British label Dazzler Media is preparing a Blu-ray release of Jak Hutchcraft's film Right Here, Right Now (2023). The release is scheduled to arrive on the market on September 25.
Description: On July 13, 2002, Fatboy Slim, real name Norman Cook, performed the second of his free open-air concerts, The Big Beach Boutique II, in front of a record-breaking crowd, making history – both good and bad. Organizers and police were expecting forty thousand people but more than a quarter of a million turned up on Brighton Beach for the free event, changing the way UK events were run forever.
Norman Cook AKA Fatboy Slim said: "It has been wonderful with the fullness of time and some hindsight, to revisit such a seismic event in both mine and my hometown's history. Warts and all, the story told in full…. Watch, sleep, rave, repeat."
Now, 20 years on, Norman, and those who were on the front line of this seismic historical moment talk us through the process and the obstacles; The immense difficulties and struggles that the local police faced with such an unexpected amount of descendants on the city, the councilors and residents that opposed the controversial event and many of those who participated in what Norman has described as a "Woodstock moment".
'Right Here, Right Now' features interviews with those who were there on the Brighton sands and witnessed it first-hand including Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Vernon Kay and John Simm, all giving accounts of their personal experiences of the era-defining gathering. The crowd was more than four times the expected size and at the time, doubling Brighton's population for the day.
Beach Boutique II defined a generation. The last hurrah of the rave movement before it ascended from the underground to the mainstream. It changed lives and the course of cultural history and it's unlikely we'll ever see anything happen on that scale again. The celebration transformed the way UK events were run forever, with a country-wide ban on non-ticketed events.