RIP Keith Flint, The Prodigy.

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Sad about this, the Prodigy were one of the first "bands" I ever was obsessed with, and I really got onboard with the Keith-led Firestarter and Breathe.
 

Sectionfive

bandwagon house
The formative band for me. Completely entwined in growing up and everything since.

Smiled on reading today that in these days of 'Berlin based' and when many peers have moved to exotic places, Keith was living in Essex to this day. What a scene that town produced in the 90s
 

Leo

Well-known member
largely missed the boat on them, as I imagine most people in the states did. they eventually got somewhat popular here, but it was much later and even then nowhere near as big as they were in the UK. they must have been pretty wild when they were coming up.
 

droid

Well-known member
I remember mocking them when they first appeared - I was 12 I think and still into metal. Strange how goofy and innocent those videos look now. Big impact was in 94 with 'no good', which had heavy rotation on MTV. Memories of camping trip down to Brittas Bay and a day on acid wanting to strangle a mate of mine who played the album on a loop for at least 6 hours. He's gone now as well.

Came back to 'experience' a couple of years later when I was getting into DJng jungle and realised there was a record with some jungle on it I could pick up in any HMV, and its the record that stands up best I think. Plenty of reasons to criticise the Prodigy but they opened doors for a lot of people and made a living out of it, which was more than most managed, and you wouldn't begrudge them any of their success. Flint became a kind of archetypal figure through it all, a living symbol of lost and delirious nights and many mangled dawns.

RIP.
 
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Corpsey

bandz ahoy

Some interesting stuff in here (I've listened to the first hour).

I saw the Prodigy at Exit Festival in 2007 and it was terrifying. HUGE crowd, lots of pushing and shoving and trampling going on, somebody had to be carried out, etc.

Was reading comments on another forum and apparently they were/are huge in Russia for some reason.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
I remember mocking them when they first appeared - I was 12 I think and still into metal.

From the gruniad CiF

Coverly
I remember, with fondness, the way the Prodigy brought people together. There aren't many better ways to praise a musician than to say that their music did that! At 6th form college around 1992, the rockers and the ravers really didn't mix well.

Different clothes, music, drink, drugs and different parties.

The ravers had their side of the common room, we had ours and a cold war was fought for control of the stereo. Then The Prodigy and Rage Against The Machine broke and for the first time, we had music that EVERYBODY liked. Overnight, we could actually be at the same parties and over time, we realised that the ravers weren't complete jerks after all.

RIP Keith Flint, sleep soundly knowing that you did that!
 

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
and yet todays band trying to bring people together in rock music is .. sleaford mods. of all people.

RIP Keith, you nutter. for ages i didn't listen to them because you know when you discover noise factory and Kemet Crew that opens out huge avenues for going back through all musics past and present (not a diss of prodigy btw.) but had to put on experience on again last night. took me right back to when i was 11/12. so much freedom and utopian potential. fizzy sugary sweets and all. didn't realise I'd be so sad about it as well, my dad was being a cunt yesterday and i couldn't take it and slept for the whole day and was upset all night.

Everyone from happy hardcore kids to post-punks on my news feed mourning em, black brown n white. Some boys in grime can still say they're running tings. yeah alright. you had the chance to be the british music of the 2000s but then you squandered it. Marcus Nasty should have shot all of u when he had the chance.

Rest in Power Keith mate.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
From the gruniad CiF

Coverly
I remember, with fondness, the way the Prodigy brought people together. There aren't many better ways to praise a musician than to say that their music did that! At 6th form college around 1992, the rockers and the ravers really didn't mix well.

Different clothes, music, drink, drugs and different parties.

The ravers had their side of the common room, we had ours and a cold war was fought for control of the stereo. Then The Prodigy and Rage Against The Machine broke and for the first time, we had music that EVERYBODY liked. Overnight, we could actually be at the same parties and over time, we realised that the ravers weren't complete jerks after all.

RIP Keith Flint, sleep soundly knowing that you did that!

That's actually a reasonable point - they were one of the few artists I'd say had common appeal at my high school among The Punks, The Townies and The Others (indie-kids, basically).

I'd always thought The Prodigy was sort of taboo around these parts because of their obvious 'rockism' as a live band and the very un-Dissensian rock-rave direction they went in from the latter 90s onwards, but I'm sure you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone here who doesn't rate their first two albums and early singles, which are pretty much unimpeachable examples of idiot-teenager energy, to coin a phrase.

Poor bugger.
 

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
nah the thing about fat of the land is yeah its rock and big beat or whatever but it's essentially hip hop beats. it's not like some people in dnb crowding their tracks with over the top synth flourishes or whatever.

Dance punk for the 90s generation. i can rate that.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
I remember him most in this video which I saw on a Saturday morning and thought, wow he dances really well for a guy with such long hair! My ambition from then was to dance as well as him. Firetstarter stuff didn’t impress me anything as much as this.

 

craner

Beast of Burden
As much as anything it’s a time to reflect on the sheer joy of good rave dancing which had a Northern Soul style to it.
 

CrowleyHead

Well-known member
fuck off ollie a rave isn't a rave unless its got guns in it to shoot bouncer cops.

Everyone thought me, Luka and barti were gonna be the troublesome corner of dissensus but then Third Weapon Third came out the cut and started attacking everyone with reckless abandon. I'm looking tame by comparison again!!!!
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
my fave Prodigy tune by a wide margin, have always loved the video too

two places I wasn't there for - post UK Summer of Love ardkore, and early 90s NYC - but I still catch feels off it in the way it so powerfully evokes - to me - the universality of of being young, fucking around and goofing off with your friends having no idea how precious those moments and how fondly/wistfully you'll look back on them

like everyone else, I rate their earliest most purest ardkore (except Charly, no thx) highest, the Firestarter etc stuff is still p good tho

trying to explain it to Americans who only know them from "smack my bitch up " etc, I compared them to Depeche Mode as an important link, in that case from synthpop to house + techno (as shouted out by LFO), in this obv E'd up ardkore to jungle, while not fully belonging to the latter

the big beat rocked out whatever late 90s biz I mean, no, tho it's temporal closeness to nu metal does it no favors either

there's some quote from I think 1 of the Chemical Brothers, I forget the context but like "well, he should just be allowed to do whatever he wants really, he's Keith from The Prodigy"

but ya teenage idiot energy for sure, Liam making the beats, but it was Keith and the other dude who brought the energy

49 ain't no age, and definitely rest in power. I hope he's somewhere right now chasing the devil out of earth and into outer space to find another race
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
Memories of camping trip down to Brittas Bay and a day on acid wanting to strangle a mate of mine who played the album on a loop for at least 6 hours. He's gone now as well
RIP to your mate as well, thx for that story

that's what I'm talking about tho, there are records - mostly the other hardcore, punk - that evoke experiences and people - some distant, some gone - from youth

as the Prodigy do to me. the things you don't realize are actually treasured memories in the making.
 

Pearsall

Prodigal Son
I remember him most in this video which I saw on a Saturday morning and thought, wow he dances really well for a guy with such long hair! My ambition from then was to dance as well as him. Firetstarter stuff didn’t impress me anything as much as this.


what a great video - also, early 90's Manhattan, talk about a lost world!
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
That video has inspired me to make a thread about what you visualise when you listen to music, I just haven't got around to it yet.
 
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