FATBOY Slim is in buoyant mood. He's witty and irreverent and talking ten to the dozen about his upcoming projects.
 There's the Big Beach Boutique III gig in Rio de Janeiro next month - where he'll recreate the atmosphere of his Brighton Beach parties to an anticipated 400,000 Brazilians - a new album, and his upcoming appearance here in Liverpool at Circus next week to buzz about. It's all a far cry from the mood the jock/super-producer found himself in this time last year when his private life, rather than his music ability, dominated virtually every tabloid and gossip magazine. For it was just over 12 months ago that Fatboy - alias Norman Cook - admitted his marriage to former children's presenter turned radio DJ Zoe Ball was in trouble. Zoe confessed to a fling with a little known DJ and it looked like one of music's happiest partnerships could be over. It was a very public affair but the nation breathed a sigh of relief when the pair announced their decision to give it another go. Now as the couple approach their fifth wedding anniversary Norman, 39, confirms he and 32-year-old Zoe are happy once more at home in Brighton with their three-year-old son Woody. "We are fine," he says. "We are very happy again. We had a bit of a marital wobble but things are alright now. "Most people go through this but most people don't go through it in public. We were separated for a little while but everyone knows we are back together and we are very much back on again and very happy." "It was just one of those things, we were both working too hard, we drifted apart and it all went wrong. "We are back being a family more now. That's why I have been DJing less, I've been putting my home life back together." Indeed he has. Last year he virtually cleared his gig diary but that wasn't purely down to his private life. His fans and record company were eagerly expecting a new album after the last two, You've Come a Long Way Baby and Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars, stormed the charts. Norman, a former bassist with The Housemartins, and now one of the world's most successful DJs/producers, says he also needed a timeout after pushing himself with endless touring. | 
