. But she's got the actual photograph And the actual collection, which she said that she she's really looking forward to being able to show her daughter and share with her that journey.
Ralph: 15:46
I can picture in my head. One of my favorite covers that you did was a timeout cover where you're wearing like a really smart on that might be in an Armani suit. Remember that one like the Black Suit? Did you have fond memories of magazine covers that could be at some point collected?
Norman: 16:00
Yeah, I mean, obviously, I've got more various vault boxes and boxes of every single one, every single press cutting from my whole career, which one day somebody could do something with. Naturally, they're my collector's instinct means that anything to my career, I go every signal laminar every backstage pass. I can collect the flight tags off every flight I get and decorate my laptop with, you know, the bar codes from every floor. Remember one of my crew on my coat and the gigs saying something about my O C. D. And then he said, Yeah, I said, Mind you, none of us would probably be here if it wasn't for your O c D. Because it is because of the way you collect things.. So yeah. No, I've got magazine covers. Yeah, all saved up. Ready that one day? I don't know. One day you could frame them all and put them all across a wall. Well, I don't know. They're all they're all still there. They're all pending and waiting for the right archivist or artists to turn them into attain. That turned them from old cuttings into art.
Ralph: 17:05
Obviously the world we're not. When I first met you, you know, everybody bought magazines to read about everything and selfies hadn't been invented as we talked about earlier. And, you know, it was about vinyl and CDs. Little bit cassettes were dying hilariously, they're coming back. But now it's not really so much about tangible things. It's more about, you know, people stream rather than buy CDs as the way we did growing up. Do you think part of collecting is about like you said archiving? Is it a part of your break? For example, If I said, Do you know where that music magazine cover that you did in 1998 years? Would you go yeah its in that?
Norman: 17:39
I know, sort of where it is. But I know it's within the four boxes for the coming season where, but they're no, I haven't yet. They're in no order yet, but do you know you said that?
Ralph: 17:51
But does having having a physical version off something sort of slot in with something in your brain? We you now know that it's there. Why do you need to wristband to remind yourself that you were once inside Brazil? It is,
Norman: 18:02
Well, there have been times in my career just to remind myself that I was in Brazil because you never know, you never know that something might start Cease to be like records. You know, to my Children, there's this strange sort off weird, you know, object on trying to impress it. That was how we shared music. Yes. So you never know when they're old enough that they become historical. So they're a good reference point of anything that I don't know. I just keep most things. It's like everything. Keep it. You'd never know. One day someone might come along and make a piece of art out of it. Or one day you might use it to explain to people explain to your kids how the world worked. You know, the world is changing so much in terms of everything being digital or virtual in a store in the cloud somewhere that I quite like the fact that I'm archiving physical things that exist.
Ralph: 18:57
I think we probably all got that in common. And the artwork here from Mark. Norm Talk us through why you picked Say, let's start at the top. We got Aretha Franklin. Amazing Grace.
Norman: 19:09
Um, this one because I rediscovered it the other day. Her version of I was singing choir. Insist Yeah, I was singing with the choir for a hospice and we sung You've got a friend And then I remembered her version of Precious Lord, mixed with You got friends, really beautiful gospel version and I couldn't find it on the Internet. So I had gone and pulled out. Thought I'm really glad kept that Aretha Franklin Double Live gospel album .
Ralph: 19:40
And further down, we've got one of my favorites: Prince. Sign of the times. Why is that one in there?
Norman: 19:45
Just because you can't not have Prince in a reference points to my career, there might possibly into been two copies of that, because I did used to Walski used to rap over, um, Alphabet Street where I used to repeat the drum break. And he woud used to rap over it.
Ralph: 20:05
Um, we've talked about Bob James, but your career wouldn't be your career without house music. So let's talk about a couple of house tracks in there. What do we got? What we got in the middle? Frankie Knuckles.
Norman: 20:19
It is quite difficult. Finding house music that had a spine we went through. We went through the 12inchDepartment and in those days, everything we just had house bags on it. And so yet finding finding house music references with spines was a difficult one. But then Frankie Knuckles just leapt out, him being one of my biggest heroes and there the first out of all of us to become immortal. Just something about that record just wanted to be in there just, you know, in in memory of Frankie.
Ralph: 20:52
That's a great story. I think I saw Josh wink in there somewhere, too.
Norman: 20:57
Higher State of Consciousness?
Ralph: 20:58
Yeah, that's that is definitely in there. I saw it.
Norman: 21:01
Yeah, that was, as you can see, how you can see dogeared that one is that one's been around the world a few times in my box.
Ralph: 21:09
That was always a big record.
Norman: 21:11
Yeah. I mean, that was, I think was around that time when this Fatboy Slim big beat thing was crossing over. I remember seeing that on top of the Pops and just thinking Christ if a record as groundbreaking and wrong as that can get in, get in the charts. Then you know, maybe we could you know, maybe there's something in this thing now. Yeah. I mean, it was just before big beat. That was a record that totally was wrong. It didn't sit with any other is. It was a drum break and a 303 making squelchy noises. You could see it being played on radio one and people just scratching their heads, going. This isn't music, but yeah, loving the fact that that could be pop music and people in America going what that really got in the charts? Because it was, like, way underground there. And I know, in England, things like that can get the top 20.
Ralph: 21:56
Bootsy Collins as well. He is someone you've worked with.
Norman: 21:59
Yeah, I coproduced that produced about 2/3 of that album at that. Yeah. I mean, for me, it for as a producer to be asked to work with Shine Head and Bootsy Collins and people like that, that was for me was just mind blowing these people that I'd grown up listening to and loved and then asking me to produce him very proud of that.
Ralph: 22:20
And then underneath Bootsy we've got Kraftwerk. When did you first hear Kraftwerk?
Norman: 22:25
I first heard Kraftwork I've heard radio activity sitting on a train, going up to Yorkshire to go on holiday and just thought wth e synthesizers spoke to me and I thought, What is this strange thing in radio activity? Yes, I'd never heard of them. I didn't know what electronic music was and that got me into electronic music.
Ralph: 22:48
Now there's definitely a compilation or two that you worked on. There was a football compilation in here somewhere. I saw
Norman: 22:55
That wasn't football that was production I think in a real sounds of Africa.
Ralph: 22:59
Yeah, So that's one I don't know about The real Sounds of Africa mixed by Norman Cook Soccer fan, Was that the label. Soccer Soccer fans?
Norman: 23:08
No soccer fan is name of the tune Ah, it was a soccer based record by a African band. A band from, um, Zimbabwe, whom their management lived in Brighton and they asked me to remix it. I ended up working there, ended up becoming my rhythm section in the first sort of prototype of beats International. On they were, yeah, they paid all the brass on the first album on. That was the first kind of experiences the world of music, where literally, you wouldn't have. It was only just because they had management lived in Brighton that I would ever be exposed to to African musicians. And we gotta hang out with him. And, yeah, so I kind of pissed in their gene pool by remixing them. And then they brought African bits into the First Beats International album.
Ralph: 23:56
Amazing Two Bands. Very important. The Beastie Boys. 1st 1 Paul's Boutique. What's your relationship with that record? And with them just?
Norman: 24:06
A milestone of production, I think the Dust Brothers production of that really kind of blew my mind made again shaped the way that me as fat boy Slim producing records. That's just big inspiration.
Ralph: 24:20
Anyone who's not here in Norm's kitchen will have to be explained this bit too. I've just brought over the Beastie Boys book. Have you seen this? Have you got this?
Norman: 24:29
No, I've never seen before in my life.
Ralph: 24:31
We should really get you a copy.
Norman: 24:32
This is more of a visual section of the podcast for all you watching in black and white might be losing some of this.
Ralph: 24:38
In a way, it sort of ties back to where we started, which was they've also been collecting in curating everything from their entire career.
Norman: 24:47
Wow, oh god!
Ralph: 24:47
I probably should just leave these books here with yeah Every time you open it, there's something else so clearly that probably kindred spirits to the way that your career and your archive world has has been. I
Norman: 25:00
I think its coming it comes from being a fan. First, you kind of as a fan. You kind of like the memorabilia of other bands. And then when you started having a career yourself, you feel it's like you have to keep it on catalogue it. But the genius of it is is finding a reason for doing that 20 years later, turning into a book or an art print, you know, is just, I bet a lot more people than you'd guess have kept everything from their whole careers. It's just finding a way of bring it out in a way that it becomes interesting or memorable apart from, unless you're so famous that people just want to see what your toilet roll looks like, you know. But for me, it's it's yet is finding a way of putting, making those memories interesting for other viewers.
Ralph: 25:45
This is sort of the beginning of this project for you guys isn't it? So you know, do you want to talk about what's happening later today, For example, here in Brighton,
Mark: 25:51
We've got a launch of war with the launch of Norman. The photograph and I always like blowing things up really big on. When we first talked about the project, I was I'm gonna do, like, 2/3 meter square picture. And Norman was are you sure about that? Kind of, you know, where is that going to go? And then I had meetings with my printers and originally they were like, This isn't gonna be that easy to do to achieve. But then they came back to me. A meter and 1/2. We were able to print directly onto a piece of dia bond. So that's gonna be the launch tonight off the mother piece off the from which the addition to drawn off off. So
Norman: 26:30
I should be the first time I've seen it. I just like to add with a note of excitement in my voice.
Mark: 26:35
No pressure at all. But now I'm really looking forward to, like, actually showing off a huge piece of my work as well, because my work is all about scale. It's the first time in a while that I've actually done something this big. Normally, my prints is just over a meter big, which is still big. But this is this is enlarged even more so. I'm really looking forward to it.
Ralph: 26:58
And like I said, I mean, this is the beginning, isn't it? When when we walked in, you were looking through records so clearly this is, you know, it's it's engaging with your artistic brain
Norman: 27:10
Because I've always loved art and the aside from getting people to design your sleeves. It's very is very difficult for musicians and artists to collaborate on this. There's tons of times when you meet people and you're kind of like minded you, but it's like, how would we actually, you know, I've sat with Reicher and veals and other artists going you must draw something. I'm like, No, I'm color blind and, you know, we wanted to collaborate, So this is a way of doing it, and it's for me it's it's really exciting just to be doing something that isn't just music but makes me part of the art world rather than just being a fan and rather just hanging out with artists began to collaborate in some way I will see my input has been fairly minima, Marks done all the hard work. But I did tell her that I still feel like a part of it, and that's exciting.
Mark: 28:01
It's exciting for me as well. Not only in the fact that you just I'm photographing just everyday collections. But it's how it ties into Norman's career and how that ties in with other pop culture and magazines. It all starts to kind of pull together for me and, like this could sit next to one of my other pictures of like, face magazines or something, and then they start almost talk to each other. How culture is also tiny between certain time periods or periods of time. So I'm really happy to have collaborated.
Ralph: 28:32
Okay, soto finish up for the last sort of 10 15 minutes. Let's talk about the anecdote. We were just finishing up about the Kate Moss moment there.
Mark: 28:41
Yeah, I guess I wanted to give back that collection, but it felt right that maybe Kate Moss hadn't collected the pieces herself, and as much as I was attached to them in a way from my side. I think there's a greater attachment that she would have now carrying that through and given it, showing her family and her daughter her journey in British Vogue.
Norman: 29:02
It's really beautiful that you had no issues about giving away. It's like the job is done, you know, you had you'd made the peace of art out of it and you don't got the collection. But it was like it's there to be enjoyed in loved and passed on. Yeah,
Mark: 29:15
and to allow other people to have a benefit from it and to let go. It's like even with the work that we've just produced, there's a certain part of me that now has to let go of it and get it out there in the real world and not be too precious and kind of hold on to it. It's It's a weird kind of feeling sometimes, but yeah, you have to let go and allow things to pass on, and I don't know, share things with other people. And to pass that baton on. I suppose
Norman: 29:42
I love the idea that the end of it, you might you might just, you know, part of my job here is done. Now move on to the next one. What is the next one? Mark Vessey. I don't know.
Mark: 29:51
Yeah, I'm just still I'm actually looking at old interview magazines and speaking to the Andy Warhol Museum in America. They've got huge archive of the pop art kind of like series where Andy did the front covers and the huge oversized magazines on. I'd love to do something based on a collection of those, so I'm speaking about using their archive from maybe going to visit them in America. But yeah, I'm just like on this lovely journey of exploring other people's collections.
Ralph: 30:19
Can you tell me one thing that you've learned from each other?
Norman: 30:22
I feel more legitimized in some of my obsessiveness about collecting in the fact that Mark has turned it into an art form? Not only is it there's somebody else who use the same feels the same as me, because there's always that kind of feeling like I'm not alone. I'm not mad. So no, only that, but Mark, you managed to turn into a triumph. I've been I've been very inspired by that, and I look at some of my other collections in a different light now, thinking one day, one day something will you know. Now there's a reason you know why I've got so many plastic lobsters, and it might not be that they were going to makethem into an artform, But there is, You know, it's worth hanging onto.
Ralph: 30:58
What's the memory that will always stay with you? Having worked with each other?
Mark: 31:01
I guess one of the biggest memories are just spending time with Norman going through his collection and just actually listening to Norman and learning from him and that was quite a really special moment in the whole process of putting together the final photograph to me.
Norman: 31:16
Yeah, I think the memory I would take would be perched on the back of that, that chair going through like the far reaches those bits, the collection we couldn't reach because there's too much kind of junk. Getting swallowed up in the annals of the studio. And Yeah, and being perched in mid air and just flicking records across you and talking about each one very pleasant afternoon.
Mark: 31:40
I love how just recently with my work I can see how it like the magazines,tie in with the music and the actual additions now start to talk to each other. And I think that to me really is powerful.
Norman: 31:52
Also, because also, I think your audience might start talk to each other because there's probably gonna be there's gonna be Mark Vessey fans. It's gonna be Fatboy Slim fans. There's gonna be justart fans and hopefully that people like all three of those!
Mark: 32:04
I think there will be it's gonna be really good evening.
Norman: 32:06
So introduces a dialogue between because they might not be probably never heard of you. And then might be people who liked you but didn't like me much. I don't know.
Mark: 32:13
Yeah, it's just brings everyone together.
Norman: 32:16
I'm looking forward to the records coming to life. That's quite interesting. Is just going through, get pulling him out. But I was trying to think of some reason for me to be at the thing rather than just 1/2 tons of selfies and sign things and so we're taking the records that were in the in the eddition on, I'm gonna just have I'm not gona DJ with them. Just have one record and we're just casually put on and chat. In the boring moments, we could just chat about music and put the records on on would be a nice sort of sound check. And it makes us sort of light listening event as well. But I'm really looking forward to. I shall hear the records in a different light, if that's physically possible.
Mark: 32:53
No, , Me, too. I'm looking forward to it.
Ralph: 32:55
Norm just a couple of quick fire questions at the very end. What do you always pack when you travel?
Norman: 33:01
Portalable speaker, biscuits, protein bars and underwear.
Norman: 33:09
What's your favourite magazine or the best thing that you've been asked to do as a piece of promo that you actually really enjoyed? Like, for example, has someone come to you and apart from obviously today? Have you enjoyed a real gag moment when you had you were asked to?
Norman: 33:23
Last week, I did a podcast about the catering industry and my role in the restaurant trade, which is something I've never really talked about. Noone was very particularly interested in, but again, I'm quite obsessional about it and just talk about food and restaurants and things that was I think anything for me this end of my career. Anything that's not going over the same old ground. I mean, this has been fabulous. My favorite magazine probably remains record collector. I think again, he said, where all magazines have kind of become redundant or replaced by online versions of record Collector just staunchly refuses to move on.
Ralph: 33:57
And then finally, it's like touching it. What's been your sort of greatest ambition that came to fruition or the moment that surpassed expectations? Was there a moment, way or something that happened? You know, I guess when I got to know you, you were a point where records that you were involved with going to number one, for example. But that was only sort of part of it was Would you say, beach events Or, you know, was it something where you woke up? And went I didn't expect it to go this Well?
Norman: 34:25
I think the gigs on the beach in Brighton they were probably there. I'll remember them to my dying day because it was just It cemented my relationship with the city in terms of me feeling like, this is, this is my home. These are my friends and there's quite a lot of them, but also just yeah, just for forever being putting Brighton on the map to people who watch the DVD. Yeah, I think it's things. Yeah, things like that. I mean, this year I did a gig on the top of the eye 360 which kind of went around the world and again put Brighton on the map, people going what is that strange structure? It's like it's this mad thing that we built in Brighton because that's what we do on things like that. They give me the most pride!
Ralph: 35:06
Wonderful thank you. You've been listening to a little more conversation. Make sure you subscribe for more intimate conversations with music industry icons, including Pete Tong, the Black Madonna, Errol Alkan, Flood and Cassy.