Fatboy Slim talks exclusively to eFestivals about Oxjam

Headlining the 2011 series of Oxjam events, we caught up with Fatboy Slim ahead of his set at the Dalston Oxfam shop to talk about a busy touring schedule, small versus big, and charity shop fears.

	Fatboy Slim

I'm going to keep this brief; I know that you're tired after coming back from Ibiza.
Yeah, I've just finished closing up Spaced there last night and I'm knackered. This gig the last one to close off the list of summer events; after this I've got some time off and I'm looking forward to it. After that I'll start playing again.

You're returning to playing at Oxjam after your set in 2009 and it was a particularly memorable performance. What can people expect this time round?
More of the same fun and lunacy, same as ever!

You've played a number of huge venues in the past, including Glastonbury and Brighton beach. How does playing the Dalston Oxfam compare?
It's great, I'd say it's a lot more intimate, you're closer to the crowd and the advantage is when you shout they can actually hear you! The bigger the gig, the further away you are from the audience; it's like you're in your own little bubble up on stage and you start playing things that you rehearsed in your head before rather than doing things on the fly. I'm about to dive into my record box and try and work out what I'm going to play – it's much more free and fun like that.

So you haven't planned anything at all?
Nope! It sounds unprofessional but it's true (laughs)

You've had a busy touring schedule this year, any highlights for you?
Plenty – residency in Las Vegas, big beach boutique in Tokyo, Glastonbury, closing Space in Ibiza, so there's many highlights for me.

I've heard you're a big fan of charity shops – care to elaborate?
(Laughs) yeah that's true, I'm a big fan of charity shops for music. I used to go through looking for records to sample for my own tunes. But as you get older there's always the fear that you will go into a charity shop and find your own records on the racks.

Oxjam, the biggest music festival in the UK, is a festival with a difference: thousands of events put on by music lovers – from large-scale festivals to local sponsored busks – throughout October. taking over stages, back rooms and street corners to make music and raise money for Oxfam with gigs, DJ sets, busks and much more.

Launched in 2006, the Oxjam festival has seen more than 40,000 musicians play to an audience of over 800,000 people at over 3,000 Oxjam events, raising in excess of £1.5 million to fight poverty around the world. That's enough to buy 13,000 emergency shelters; 60,000 goats or 900 classrooms.

To find out what Oxjam events are going on in your area this October, visit www.oxfam.org.uk/oxjam or call 0300 200 1255.

To buy tickets, and browse events, click here.

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