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Liam Paris Howlett was born in Chelsford, Essex on 21 August 1971. When Liam was 12 his parents,
Bill and Vivian, divorced and he and his elder sister Natalie stayed with his father. Liam started to take
piano lessons but he was more interested in BMX sessions and skateboarding and so he quit when he
was 13-year-old. First he became interested in ska and 2-tone but soon he found hip hop and DJing
because one his mate's big brother was a DJ. Soon Liam got his own set and started breakdancing. He
became a member of Chelsford graffiti group called UK Millennium Artists and took a DJ name DJ Fame
which was also his graffiti tag. He soon joined Braintree's best known hip hop group Cut To Kill
(originally called Original Vision) as their second DJ. Cut To Kill were given a change to record their
own material but all they did with £4,000 was record 12 tunes, a few 12" whites which they sent to labels
but nothing came out of it. Soon after this Liam left the band. Liam didn't find hip hop exciting anymore and after noticing the bad attitude of hip hop he wanted away from it. Cut to Kill signed a deal with Tam Tam records and their first single was 'Listen To The Basstone' which was written by Liam (as according to him, so was the B-side 'Talkin' Facts') and he was credited as "part-time member" DJ Fame. The next single 'Just Callin' was also written by Liam. In 1989 he found the Barn which was a well known rave venue. He was blown away with songs like 'What Time Is Love' by KLF and 'Radio Babylon' by Meat Beat Manifesto. The club resident DJ was Mr C (who later enjoyed massive success with the Shamen) and Liam soon started to DJ at the club as well. There he met Keith and Leeroy who were good friends. After Liam had made a tape of his favorite songs and own tunes for Keith, Keith and Leeroy fell in love with Liam's own tunes and asked if they could join Liam on stage while he was playing. In late 1990 Prodigy did their first live PA at the Labyrinth in East London and soon after Liam signed a record deal with XL Recordings (he sent a demo tape also to Tam Tam recordings but they turned him down). Liam is currently living in Essex next door to Keith. He is married with ex-All Saint member Natalie Appleton. Liam has a cat called Charly and a gold fish called Harry Potter. His hobbies include fast cars, horror films and snow boarding. His greatest fear is living in the USA and his favorite drink is tequila. Some of his all time favorite records are 'Critical Beatdown' by Ultramagnetic MC's, 'Never Mind The Bollocks' by the Sex Pistols, 'Nevermind' by Nirvana, 'Mezzanine' by Massive Attack' and 'Exterminator' by Primal Scream. |