Fatboy Slim is f***ing in heaven. And next year he’ll be playing coast-to-coast dates in Australia.

Norman Cook’s dancefloor alter ego will visit these parts in March 2027 for seven tour dates across Fremantle, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.

On this trip, which includes a three-night stand at Carriageworks in Sydney, the Brit will play “more personal,” underground and urban outdoor spaces, he explains.

“For this tour to Australia I wanted to get up close with my people, play venues with real atmosphere and have a proper party,” he says in a statement. “Bridges, rivers, parks, old railway sheds – if it’s a bit weird and the sound system’s loud enough, I’m there.”

Fans can expect to hear the DJ and producer’s hits such as “Right Here Right Now,” “Praise You” and “Weapon of Choice,” along with recent releases “Satisfaction Skank,” a mash-up of his own “The Rockafeller Skank” and The Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction,” and his current single with Brazilian DJ Carola and Felix Da Housecat, “Funk Drunk.”

Fatboy Slim has had a large year, one that has included spots at Coachella, four nights at his local, Brighton Beach, and a closing slot at Rock in Rio in Brazil, and his debut album Better Living Through Chemistry is celebrating its 30^th birthday. To mark the occasion, the collection will be reissued digitally on Sept. 25 via BMG, with special-edition LP and CD editions following on Oct. 2. Its followup, 1998’s You’ve Come A Long Way Baby dropped, spent four weeks at No. 1 in the United Kingdom, and cemented his reputation as one of the best in the electronic music business.

Visit fatboyslim.net for more.

Fatboy Slim Australian Tour 2027
March 3 – Esplanade Park, Fremantle WA
March 5 – Carriageworks, Sydney NSW
March 6– Carriageworks, Sydney NSW
March 7 – Carriageworks, Sydney NSW
March 10 – On The Banks, Brisbane QLD
March 12 – The Underpass, Melbourne VIC
March 13 – The Underpass, Melbourne VIC

John Farnham is a terrific dad. Someone to look up to, a glorious basket of positivity, fun and silliness. Just ask his son.

James Farnham shared a sweet message as Australians celebrated Father’s Day last Sunday, Sept. 6, and gave fans a rare glimpse of his father, John, the beloved pop veteran.  

“From one father to another, I’ve realised just how much you’ve taught me over the years… some useful, some questionable,” James writes. “You’ve always been a great dad and someone I’ve looked up to my whole life. Now that I’m a dad myself, I just hope Jett looks up to me the same way I’ve always looked up to you.”

John Farnham has “always been positive, fun, silly and never taken yourself too seriously, which I’m pretty sure is where I get most of my silliness from,” he continues. “Thanks for making dad time good fun all these years.”

The post is accompanied with four photographs, each telling a story in the timeline of the Farnhams. Among them, an image of John, with flowing long blonde hair and a baby James in his hands. A teary James holding his own baby son, Jett. And a recent photo of John and his wife Jillian Billman staring down at baby Jett.

John Farnham has stepped out of the spotlight since undergoing marathon surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from his throat in 2022. His time away from the public glare hasn’t dimmed his superstar status in these parts.

An all-star concert at Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena on Sept. 20, The Songs Of John Farnham: A Living Legend The Celebration, was a swift sellout. The concert will feature 120 artists and musicians, all of them selected by Farnham, and raises funds for Head and Neck Cancer Australia.

Separately, a musical based on Farnham’s career will premiere on Nov. 15 at the Roslyn Packer Theatre in Sydney, while Sony Music is releasing a 40th anniversary edition of Whispering Jack, which is paired with the live recording, Whispering Jack Live In Concert, along with new, numbered vinyl and range of merchandise to mark the special occasion.

Earlier, John Farnham: Finding The Voice won the 2024 AACTA Award for best documentary and is recognized as the highest-grossing Australian music documentary in history, earning more than A$2.57 million at the box office.

With 1986’s Whispering Jack, Farnham orchestrated one of the all-time great comebacks. The album spent 25 weeks at No. 1, en route to shifting more than one million copies, becoming the first domestic LP to do so. It remains the highest-selling album ever in Australia by a local talent.

Whispering Jack, of course, features Farnham’s signature song, “You’re The Voice,” a top 10 hit in the United Kingdom, and, four decades on, the unofficial anthem of Australia.

Farnham has confirmed it is “just not possible” for him to sing or perform again following his cancer ordeal. “We can rule that out,” he told the Herald Sun in May. “Because of the surgeries to my mouth and face over the past few years, singing on stage is not something I can consider again.”

Dexys Midnight Runners frontman Kevin Rowland has told Nigel Farage where to go after the controversial far-right politician walked out to “Come On Eileen” ahead of his Reform U.K. conference speech.

Farage was filmed walking to the stage following a brief delay, reportedly due to security measures and protests, as Dexys’ signature song could be heard playing from the loudspeakers. The party’s national conference was held at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, the birthplace of Dexys Midnight Runners, from Sept. 3-5.

When word got to Rowland, he wasn’t thrilled. “I, Kevin Rowland (the son of Irish immigrants) and the main songwriter of ‘Come On Eileen,’ am disgusted to learn that Nigel Farage has used our Dexys Midnight Runners’ song to make his entrance for his party conference speech,” he writes on the band’s socials. “Myself, and all of Dexys are passionately against Farage’s politics.”

The post was accompanied with an image of a bus shelter poster, bearing a picture of Farage with the headline “he blames migrants, so you don’t blame billionaires.”

Farage, whose party is facing a criminal investigation over allegations it broke foreign funding laws, following a recent broadcast by Channel 4 News, the BBC reports, has yet to respond to Rowland’s sharp comments.

“Come On Eileen” was one of the biggest hits of its era, spending four weeks at No. 1 on the Official U.K. Singles Chart in 1982, for their second leader, and hitting the summit of the Billboard Hot 100 the following year.

Formed in 1978, Dexys Midnight Runners released three critically and commercially successful albums in the early-to-mid 1980s: Searching For The Young Soul Rebels (1980), Too-Rye-Ay (1982) and Don’t Stand Me Down (1985). “Geno” from 1980 gave the act their first U.K. No. 1 single.

Rowland, as politically astute as any recording artist living in the United Kingdom, went on to form new bands, release solo music and drop albums as Dexys.

The alternative rock act is currently on tour in the United Kingdom in support of their new album, LOVE, the first through a deal with Heavenly Recordings. Produced by Belfast musician and DJ David Holmes, it’s the first release under the Dexys Midnight Runners name since Don’t Stand Me Down.