Prodigy - XL's Biography

    Glastonbury, June 1995. It's getting dark, and the field in front of the NME stage is heaving from front to back as searchlights sweep the crowd and discordant samples echo through the air. Maxim strides to the edge of the stage, and stares into the night with crazy white eyes. He raises his microphone. "Glastonbury ... Are you ready to rock ?" As the shattered glass breakbeats of Break And Enter ring out at huge volume and thousands of dancing people turn the entire field into one enormous moshpit, the crowd are greeted by the deranged spectacle of a flame haired Keith Flint rolling onto the stage in a massive glass ball. There was no more room for doubt - The Prodigy's state-of-the-art fusion of dance energy, rock power, and visual madness had arrived.

    Glastonbury must have seemed a universe away back in 1990, when Liam Howlett arrived at the offices of XL Recordings with a demo cassette of ten tunes that he'd recorded in his bedroom. But those raw, edgy tracks, taking inspiration from the hard end of the underground dance scene (Joey Beltram, Meat Beat Manifesto) and combining those sounds with speeded-up hip-hop breakbeats, were innovative and exciting enough to secure him a record deal - and four of them were lifted direct from the tape to make up The Prodigy's first single. What Evil Lurks was released on vinyl only in February 1991, selling a respectable 7000 copies and gathering The Prodigy's first few mentions in the dance press at the same time. It was a promising enough beginning, but the next single was a whole different story. Charly was the record that propelled The Prodigy out of the underground rave scene and into the Top 3. It had been the buzz record on the party scene for months before its commercial release, and it flew out of the shops as soon as it was available. Looking back, past the dismal spate of cash-in kiddy techno records that followed in Charly's wake (Roobarb, The Magic Roundabout and Sesame Street all received the cheesy breakbeat treatment), it's hard to remember just how important a tune it was for the time. It captured the euphoria, the energy, the sense of humour, and the shared excitement of being part of a massive underground adventure - meeting at motorway service stations to call up mobile phones and follow coded directions before dancing all night in bizarre locations was a weekly ritual for thousands and thousands of people back then, and rave, which now sounds like a dirty word, was the biggest and best thing to happen to British culture since punk rock.

    No band epitomised the relentless energy of rave culture better than The Prodigy - with Charly causing whistle posse madness around the country, there was no shortage of promoters willing to put on the band's frenetic live show, and from the very beginning they toured incessantly. Leeroy's lurching grace, Maxim's incendiary mic style and Keith's evident insanity were all part of the appeal - without them, The Prodigy would have been just one more faceless keyboard act, but with them they were an exhilarating whirl of on-stage madness. The band quickly built up a devoted fanbase within the rave scene - and earned a reputation (which they have never relinquished) as the best buzz going. These fans propelled Charly into the Top Ten when it was commercially released, and exposed The Prodigy to the mainstream for the first time. Despite the snobbish derision that the dance press started to direct towards the band because of their commercial success (Mixmag famously put a picture of Liam pointing a gun at his head on the front cover, accompanied by the headline "Did Charly Kill Rave ?"), the rave crews remained loyal, and sent a succession of records - Everybody In The Place, Fire, Out Of Space, and Wind It Up - into the upper echelons of the charts. An album, Experience provided seventy minutes of mayhem, and disproved the conventional wisdom of the time - which claimed that dance albums did not sell - by going gold within weeks of its release and spending 25 weeks in the Top 40.

    Behind this seamless success, however, a more complicated situation was developing. By the time that Wind It Up made Number 11 in March 1993, the underground network of parties and events that gave birth to the band and carried it to national prominence had started to fragment. The forces of progressive house and intelligent techno were on the march, mellowing out the less committed rave kids, and driving the breakbeat diehards into the ever-faster, ever-darker maelstrom of hardcore. At the same time, Liam had grown tired of the breakbeat-plus-sample-equals-rave-anthem school of music making, and although Prodigy records continued to be successful, he no longer found them challenging to make. Rave audiences, fuelled by ecstasy, were uncritical and undemanding - they made it too easy for him to repeat himself. It was time for a change.

    Displaying the kind of courage and creativity rarely shown by successful artists mining a lucrative musical niche, Liam began to take The Prodigy into uncharted territory. Live, the band concentrated less on preaching to the converted, and began to put themselves in front of less malleable audiences - they played students' unions, rock venues and festivals, increasingly excited by the more aggressive mood of crowds where alcohol was the drug of choice. Liam started listening to the hard rock music of Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins and The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, checking out the intense live energy of Rage Against The Machine and Biohazard at festivals. Inevitably, Prodigy music started to reflect these new influences, as well as the changes happening in dance music at the time.

    The transitional record was One Love, which made its first appearance as an anonymous white label stamped "Earthbound". A tightly syncopated mesh of tribal house music and distorted beats, the record was favourably received despite the fact that nobody knew who had made it - and when it was properly released as a Prodigy record in the summer of 1993, it fared just as well in the charts as the rave anthems that had preceded it. One Love was an important hurdle - the band's fans were clearly prepared to follow them through daunting changes in direction, and knowing this gave Liam the confidence to push against the boundaries of his music. From One Love onwards, Prodigy records would become more and more challenging - and more and more successful.

    For twelve months after One Love, the Prodigy were silent - Liam was busy in the studio, working on Music For The Jilted Generation, the band's second album. When they broke silence, it was with their most effective record to date - No Good (Start The Dance). The single combined hammering, syncopated beats, an incredibly taut bassline and chunks of screaming machine noise, all of which was barely concealed by the most immediate, radio-friendly vocal hook of the band's career. The record spent seven weeks in the Top Ten, peaking at Number 4, and paving the way for the release of the album.

    Music For The Jilted Generation was released in July 1994. It went straight into the album charts at Number 1, going gold within a week of its release. And by this time the band had clearly won over the critics as well as the public - Music For The Jilted Generation was universally well received in the music press, and was nominated later in the year for the prestigious Mercury Music Prize. Two more singles were released from the album - Voodoo People, backed with a murderous mix from the then rapidly-emerging Dust Brothers (soon to become the Chemical Brothers), and Poison, a bruising, downtempo hip-hop instrumental which remains one of the most extreme - and popular - tracks the band have recorded. Both singles charted high despite the fact that they were already available on the album - Poison became the band's ninth consecutive Top 15 single.

    The Prodigy's Glastonbury appearance that summer marked them out as undeniably the most exciting live band in the country - five years of practically incessant touring had clearly honed their abilities as performers. Keith, sporting dyed and shaved hair, a pierced septum, and an increasingly exotic wardrobe had become magnetically photogenic, and Maxim's cats-eye contact lenses, bare chest and daring selection of kilts were not far behind. Emboldened by their success at the best festival in Europe, the band seemed determined to play at all the others, and over the next twelve months their touring became even more relentless - Iceland, Japan, Australia, America and even Macedonia all featured on an increasingly hectic schedule. Caught up in the whirl of activity, Liam only managed occasional spells in the studio, but the time he spent there was productive to say the least - the result was The Prodigy's most incendiary musical statement to date, and the record that took them to a whole new level of success.

    In March 1996, Firestarter entered the UK charts at Number 1. It was the band's first Number 1 single, and it stayed at the top for 3 weeks. A high-impact compound of relentless sub-bass, eerily circling guitar samples and unmistakably punk vocals, it's the most extreme, noisy and confrontational record ever to make it to the top spot - a fact not lost on the tabloids who began a witty, intelligent and well-informed "Ban This Sick Record" campaign. The video, which somehow managed to match the intensity of the music, brought Keith in all his glory to the nation for the first time, and, unsurprisingly, provoked record numbers of complaints from Top Of The Pops viewers. As a statement of intent, it was as uncompromising as it was successful. The summer of 1996 saw Prodigy (no "The" by now) back on the festival circuit, playing at Brighton, Phoenix, T In The Park and Reading in the UK and many more abroad. In all, Prodigy did 70 gigs in 1996, playing to hundreds of thousands of people all over the world. Spiky-haired guitar terrorist Giz Butt joined the live show, adding to the on-stage mayhem. With the band averaging a gig every five days, as well as spending hours in airports and hotels, it's perhaps not surprising that the third album took so long to materialise. In November, Breathe became the band's second single of the year, and their second Number 1. Keith and Maxim growled their way through a ferocious call-and-response chorus, while Liam piled on the distortion and pulled a few deft tricks with a moody acoustic guitar. Breathe quickly outsold even Firestarter, becoming Prodigy's first ever platinum single (over 750,000 copies sold in the UK) and establishing them once and for all in the premier league of British bands. Abroad, the touring was evidently paying off - Breathe was a top 20 hit in more than 20 countries, making it to Number 1 in 8 of them.

    The start of 1997 saw Firestarter making its tenacious way up the US Billboard Top 100, and Prodigy putting the finishing touches to their third album. When it was released on 30 June 1997, The Fat Of The Land attracted as much critical acclaim as Jilted. "Completely, absolutely, gobsmackingly dazzling" wrote The Guardian ; "the first block rockin' post-Oasis amyl-techno-punk album... Prodigy are the head-warping slam kings of the pop undergound" wrote the NME; "By far and away the best album of this or any other month...this is our new bible and it's on fire" wrote Loaded. The sales, however, took things to a different dimension. The Fat Of The Land sold 345,000 copies in the UK in its first week, and 250,000 in America. It entered the album charts at Number One on both sides of the Atlantic, and shot to Number One in another 24 countries around the world. In doing so, Prodigy became only the eighth British band in history to enter the US album charts at number one - the others being The Beatles, Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd, Elton John, Def Leppard, Depeche Mode and Bush. At the time of writing (September 1998), The Fat Of The Land has sold approaching 10,000,000 copies worldwide. UK sales account for 1,000,000 of these; US sales for 2,500,000.

    This huge international success naturally led to even more demand for live appearances around the globe. Prodigy spent much of 1998 on the road - taking in trips to Australia, South East Asia, and South America alongside even less well-known destinations like Estonia, Poland, Iceland, Turkey, Israel and even Beirut. Autumn 1998 sees the band taking a well-deserved break from t the rigours of hotel room service and airport departure lounges - and Liam Howlett is venturing back into the studio.


    An Update in May 2002 by Martin James

    A psychotic music box spins a tune of unhinged darkness. Discordant analogue sounds pulse and build in waves as chugging guitars kick into the equation. A deep, dark and dirty b-line booms and snaps, kicking with a fierce, funk drenched groove while an unnerving ambience filters through the mix, slipping in and out of focus like a dark nursery rhyme, a half remembered nightmare of laughing policemen and haunting clowns. It's the soundtrack to 'Halloween'... multiplied by a thousand.

    And then comes Keith Flint's snarling, deadpan vocal. Part mocking, part angry, he delivers the payoff chant with dead light passion. Distant yet dominant, cold yet on fire.

    'We Love Royhypnol, She got Royhypnol, We take Royhypnol, Just forget it all.'

    It's a disturbing track. A slab of punch-drunk dirty funk simmering in the cracks of punk's darkest shadows; sick underbelly exposed. It's called 'Baby's Got a Temper', it's the first new Prodigy record in almost five years and it offers the perfect reintroduction to the finest electronic punk outfit ever to have conquered the planet. That is if reintroductions really are that necessary.

    The Prodigy are of course the only true remaining claimants to the title of 'the last gang in town'. Since their very inception they've steered a singular path through contemporary culture. With 'Firestarter' they reintroduced the generation gap into the living room. And with 'Smack My Bitch Up' they reintroduced punk controversy into the Houses of Parliament (not to mention the PC egos of a few pop stars).

    If it's statistics you want; their 1997 'Fat of the Land' album was the highest selling British album of all time going straight at #1 in 22 countries on its first week of release. In the UK the album's first week sales were in excess of the rest of the top fifty albums put together; outselling the #2 album 'OK Computer' by Radiohead by a massive eight copies to one. In the US the first week sawthe album shifting 200,959 sales. By comparison the original soundtrack to Hollywood box-office smash Men in Black, only achieved sales of 177,470 while the Spice Girls' 'Spice' album only managed a meagre 147,922. In the 18 months that followed the album release, the incendiary Prodigy live show wasexperienced by over one million fans on a tour which found them slaying over thirty five countries - in cities as diverse as Moscow (where they played to 250,000 people in the Red Square) and war torn Beirut (where they narrowly escaped electrocution and witnessed a shooting!).

    In reality though The Prodigy was never about statistics. They were always about full throttle, adrenalised rock'n'roll fury, a belligerent noise in the polite chaos of unambiguous times. And a noise which has been, for far too long, silent.

    Since that seminal third album Liam Howlett has remained true to his claim that there would be no more Prodigy albums until he felt it was right. If that meant never again, so be it. Unlike any other artist of his generation, Liam has completely avoided the endless conveyer belt of pointless single after aimless album, all churned out to meet contractual obligations. He's stood firm and remained true.

    Not that the time in between has been entirely without musical venture in The Prodigy camp. First up was Liam's critically acclaimed old skool mix album 'Prodigy Present Dirtchamber Vol. 1' which found the one time award winning DJ returning to his days of manipulating the wheels of steel. Initially the set was puttogether for Mary-Anne Hobbs' 'Breezeblock' show on Radio 1, however Liam enjoyed the process so much that he decided to extend it. The resulting album a masterpiece of cut'n'paste post-tribal turntablism.

    In the months that followed Liam took his DJing skills into selected clubs around Britain, once again to critical acclaim. He wasn't however entirely unproductive on the studio front. In 2000 he teamed up with Massive Attacks' 3D to create the yet to be released 'No Souvenirs' - initially for the soundtrack to the movie of Alex Garland's 'The Beach', but then withdrawn because they felt it was too good to throw away. The duo also produced the soundtrack to a porn movie called 'The Uranus Experiment' . The resulting track, 'Titan', offering a gorgeous collision of downtempo beats and psychedelic freeform analogue synths.

    The rest of the band also explored new avenues in this time. Maxim (he hasn't been Reality since 1995!) delivered a solo album called 'Hell's Kitchen' which found him collaborating with hip hop legends like Divine Styler, Diamond J, Blood of Abraham and Poetic, and indie darlings Skin and Sneaker Pimps. Keith Flint not only indulged in his love of motor bike racing, but also took the time to learn to play guitar and started demoing his own compositions for future release. While Leeroy Thornhill quit the band to pursue his own solo dreams.

    However it was Keith's guitar playing and songwriting which provided Liam with the key to the new Prodigy material. Initially Liam and Keith teamed up with a friend to jam round at Keith's house. Like a garage band in reverse, the resulting tapes were then sampled by Liam and developed as new Prodigy tracks. 'Nuclear' and 'Trigger' subsequently gained their first public airing on The Prodigy's 2001 summer festival shows in Europe.

    When Keith recorded a demo of 'Baby's Got a Temper' however the lyrics immediately inspired Liam to get working on what was to become the band's new single. 'Baby's Got a Temper' Prodigy-style was first played out on the band's triumphant Big Day Out tour in Australia at the beginning of the year and then worked on throughout the following two months.

    The finished version of 'Baby's Got a Temper' finds The Prodigy stepping forward into the most abrasive territory they have yet explored. A gargantuan track which takes the fire of the Sex Pistols and the noise of Public Enemy's Bomb Squad and turns them into something which is one hundred per cent The Prodigy. Indeed 'Baby's Got a Temper' proved to be the high point of the band's April 2002 USA jaunt for the Coachella Festival. And doubtless will have similar explosive impact on their forthcoming Summer 2002 European Festival shows.

    In 2001 Liam told NME that The Prodigy were 'still relevant as fuck.' In 2002, with The Prodigy juggernaut jolting into action once more, Liam, Keith and Maxim are more than relevant, they are the most important band of our time. Still walking their own path. Still in a league of their own. Still the last gang in town. Always outnumbered, never outgunned - as someone once said.

    This baby's got a temper...

    MARTIN JAMES
    May 2002
1