7. He became a DJ by accident

Norman’s route to the turntables came about by chance: “I had all the records,” he explains, “and before streaming, somebody had to physically have records at the party.”

Norman Cook in the Desert Island Discs studio.

You have to reset your head. Not be freaked out that people stare at you in public.

Norman on becoming tabloid famous following his marriage to Zoe Ball.

So, thanks to his record collection, from the age of 15 he honed his DJ skills at school discos and weddings. But he never thought of it as a career. “It was just something you did to fund your vinyl habit.”

Then he heard Grandmaster Flash’s Adventures on the Wheels of Steel, his first disc choice, which he says was “ a pivotal record in my development from wanting to be in a pop band to wanting to be a creative DJ… He was doing stuff with the records that I’d never heard done before: making a collage, playing one tune on top of another, cutting between two really quickly. It just blew my mind.”

8. Becoming tabloid famous was a different kind of famous entirely

When Norman started a relationship with Radio 1 breakfast presenter Zoe Ball, the sudden fame and press intrusion were overwhelming. “You get recognised by people regardless of whether they like you or not. And if they don’t like you, they still shout things at you.” Zoe, who’d been tabloid famous for a few years already, taught him how to deal with the fame. “You have to reset your head. Not be freaked out that people stare at you in public.” Together, he explains, “we became more famous than the sum of our parts.”

Norman and Zoe separated in 2016 and divorced in 2020. They have remained friends.

9. Music is a great healer…

Norman now runs DJ workshops for people struggling with mental health in Brighton. He says: “The power of music to unlock a mind or soothe a troubled mind is a really powerful thing. People who were really quite nervous or shy or troubled would walk out an hour later and literally, physically, you could see that a weight had come off them.”

10. … but he has also found peace through sticky labels

His luxury item for the desert island, however, addresses a different kind of need entirely. “I’m a man who’s had so much chaos in his life and has found peace through labelling things.” So, he asks to take a label maker. “I would label everything on the island, just to make me smile every time I walk past it.” For Norman, it’s about peace and order. “It’s going to be quite a distressing experience being on your own. So, anything that can preserve order and a feeling of wellbeing. And for me, it’s labelling things.”