Hey —
Last episode you heard Norman Cook build Big Beat from four ingredients. This one is the same story from the other side of the desk — the man who built the machine that delivered it.
Damian Harris founded Skint Records in Brighton in 1993, A&R'd Norman Cook into becoming Fatboy Slim, designed the logo, co-ran the Big Beat Boutique, warmed up the crowd every night — then, at the peak, walked away from all of it. He took it from 800-copy test pressings to a planning meeting where Sony was repressing another 200,000 albums a week and You've Come a Long Way, Baby was going to number one.
Here's the moment. I opened by playing Damian a clip from my Norman Cook episode — a clip nobody had heard yet, the episode wasn't even out — and got his reaction in real time. Watching Skint's founder listen back to his old partner describe their glory days, then quietly correct the record, is the whole show in ninety seconds.
Heard it before? In Episode 17, Norman gave the recipe. In Episode 18, Damian built the kitchen. Same clubs, same records, same after-parties at Norman's flat — told from opposite chairs. The tightest two-episode arc we've done. Listen back-to-back and you get the full picture neither man could give alone.
🎧 Listen: Episode page · YouTube · Spotify · Apple
Coming next: Rusty Belicek of All Good Funk Alliance — the DC underground, from a Slick Rick tape in an Oklahoma parking lot to opening for James Brown.
Keep digging,
Deckard
The oral history of dance music, told by those who created it.