Over the weekend, the DJ and producer, Norman Cook, delivered two of the standout surprises of his sold-out Big Beach Boutique 7 run that included a show-stopping choir set on Saturday night, followed by a guest DJ slot from his old friend Simon Pegg on Sunday.
At Saturday night’s show, Cook surprised the thousands of fans packed onto the seafront by inviting 50 members of the Brighton Gay Men’s Chorus up on stage for an unannounced collaboration. Dressed in matching pink shirts, the choir opened with an a cappella rendition of Cook’s own ‘Right Here, Right Now’ before gradually bringing in elements of Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’. Cook himself sat cross-legged on the stage floor throughout, visibly moved as the choir performed in front of a backdrop of the Pride flag and a banner reading “Only love can conquer hate,” before joining them for an epic version of ‘Right Here, Right Now’ with pyrotechnics and lasers.
Simon Pegg, the actor and screenwriter best known for Hot Fuzz and the Mission: Impossible franchise, closed out the final day of Big Beach Boutique 7 as a guest of Cook’s. Pegg had actually taken to the decks earlier in the day for his own DJ set, performing in front of a backdrop referencing his film Paul, complete with alien imagery and space visuals.
The two moments capped off a triumphant few days for Cook in his hometown, Sunday’s bill also featured sets from Groove Armada, Derrick Carter, Seth Troxler, Special Request and TSHA, among others. The Big Beach Boutique series has been a celebration of Brighton for a while, and this year’s instalment arrived not long after Cook made headlines for more unexpected reason. He performed an impromptu set at Brighton’s “Carnival Against Fascism,” a march organised in response to planned anti-immigration demonstrations in the city. “Never been more proud of my home town,” Cook wrote on Instagram at the time, pictured holding a sign reading “More disco, less fascism.”
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Between the choir, Simon Pegg’s cameo, and his activism off stage, it’s been a big few weeks for Norman Cook. He is a reminder of just how tightly music and community in Brighton are bound together.
