Fatboy Slim’s ‘Eat Sleep VR Repeat’ A Jaw-Dropping Musical Journey
Fatboy Slim’s 45-minute concert in ENGAGE, “Eat Sleep VR Repeat,” is one of the best things I’ve ever experienced in VR. ENGAGE created this original VR concert with the venerated DJ and musician Fatboy Slim (Norman Cook) to show off the capabilities of its new next-gen ENGAGE LINK, which will power their education and business Metaverse. The ENGAGE networking platform is accessible to Quest and Steam-compatible PCs and mobile devices. ENGAGE launched in 2016 and is widely used for education, training, conferences, and tradeshows in the Metaverse. HTC is an investor.
“The Fatboy Slim event was created to showcase what ENGAGE can do as many people think ENGAGE is just a meeting platform,” said co-founder and CEO David Whelan, who was also the producer of the show. “Besides me being a lifelong fan of Norm’s work, he’s popular with our target demographic.” Cook had his first meeting with Whelan’s ENGAGE creative team in ENGAGE. “VR was kind of new to him, but he was really into it straight from the start.”
Last Tuesday, March 28th, I gathered in ENGAGE with a veritable who’s who of XR press, executives and influencers to experience what was billed as a “journey into the mind” of DJ Fatboy Slim (Norman Cook), who is famous for 90s hits “Rockafeller Skank,” “Praise You,” and “Weapon of Choice.”
We spawned into a desert truck stop, sixty of us, as fully embodied avatars. Of course, IRL we’re located all around the world, wearing VR headsets in our homes and offices. The scene was lit by a neon sign and the fluorescent glow emanating from the diner. Motorcycles were parked outside and people quickly figured out they could ride them. Inside the diner were several animated non-player characters (NPCs), including a cop, a bored waitress, and a greasy teenage fry cook.
The rave concert soon started in the parking lot, where an enormous stage appeared, featuring a stereoscopic recording of Fatboy Slim (Norman Cook) in front of his platters. Images on screens behind him floated in mid-air. There was a magical meteor shower, and everyone went “ahhh” for the first of many times.
Suddenly we were all transported simultaneously into a caravan of strange vehicles, speeding down the desert highway. The vehicles were a cross between Mad Max and Burning Man, and included a vintage convertible, a hot tub in a limo, a cassette deck on wheels, and a rolling yacht, all escorted by a police car, gorillas on motorcycles, and the fat kid from from the diner on a scooter. Users teleported from car to car as we entered a city and drove directly into Cook’s open mouth.
The space inside Cook’s head featured a stage surrounded by neon tubes and wires. A roller coaster track spirals around us. People are riding it, and eventually, all of us are teleported into it. We’re taken on a wild ride around the skull until we are “sneezed out” onto the counter of the diner. We’re only slightly larger than the cockroaches which we are also able to ride. The NPCs loom over us with their giant, menacing hands. Everybody goes “Ahhh” again.
Then we spawned in the sky, dressed as skydivers. NPCs were flying around, too, including Cook, costumed as Cowboy Slim from “Dr. Strangelove,” who comically rides an atomic bomb to his doom.
The event ended with a set piece in a clearing below “Mount Ravemore.” The NPC gorillas gave people rides on their backs. A flying saucer appears over Mt. Ravemore and beams up some of the dancing avatars.
And then we’re back in the parking lot next to the diner, where Cook’s original stage was. It is silent and empty. For a moment, no one says anything. We share the kind of awe usually reserved for great plays, or books, or movies. You don’t want them to end and when they do, all you can do is draw a deep breath and think “wow, what just happened?” HTC China President Alvin Graylin, who was in the crowd, later told me that “the show really validated for me the magic of XR to bring people from around the world together to have a truly transformative shared experience.”
ENGAGE’s VR studio director, David James McDermott, has been in the games business for 20 years, but he had never directed a project like this before. “During the pre-production phase, we were all in COVID lockdown, so we had so much more access to Norman, and he was intimately involved in each step of the process,” McDermott said. The development and pre-production phase took six months, and the production took the twenty-person studio six months to complete.
A lot of the ideas and creative inspiration came from the iconography and characters in Cook’s classic music videos. The lowrider police car was from Rockafeller Skank. The gorilla was from Right here, Right now.
“What we would do is we’d all meet and we’d have a brainstorming session, and we took inspiration from all of the kind of rich imagery that’s already available in his music videos and the video art that’s part of his stage show, which is created by Tim Fleming, a video artist and designer, who does the graphics for Norm. It was really a very collaborative process.”
“This is a transformative time for global communications,” says Whelan. “AI, XR and Metaverse are all about the transfer and use of knowledge and data in a digital form. Instead of looking at a picture, you are walking around inside that image, instead of verbalizing an idea, you can see it come to life in front of you and instead of being separated by distance, you can be in a virtual world with others instantly.”
Whelan says the company has no plans for more “Eat Sleep VR Repeat” shows. ENGAGE is focused on building LINK into what he describes as the “Linkedin of VR.” Putting on concerts with large groups of simultaneous users is a new phenomenon in music called MILE — massive interactive live events, and it will be a goldmine for the company that successfully develops it.
