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Click here for XL's offical biography Liam was born 21st of August 1971. As a teenager he was into hip hop and he especially liked bands like Public Enemy, The Beastie Boys and Ultramagnetic MC's. His musical career started in a local hip hop band called Cut To Kill. Cut 2 Kill managed to get a record deal with Tum Tum recordings. However, the band used one of Liam's track's to get the record deal without asking Liam's permission. Liam's first ever record was Cut 2 Kill's 'Listen To The Basstone' which was released in 1990 on Tum Tum. The recorcompany offered Liam a record deal but Liam didn't sign a deal. Through his friends Liam got into dance scene. his first rave experience was at a local club, The Barn. he had been prejudiced about dance music and dance DJs but after he heard tracks by Meat Beat Manifesto, KLF and Frankie Bones he really got into dance music. Liam started to DJ at The Barn, where at the time DJ Hype and Mr C (ex-Shamen member) were also playing. In 1990 Liam met Keith Flint and Leeroy Thornhill. Keith and Leeroy were familiar faces in that club. They loved tunes that Liam played and they asked could Liam make a tape where he would put his favourite tracks. Liam filled one side with his favourite tracks and the other with his own tracks. Liam wrote 'The Prodigy' on the tape, named after his synthesizer 'Moog Prodigy'. Keith and Leeroy loved those tracks and asked Liam would he perform with them. They had a female friend Sharky who joined to the performance. So they were a band but Liam wanted a MC. One of his friends told him about MC called Maxim Reality. The Prodigy's first gig was in a club called 'Labyrinth' in Dalston, East London. Maxim met Liam, Keith and Leeroy for the first time at there. He had been raves a couple of times but he did not have a clue what to expect. In October 1990 Liam signed a deal with XL-Recordings and he made his first record and soon after Sharky left the band and Maxim decided to join in. 1991 EP called 'What Evil Lurks' was released in February. It featured 4 tracks taken from the 10 track demotape Liam sent to XL Recordings and it sold over 7,000 copies and went number 30 in dance chart. The EP was a collection of songs which Liam had wrote in his bedroom. In August Prodigy released their first commercial single 'Charly' (position in the UK chart 3). Before its release, Prodigy had played it to thousands of people at various rave happenings and the song became a rave anthem. The song included sample from 70s children information film. In December Prodigy released 2nd single 'Everybody In The Place' (2). In late 91 they had their first foreign tour in Germany. 1992 In September Prodigy released their 3rd single 'Fire' (11).The track contained a sample from Crazy World Of Arthur Brown's song 'Fire'. Later in that month their debut album 'The Prodigy Experience' was released. It reached number 12 in album charts. It's regarted to be a major landmark to the alternative dance scene. They did heavy touring in Europe and in US. They managed to get US deal with Elektra and Australian deal with Sony. In October they released their 4th single 'Out Of Space' (3). 1993 Prodigy did a tour in the USA with Moby and performed 28 shows in one month. They released their 5th single from their debut album in March. It was 'Wind It Up' (3) although Liam felt that the song was too dated and he didn't want it to be released. The rave scene was falling appart and Liam thought that it was for the Prodigy to leave that scene. Liam decided to change Prodigy's musical direction - he decided to go much deeper in dance music. Prodigy originally released 'One Love' as 'Earthbound 1' and 'Earthbound 2'. Those were 12" white labels and DJs and the whole dance scene praised them as the best dance records of the year. But when 'One Love' was released a single an September those EPs lost their respect. Prodigy started to do more gigs and they played over 60 shows in 6 moths in UK, Ireland, Japan and across Europe. 1994 In May they released 2nd single from their frothcoming second album. Single was called 'No Good (Start The Dance)' (4). It was a hardcore club track and it has sold over 300,000 copies. In July they released their 2nd album 'Music For The Jildet Generation'. It was first million-selling underground dance album. It contained a lot of difrent styles such as techno, rock, jungle, hip-hop and ambient. It went number 1 in album charts. It had sold 2.25 million copies by the end of '97. In August Prodigy released 'Voodoo People' (13) and after that they did "Voodoo People Tour". In the end of 94 they started to tour across Europe. 1995 In March they released 'Poison' (8). It was ground breaking hip-hop track which including Maxim for the first time in the vocals. In spring the did the "Poison Tour" and in summer they did heavy touring and performed at some of the biggest festivals in Europe like Glastonbury, Tribal Gathering and Fèile. After touring Liam went into his studio and started to write some new material. 29th of October Prodigy made a gig at their home town at Ilford Island in Essex. 1996 
18th of March Prodigy released 'Firestarter' (1). The track included for the first time
Keith in the vocals. It sold over 250,000 copies in a week after its release and it was
Prodigy's first number 1 track. 1996 was year when they realy made their final
break-through. In summer 96 they did a massive tour - they did over 70 gigs in 1996.
They performed at the biggest festivals around Europe such as T In The Park,
Phoenix and Reading. They did also a few gigs in the Lollapaloza tour in the US.
They released 'Breathe' (1) 11th of November. 'Breathe' is Prodigy's all time
best selling single - over 750,000 copies in UK alone. 'Breathe' won 'Best video
of the year' at the MTV Music Awards 1997 and 1997 Muzik Magazine's Best Video -award.
In October Prodigy did the "Breathe Tour". Prodigy won 'Best Live Band 1996' award at
Muzik Magazine Awards. "There's no masterplan with the band. I think it's important to change, but not into something more normal." - Liam 1997 At the beginning of the year Prodigy was in the studio mixing their new album. June 30th they released their 3rd album 'The Fat Of The Land'. It's world's fastest selling album. It sold record breaking 3 million copies in seven days after its releasing and the album went number 1 in over twenty countries. They continnued touring and they performed at Glastonbury, Tourhout & Wercher Festival and many other big festivals. In September Liam said in an interview that 'The Fat Of The Land' would be Prodigy's last album. Later he said that he was really tired when he gave that interview and that TFOTL would'n be the last album. 17th of October they released 3rd single from 'The Fat Of The Land'. The single was 'Smack My Bitch Up' (8). "Anyone who's into hard music would be into what we do." - Liam 1998 
Prodigy started the year by touring in New Zealand and Australia. In summer they performed
at some of the Europe's biggest festivals like Rock Am Ring '98, T In The Park and Reading
Festival where Prodigy had their famous fight with the Beastie Boys. They didn't release any new
material except 'Diesel Power (Dirtchamber Remix)'
which was on XL Recording's promo CD 'Against The Grain'. In October Liam appeared in Mary
Anne Hobbs' radio show Breezeblock on Radio 1. In the show Liam's
DJ set was broadcasted and that radio show inspired Liam to start a new project; a DJ mix album by him.
According to Prodigy's record company, 'The Fat Of The Land' had sold almost 10 million
copies.1999 In February Liam released 'Prodigy Present The Dirtchamber Sessions Volume One'. It was Liam's DJ mix album. Prodigy did only a few gigs during the year but Liam did a few DJ gigs in UK during the summer. In August, Maxim released his first solo record, 'My Web' EP. 2000 
In spring Leeroy Thronhill left the band so that he could concentrate on his solo career. In May
Maxim released his second solo single 'Carmen Queasy' (33) which was a collaboration with Skin
from Skunk Anansie and in September released 'Scheming'.
October 2nd Maxim's debut album 'Hell's Kitchen' was released. Leeroy released his first commercial
single in June, titled 'Flightcrank EP'. Prodigy did no gigs at all in year 2000.2001 Ex-member Leeroy Thronhill released his solo album 'Beyond All Reasonable Doubt' in March under his moniker Flightcrank. Prodigy kept low profile in and their first live shows of the year were in August. They didn't release any records or new material in 2001. 2002 In January and February the band toured on Big Day Out festivals in Australia and they also did a few other gigs in Japan and USA. July 1st the band released 'Baby's Got A Temper' (5). In late summer Prodigy did gigs around Europe and performed in the UK for the first time since 1998. In autumn Prodigy released their version of The Special's 'Ghost Town' on a charity record '1 Love'. 2003 Liam threw away all the material he had wrote for the next album and started the whole process from the beginning. The band did not release any records or did any gigs. Speculations about the fourth album kept comming and going. 2004 Liam finally completed the 4th album in early 2004. The first promo copies of the first new single 'Girls' / 'Memphips Bells' were released in June. |