Tim Hughes talks to DJ Norman Jay, who has swapped the chaos of Notting Hill Carnival for Alex and Jamie’s Big Feastival – and is all the happier for it

Norman Jay is a giant of dance music. Starting off on London’s underground dance scene in the 1980s and on the then-pirate radio station Kiss FM, he has broken down musical boundaries with a feel-good mix of house, soul, Motown and funk.

For many years, he was a mainstay of the Notting Hill Carnival – the Good Times Soundsystem he set up with his brother Joey, pulling in thousands of hedonists at the anarchic August bank holiday street party.

These days though, he has swapped the packed streets of west London to pump out sounds in an altogether more rarefied setting: Alex James’s farm in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds.

This weekend Norman, who was awarded an MBE for services to music, returns to the Blur bassist’s farm for another Big Feastival – the festival Alex stages with celebrity chef Jamie Oliver – and, he tells me, he can’t wait.

“I love it!”Norman says. “I know Jamie quite well. He was a fan and when he first starting putting these events on, I went along in my own right. Then when they thought about acts, my name came up and it proved so successful they invited me back. I’ve only missed one.”

He joins a bill at the three-day festival featuring Mark Ronson, Tinie Tempah, Kaiser Chiefs, Roisin Murphy, Ella Henderson, Foxes, DJ Fresh, Toots & The Maytals, Reef, The Proclaimers, Stereo MCs, DJ Yoda and Roland Gift of Fine Young Cannibals.

On the food front, there will also be demonstrations by Oxford’s Raymond Blanc, Tom Kerridge, Thomasina Miers, Gizzi Erskine, Nathan Outlaw, Olia Hercules, and Great British Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain. And that’s barely scratching the surface.

He goes on: “What I like is it is food-based. It is for people who like food and cooking. But they have also thought about the right acts. I love it because of the mixture of people who come – and it gives me a blank page because all sorts of people go there.

“For a while it took me out of my comfort zone, but now I love it.

“I like the vibe. And if you are able to pull it off, it’s the best type of festival. And it’s an honour and humbling that they still like and appreciate me.

“Alex is a really great affable bloke and I’m pleased he lets Jamie and his crew do their thing at his place. They are regular knockabout blokes and people love them.”

So is he a fan of cooking?

“Not so much. I’m hopeless, but my wife is good,” he says with a laugh. “I’m never going to try my own hand at cooking either, as I’m surrounded by a wife, sisters and sons who are brilliant. And I’m a really fussy eater as I live by the adage ‘what my eyes don’t like the look of, my stomach won’t accept’. It’s always true and when I’ve broken it, I’ve regretted it. But I’m a fan of Jamie and Tom Kerridge.”

And will he also be returning to Notting Hill Carnival – the free celebration of Afro-Caribbean culture at which he made his name? “I’m always too busy,” he says. “That’s the busiest weekend of the year.”

So does he see any irony in the fact that this once rebellious warehouse DJ and pirate radio broadcaster is now playing a genteel gathering for middle class foodies in the Cotswolds?

He laughs. “I used to be an underground musician and that was the best start,” he says. “It was the Wild West and I loved it and it helped shaped what I am today.

“This is what I once rebelled against, just like the young Jamie would have. But now I’m a part of it because I rebelled again.

“He found his own path and so did I.

“A festival based on food and music is obvious now, but it wasn’t always obvious.

“Becoming a foodie makes it different, though. I get to eat at Jamie’s, which is lovely.

As unlikely as it seems for a man who forged his career by night on the underground dance scene, Norman is a clean-living fellow, a lifelong teetotaller who has never smoked nor taken drugs – and, he says “never will”.

Is that hard in his profession? “It used to be,” he says. “But when you’ve seen what I’ve seen it’s a big deterrent.

“I tried drinking when I was 14 and it never agreed with me. I didn’t like the taste and texture.

“But I don’t stand on a soap box and preach. If you choose to do that, it’s fine – it’s just not for me.

“I enjoy doing what I do without that, because I’m the one in the DJ booth not on the dancefloor. I enjoy the euphoria!”

And what’s in his record box for this weekend?

“I don’t plan what I’m going to play. But there will be lots of festival favourites that people know and love. I’m there to entertain not educate, and it’s for all ages, I’ve got to be a jukebox.”

SEE IT
The Big Feastival takes place at Alex James’s farm in Kingham from tomorrow until Sunday. Go to bigfeastival.com for ticket details