Fatboy Slim shared the love for the grassroots music scene, performing at one of Brighton’s smallest gig venues in what he described as “very humbling”.
The Brighton-based DJ, real name Norman Cook, brought the party to a sell-out gig at 60-person capacity venue The Pipeline in the seaside city on Sunday.
The venue is earmarked for purchase by Music Venue Properties (MVP), dubbed the “National Trust for music venues”, in a bid to preserve it under community ownership.
Ahead of the set, Fatboy Slim told the Press Association he felt “strongly” about supporting grassroots music venues, saying they were where careers began and in the “twilight” of his own, he wanted to “give something back”.
“There’s a lot of DJs in my family, we all feel the same, it’s a nice thing to do,” he said.
“They are really important [for] preserving.”
The high-energy headliner brought the next heatwave as the crowd jumped, clapped and cheered to big hits, The Rockafeller Skank, Right Here, Right Now and more in the small room above the bar.
He said he knew the venue was going to be “intimate” but was not sure if it would feel like a “fun house party”, before music lovers were standing, dancing on cushioned seating and singing along to party anthems.
It topped off the final night of debut festival Everywhere At Once, which has organised more than 2,000 artists to perform at more than 400 grassroots venues across the country.
Fatboy Slim’s support act was Jacobi Knight, his daughter Nelly Cook’s boyfriend, while his son Woody Cook supported hip hop duo Rizzle Kicks at Patterns on Brighton seafront.
The star-studded lineup over the weekend included Tinie Tempah and Becky Hill.
Taking place on what would have been Glastonbury Festival weekend, the festival was billed as a reminder that live music is not just for major cities or festival fields but can also be found “on your doorstep”.
Chief executive and founder of Music Venue Trust Mark Davyd, one of the festival’s organisers, told the crowd before Fatboy Slim kicked off his set: “These venues are absolutely essential.
“We are a music nation. We should be demanding the Government do more to support them”.
Everywhere at Once festival is backed by the National Lottery, which has funded £1.3 billion in music-related projects since 1994.
The Pipeline owner, Thomas Evrenos, told PA the festival was a “great idea”.
“We usually compete with Glastonbury, and a lot of people, bands, are going away during this weekend, and suddenly we have a really good festival for everyone,” he said.
“We’re honoured to have a pretty cool lineup, so we’re happy.”
Mr Evrenos set up The Pipeline nine years ago, entering the music scene after being made redundant in his banking job in 2008.
On plans for the MVP purchase, he said: “If it happens, I think for me it will feel really good to know that this place will continue to be a music venue even when I give up and I will have better support.
“I think for the community in Brighton as a whole, if it’s a designated earmarked live music venue, I think that would be fantastic.
“I probably still have to pay rent, so it will still be a struggle for me, but it would be really good to have a landlord that understands my situation.”
MVP’s Own Our Venues campaign seeks to save community venues by adopting a “cultural lease” for affordable rents, maintenance contributions and long-term tenure security.
Created by charity Music Venue Trust, MVP has bought nine properties since 2022 that house grassroots gigs to conserve them as “cultural sites” and raised around £7 million through crowdfunding and fundraising to support the projects.
