Fatboy Slim has never been paid to play Glastonbury.
The superstar DJ – whose hits include Praise You and Right Here, Right Now – has never charged a fee despite playing the world-famous music festival countless times, insisting he’s happy to accept free tickets each year.
He told Metro: “I’ve never been paid to play there.
“But at the same time, I’ve never paid to go there. Emily and Michael [Eavis, the organisers] give me free tickets and allow me to do little quiet gigs in strange places.”
He added: “I’ve played there so many times even when I’m not officially on the bill; some years I’m there in an official capacity and sometimes I’m just there as a sightseer.
“For me, Glastonbury is the most fun, forward-thinking, beautiful human experience of alternative culture.”
Fatboy Slim – whose real name is Norman Cook – first graced the Pyramid Stage in 1986 with his old band The Housemartins.
Last year, he celebrated playing Glasto 100 times, though he later admitted he doesn’t “actually know” the true number of times he’s graced the stages of Worthy Farm.
He told BANG Showbiz: “The first time was 1986. We celebrated my 100th show there this year but we don’t actually know. The nature of a lot of Glastonbury gigs is that there’s no paper trail. None of us can run it back.
“I’m going on the fact that I’ve done every single one since 1996 and I play at least twice but up to six times. So we kind of guestimated 100.
“I know people like Billy Bragg and there’s a dude out of Hawkwind who have been to more but they make the mistake of only playing one gig, whereas if I played six I’ve probably overtaken them.
“But I’m not claiming that one. It’s unofficial.
“When we claimed the 100th gig at this Glastonbury I was waiting for someone to go, ‘Are you sure?’ The thing is I can’t prove it anymore than they can disprove it.”
His favourite moment at the festival saw him play a song backwards in a bid to get the audience moving backwards.
He said: “I played Sunday Best with Rob Da Bank and I think The Cuban Brothers. There’s a photo of me watching The Cuban Brothers. This is Sunday tea time so we’ve been there since Thursday probably, maybe Wednesday, so I’ve lost my marbles, my scruples, whatever intelligence I’ve had.
“I distinctly remember deciding that if I play a record backwards the audience might dance backwards. An interesting theory and one that I thought I should try out on one of the major stages.
“I thought, ‘It’s got to be something fairly well known so they might recognise it backwards and be more likely to dance.’ It was a Chemical Brothers track, probably, Hey Boy, Hey Girl.
“I was playing it religiously backwards and to my joy at least half the audience started dancing backwards. Then Ed from Chemical Brothers went, ‘What are you doing?’ I said, ‘I was playing the record backwards to see if people would dance backwards.’ Ed went, ‘Oh brilliant, oh look they are!’
“That was probably my favourite set. That’s as far removed from reality as you can be but still beautiful that you can experiment with life the way you experiment with drugs.”
