The Prodigy deliver explosive live show in rare footage from 1991
If you want to know what it was to be out of your mind in the early 1990s, then look no further. On the 27th of July that year, The Prodigy travelled to Cambridge to offer up their brand of hardcore rave to a bunch of hedonistic flatlanders determined to get “off their chops.”
Blending breakbeat techno beats and punk theatrics, The Prodigy bought rave into the mainstream. Thanks partly to the chaotic performance style of incendiary frontman Keith Flint, their live acts quickly became the stuff of legend, offering audiences the showmanship of a stadium rock band without all that other guff. This was music stripped back to the bare essentials. Rhythm and texture reigned supreme, and in this haze of programmed beats and hooky samples, the division between audience and performer ceased to exist; everyone became a participant.
By the late 1980s and the second summer of love, the UK’s love affair with rave was in full swing. The genre was young and, like all young things, innately protean. Whereas a lot of early EDM artists made it their duty to reflect the genre’s various metamorphoses throughout the 1990s (rave to ambient to hardcore), The Prodigy’s sound remained relatively stable, with studio wizard Liam Howlett adapting only minor details.
That being said, there are some who would argue that The Prodigy were at their most explosive from 1991 to 1995. This footage would certainly seem to suggest so. The energy is insane. The dance moves are fluid and anarchical. But more than anything, there’s a real sense that this music has the power to change the world – even if it’s only for a night. Let’s not forget that, by 1991, the UK was in the grip of a recession. Joy was more essential than ever, and Flint, Maxim and Leroy Thornhill offered it up in spools.
At the time this footage was taken, The Prodigy were still yet to release their hit single ‘Charly’, which would go on to reach number one on the Dance Singles Chart and make them a household name. Of course, success was hardly the end goal. More than anything, The Prodigy wanted to give people a buzz that would last a lifetime. “You know when you’re young, you’re experiencing things for the first time,” Flint told iD in the early 1990s.
“You’ve bought The Jam or Gary Numan. You’re playing ‘Going Underground.’ You’ve got it going flat out, and you just wanna hit things. The floor’s shaking, and your old man’s calling. It’s like that buzz. A tune comes on, and I just want everybody to know that I love this. You just want everybody in on the buzz.”
