Date | 13 July 2002 |
---|---|
Venue | Brighton Beach, Brighton, England |
Coordinates | 50°49′15″N0°09′02″W / 50.8209°N 0.1505°W |
Type | Free concert |
Organised by | Fatboy Slim |
Deaths | 2 |
Non-fatal injuries | 171 |
Arrests | 6 |
Attendance | 250,000 |
Album | Big Beach Boutique II |
Big Beach Boutique II was a free concert held on 13 July 2002 by English DJ Fatboy Slim (Norman Cook) on Brighton beach, Brighton, England. The concert was attended by over 250,000 people, four times the expected 60,000. Due to the far higher than expected attendance the local authorities were severely underprepared, which led to many incidents including two deaths, over 170 injuries, and six arrests.
On Saturday, 7 July 2001, Fatboy Slim's first Big Beach Boutique concert occurred, organized by Channel 4, and released as an album, Live on Brighton Beach.
Fatboy Slim had run a 300-occupancy Brighton club night called Big Beat Boutique, featured in On the Floor at the Boutique . [3] [4]
On the day of the concert Sussex Police reportedly considered cancelling the event due to the vast numbers of people, but decided not to as they feared a riot, [6] [7] they allowed it to go ahead with the proviso that he finish 30 minutes early. [8] The concert was attended by more than 250,000 people, double the city's population at the time and more than four times the 60,000 expected attendance [9] and more than three times the 80,000 maximum which had been planned for.
The A23 road was backed up past Gatwick Airport, more than 25 miles away from the huge numbers of people travelling to Brighton. Abandoned cars were left along the coast to nearby Hove. [10]
As a result of the enormous crowds, the local authorities, such as the police and ambulance service, were very underprepared.
"The crowd that came together on 13 July 2002 was more than four times bigger than expected, doubling the population of Brighton & Hove at a stroke. It was an incredible sight to behold and amazing to have been a part of it - but I do still look back and think about how easily things could have gone very wrong...I was working that day as a crowd density spotter for a friend's local stewarding company. It's a role that was created following recommendations from the 1989 Hillsborough football disaster" — Chris Cocking [11]
Several hours before the concert started, the beach was crammed with people. In a live TV interview on his seafront balcony at the Grand Hotel, Cook said "I'm quite scared". [10]
During the concert, people clung to ambulances to escape the crowds. [12] A coastguard helicopter hovered over the shoreline throughout the evening, with scores of unconscious people being rescued from the sea. [13] Paul Cruise, who attended the concert, said that "all of the seafront hotel balconies were packed and people were hanging off lamp posts and railings". As the tide came in, people were reportedly "up to their necks in the water", and small boats had to rescue many of them from the sea. [14]
After the concert ended, the hordes of people who attended the concert began to make their way home. People clung to the doors of trains to try and prise them open and buses were forced to operate unplanned night services to ferry the crowds out. [14]
Casualties were taken from the beach by lifeboats because the streets were too jammed for ambulances to easily access it. [15] [16] Ambulances and stretcher parties could not reach treatment centres, and some crews were abused by drunks. [13] A total of 160 people received minor injuries from the event, with a further 11 being taken to hospital. [7] [9] Among the injuries were two broken legs and a broken back. [17] After the event, an Australian nurse [18] was seriously injured and later died after falling from the Upper Esplanade, and a 45-year-old man died from a heart attack. Another six people were arrested for assault, drugs and public order offences. [13]
Thousands of people were marooned and forced to sleep on the beach because of a lack of trains, with the last train to London leaving 15 minutes after the concert finished. [13]
After the concert the beach was covered in litter, mostly broken glass, and the smell of urine filled the air as people had been forced to urinate where they were standing. There was no rain for days after the concert, so the council was eventually forced to bulldoze the shingle back into the sea to clean the beach. [14] The cleanup operation cost £300,000, which was partly paid for by Cook. Of the police on duty, half required trauma counselling. [17]
The council subsequently decided to restrict future concerts on the beach, fearing a repeat of the concert's events. They considered banning events like it entirely, but decided they would go ahead after appropriate safety guidelines were approved. [18]
"No similar free concert has been permitted in Britain since." [19]
"a Titanic story devoid of an iceberg" [20]
A box set [21] and feature-length documentary [22] titled Right Here, Right Now, [23] a reference to Fatboy Slim's song of the same title, was released on Sky Documentaries on 4 February 2023. The documentary recounts the events of the concert [24] [25] [26] and includes video interviews [22] on the day of the event, and clippings from newspapers, magazines, and other publications, both positive and negative. [27] [28]
Norman Quentin Cook, also known by his stage name Fatboy Slim, is an English musician, DJ, and record producer who helped to popularise the big beat genre in the 1990s. In the 1980s, Cook was the bassist for the Hull-based indie rock band the Housemartins, who achieved a UK number-one single with their a cappella cover of "Caravan of Love". After the Housemartins split up, Cook formed the electronic band Beats International in Brighton, who produced the number-one single "Dub Be Good to Me". He then played in Freak Power, Pizzaman, and the Mighty Dub Katz with moderate success.
Brighton is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the city of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located 47 mi (76 km) south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age, Roman and Anglo-Saxon periods. The ancient settlement of "Brighthelmstone" was documented in the Domesday Book (1086). The town's importance grew in the Middle Ages as the Old Town developed, but it languished in the early modern period, affected by foreign attacks, storms, a suffering economy and a declining population. Brighton began to attract more visitors following improved road transport to London and becoming a boarding point for boats travelling to France. The town also developed in popularity as a health resort for sea bathing as a purported cure for illnesses.
Skint Records is a Brighton and Hove based dance music record label owned by JC Reid, Tim Jeffery and Damian Harris. It was created as a sublabel of Loaded Records, also founded by Reid and Jeffery. Along with Wall of Sound, the label was a leader in the big beat music scene of the mid to late 1990s.
On the Floor at the Boutique is a live album mixed by British big beat musician Fatboy Slim. It was recorded at the Big Beat Boutique in 1997 in Brighton, England and released in 1998.
You've Come a Long Way, Baby is the second studio album by Fatboy Slim. It was first released on 19 October 1998 in the United Kingdom by Skint Records and a day later in the United States by Astralwerks. Cook recorded and produced the album at his home studio in Brighton, known as the House of Love, using an Atari ST computer, Creator software, and floppy disks. The photo on the album cover was originally taken at the 1983 Fat Peoples Festival in Danville, Virginia; for the North American release, the album cover was changed to an image of shelves stacked with records.
Live on Brighton Beach is a live album by British big beat musician Fatboy Slim, released on 25 February 2002. It is a recording of 7th July 2001 performance on Brighton Beach, England.
Big Beach Boutique II is a mixed compilation album containing some of the songs which were played by British big beat musician Fatboy Slim and Midfield General in a live performance on Brighton Beach on 13 July 2002. There is also a DVD release which features the mix set performed by Fatboy Slim called Big Beach Boutique II – The Movie.
"Crazy Beat" is a song by English band Blur from their seventh album, Think Tank (2003). The song was written and produced by band members Damon Albarn, Alex James and Dave Rowntree in Morocco, with Norman Cook also serving as a producer. It was first serviced to alternative radio stations in the United States on 17 March 2003, by Virgin Records, while being commercially released in the United Kingdom on 7 July 2003, by Parlophone, including the songs "The Outsider" and "Don't Be" as B-sides. A three-chord song, "Crazy Beat" is a dance-pop and electropop track which draws influences of big beat and nu metal into its composition. Lyrically, it praises the effects of music and clubs on crowds.
"Praise You" is a song by British big beat musician Fatboy Slim. It was released as the third single from his second studio album, You've Come a Long Way, Baby (1998), on 4 January 1999. It reached number one on the UK Singles Chart and in Iceland, number four in Canada, number six in Ireland, and number 36 in the United States. As of 1999, it had sold over 150,000 units in the US.
"The Rockafeller Skank", often referred to as "Funk Soul Brother" by fans, is a song by English big beat musician and DJ Fatboy Slim. It was released as the lead single from his second studio album, You've Come a Long Way, Baby (1998), on 8 June 1998. The single peaked at number six on the UK Singles Chart in June 1998 and topped the Icelandic Singles Chart for a week the same month. It was the second Fatboy Slim single to chart on the US Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 76. In 2022, Rolling Stone ranked "The Rockafeller Skank" at number 199 on their list of the "200 Greatest Dance Songs of All Time".
Brighton and Hove Pride is an annual LGBT pride event held in the city of Brighton and Hove, England, organised by Brighton Pride, a community interest company (CIC) who promote equality and diversity, and advance education to eliminate discrimination against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) community.
"Right Here, Right Now" is a song by British big beat musician Fatboy Slim, released on 19 April 1999 as the fourth single from his second studio album, You've Come a Long Way, Baby (1998). The song samples "Ashes, the Rain & I" by James Gang and an Angela Bassett quote from American science fiction thriller film Strange Days (1995). "Right Here, Right Now" reached number two on the UK Singles Chart and became a top-40 hit in Australia, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, New Zealand, and the Walloon region of Belgium. It was voted by Mixmag readers as the 10th-greatest dance record of all time.
The Pimp is an EP by Fatboy Slim, released in 2002. It is the third and final EP in a series by Fatboy Slim; all three EPs were released on 19 November 2002.
The Fatboy Slim/Norman Cook Collection is a compilation album by British big beat musician Fatboy Slim, released on Hip-O Records in 2000. It was remixed and produced by Fatboy Slim.
Big beat is an electronic music genre that usually uses heavy breakbeats and synthesizer-generated loops and patterns – common to acid house/techno. The term has been used by the British music industry to describe music by artists such as The Prodigy, the Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, the Crystal Method, Propellerheads, Basement Jaxx and Groove Armada.
Damian Harris, also known by his stage name Midfield General, is the original founder of the Skint Records label.
Lee Potter, known by his stage name Cut La Roc, is a British electronic musician, considered as a pioneer of big beat, a genre fusing elements of hip hop, house and rock.
Palookaville is the fourth and final studio album by English electronic music producer Fatboy Slim. It was first released on 4 October 2004 in the United Kingdom by Skint Records and a day later in the United States by Astralwerks. The album was nominated for the 2006 Grammy Award for Best Electronic/Dance Album.
Martlets Hospice is a hospice in Hove, England, established in 1997. It is a registered charity. The hospice provides end-of-life care to people in the Brighton and Hove area.