The Prodigy began with an initial 10-track demo by
Liam Howlett, put together on a Roland W-30 sequencer keyboard in
Essex, England. XL Recordings picked up the demo and an initial 12" pressing of
What Evil Lurks was released in February 1991. There are some few thousand bootlegs of this release; it should have "the exchange" carved in the vinyl around the center of the single. The Prodigy's name was a moniker Liam had chosen as a tribute to his first
analogue synthesiser, the
Moog Prodigy.
The Prodigy's first public performance (with Howlett augmented by dancers
Keith Flint and
Leeroy Thornhill) was at the Four Aces in
Dalston, London. Charly released six months later, became a huge hit in the rave scene at the time, reaching #3 in the UK Top 40, catapulting the band into the wider public consciousness. The
Kaos Theory compilation series featured "G Force (Energy Flow)" from their third single "Everybody In The Place (EP":
In the wake of 'Charly's success the music charts were filled with unsophisticated "hardcore" rave tracks to which
speed and ecstasy-filled clubbers had danced all night to but which did not appeal to critics in "the music press" such as Urban Hype's
Trip to Trumpton, and Smart E's (as in
Ecstasy) Sesame's Treet, instigating death-by-publicity to the underground "hardcore rave" scene according to many critics, ravers and followers of the scene. As a result
Charly (a contemporary reference to
cocaine), with its memorable sample of the "
Charley Says" children's
Public information films and The Prodigy were briefly identified by critics as "kiddie rave" or "Toytown Techno".
Charly was soon followed by the band's first full length album,
Experience, a landmark release in the history of British rave music. After
Experience (album track "Death of the Prodigy Dancers" featured Ragga MC band member
Maxim Reality) and the run of
singles that accompanied it, the Prodigy moved to distance themselves from the "kiddie rave" reputation that now dogged them. The rave scene was beginning to move on from its hardcore phase, with the
Criminal Justice Act's "anti-rave" legislation on the horizon. In 1993, Howlett released an anonymous
white label, bearing only the title
Earthbound I. Its hypnotic, hard-edged sound won wide underground approval. Many former critics of the band were astounded when Howlett finally acknowledged responsibility for the record. It was officially released as "One Love" later that year, and went on to chart at #8 in the UK.
In 1994, the Prodigy's second album,
Music for the Jilted Generation, was released entering the UK album charts at #1. The album displayed a wider spectrum of musical style with heavy techno and breakbeat-based tracks complimented by the concept sequence
The Narcotic Suite, and rock-oriented inclinations ("Their Law", featuring
Pop Will Eat Itself). The album was nominated for a
Mercury Music Prize although Howlett had reaffirmed his dedication to making The Prodigy a 'hard dance band', commercially successful but without compromise. The band managed to continue to prevent over-exposure in the media by refusing to appear on Top Of The Pops or other TV shows in the UK. To this day their only studio appearance on British television came when they appeared on the BBC2 series 'Dance Energy' in 1991 performing 'Everybody In The Place'. In the ensuing years their videos received a strong level of support by MTV Europe which boosted their popularity across the continent. Keith Flint himself hosted an episode of the MTV show 120 Minutes in 1995.
Following the international success of
Music for the Jilted Generation the band augmented their line-up with guitarist
Jim Davies (who, later, joined the group
Pitchshifter) in 1995 for tracks such as
Their Law,
Break And Enter 95, and various live-only interludes and versions. The 1996 release of
Firestarter, featuring vocals for the first time courtesy of a new-look Keith Flint, helped the band break into the
U.S. and other overseas markets, and reached number one in the UK. In this year the Prodigy also headlined the prestigious
Lollapalooza festival.
Firestarter's success was matched by the second single
Breathe which gave the band their second number one single in the UK later that same year.
The long-awaited third Prodigy album,
The Fat of the Land, was released in 1997 just as the band headlined the Glastonbury festival on it's opening night. Like its predecessors, the album represented a milestone in the development of both the band and the wider mainstream dance scene. Featuring simplified melodies, sparser sampling, and more sneering, punk-like vocals (supplied by a shockingly madeover Flint), the album nevertheless retained the bone-jarring breaks and buzzsaw synths so idiomatic of the band. The album cemented the band's position as one of the most internationally successful acts in the hard dance genre, entering the British and American charts at number one.
