Kissy Sell Out + Fatboy Slim are a great way to kick off Oxjam

Fatboy Slim is not in Heaven, he's in Dalston for Oxjam with Kissy Sell Out and Man Like Me.

Following in a tradition of a highly successful series of venues, new selection of bands take over the Oxfam shop in Dalston high street, with this particularly wet autumn evening seeing relative newcomers Man Like Me, electro DJ Kissy Sell Out and Fatboy Slim join forces in the aid of raising money for Oxfam and kicking off this year's line-up.

Of course, it wouldn't be an Oxjam were it not for the shop venue itself, which along with the stage and sound system had been fully kitted out with the best music, clothes and books from nearby shops to entice music-lovers to buy something. This year had some great stuff including a Moonbootica live album that made it's way quickly to the till after I found it and the Oxfam staff seemed to be having a busy night selling items and enjoying the music.

Up first were five piece faux-boy band Man Like Me with a particular brand of catchy pop with soulful vocal performance. With the addition of saxophone and trumpet together with synchronized dancing and the inability of the frontman to keep his shirt on, perhaps the suitable description for would be Village People meets Madness. That isn't to say that they weren't entertaining and their cheerful tunes provided a great warm up to the crowd.



Following on in fine fashion was DJ Kissy Sell Out, whose nimble fingers on the decks and energetic lunges and dance moves behind the DJ booth was proof of his ability to excite the initimate venue by not just playing records. His style is a mix of breakbeat, house, electro and garage, with a penchant for mixing in pop classics with more up to date records – think a funky breakbeat version of Verve's Bittersweet Symphony as an example. Tracks were mixed in quickly and accurately, as if he was trying to squeeze as much in to his time slot as possible while ensuring that the set had plenty of great records and the quick changes meant that the beats or basslines never got monotonous. Kissy's set was both loud and proud and judging from the lively response, a real crowd pleaser to boot – a great set and well worth checking out again.



After the reaction to Kissy Sell Out, the bar had been raised high and it seemed that Fatboy Slim would have a tough time living up to the expectations. Any such fears were short lived soon after he took to the stage however, complete with bad hawaian shirt and toy speaker to shout at the crowd with as he got stuck into his trademark mix of funky house spliced with pop tracks and samples. Grins all round, Fatboy's set evoked a carnival atmosphere which had everyone on the dance floor, rubbing shoulders and clapping away as he played his 1.5 hour set, culminating with the firm favourite Satisfaction Skank to round the night off. Quite simply, Norman Cook has still got it and even after a busy festival season over the summer and partying the night before in Ibiza, he can still put on a great show and get the audience moving.

With three such high quality acts, the night was easily a great success and was a great way to kick off the Oxjam series of events. A real treat to get all three together in one night in such an intimate venue, with Kissy Sell Out and Fatboy Slim in particular providing great sets that complimented each other perfectly.

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