You know how sometimes you look at someone and think “You look kinda familiar” but you can’t place the face and move on, think nothing more of it. But sometimes you think “You, I know”. Well… 

I was in the Helm Gallery to meet The Whistler’s food editor who was there to discuss a show she was recording and I was having a look around and… “You look kinda familiar. What’s going on here?”  

“What’s going on is I’m taking over the Helm Gallery for six weeks” Norman Cook tells me. “It’s half art exhibition and it’s half art sale. There’s lots of prints by artists that are associated with me or who I’ve collaborated with, and it’s all based around the book “It Ain’t Over…  ‘Til The Fat Boy Sings”.

“I realised at the beginning of this year that I am entering my 40th year since I quit my day job at Rounder Records and ran off to join the circus, and I was thinking about how to mark or celebrate that anniversary.  

“I’ve always shied away from doing an autobiography. I’ve been asked a few times and I just, I can’t remember the really good bits. And the bits I can remember I can’t tell while my children and my parents are still alive, so when this idea of a visual documentary came about it seemed a good idea. It’s a coffee table book, so mainly pictures. There’s no warts and all stories, nothing about celebrity drug taking, I’m afraid…”

Could we do an after hours version? 

“Yeah, talk to me about that later”. 

Are you one of these characters who’ve always squirreled stuff away? “Yes, I’ve got every single backstage pass I’ve ever have. The first year, I tried to keep tickets every gig I played, that was just untenable, but I’ve kept the backstage passes from every single one, and I’ve kept photos of all sorts, the boxer shorts that inspired the album title “You Come A Long Way, Baby”. I’ve also got the dubious honor of having a dildo named after me and we’ve got a photo of that in the book…

Moving swiftly past the inevitable line about it being a pop-up book… When you were a kid and you went to gigs when you’re 13 or whatever, have you still still got the stubs? 

“Yeah, the stubs are in the book, there’s the fanzine I used to write for…”

It’s a fantastic memorabilia collection, and while it’s obviously Norman’s book, a little bit This is Your Life, it’s also a lovely ride through the pop cultural landscape of the last 40 years.   

40 years. That’s a long time. Are you going to continue doing it?

“Doing what?”

You know the thing you do, where you stand there and play records. 

“Oh, that thing. Yeah, that’s what I do. I’ve done that thing twice this week already. I’ve got this weekend up the next weekend. I mean, Amsterdam, Stockholm and somewhere else, and then do some British dates in December. This year, I’ll do 109 shows, which is my personal all time record for shows in a year”.

That’s extraordinary. 109 shows. That’s… almost every other day. It’s not far off. 

“It’s two a week or one every three days. I mean, it has been quite relentless, but I love my job. It never feels like work. I just love it”.

l Helm Gallery 15 North Rd, Brighton and Hove, BN1 1YA    https://helm-gallery.com/

l It Ain’t Over… ’Til the Fatboy Sings (Rocket 88 Books)