With over 20 million albums sold worldwide, The Prodigy are the undisputed superstars of British club culture. Their unique blend of techno, rave, big beat, jungle, drum’n’bass, acid house, punk and electronic hardcore has been attracting millions of fans across the scene for three decades.
They were the only band to win an MTV Music Award for both „Best Alternative Act“ and „Best Dance Act“ in the same year. In 2018, the British trio made an impressive return with their seventh studio album „No Tourists“, which promptly shook up the international charts, landing in the top 10 in Germany and Switzerland, among other countries, and reaching the top spot in the UK like almost all of its predecessors. In the wake of Keith Flint’s tragic death, part of the planned tour for the last album in 2019 was canceled and the band took a longer break. After a few festival shows, The Prodigy will return to the big European halls in the fall and will also stop off in Germany for four concerts on their tour.
Between November 30 and December 9, the band will perform in Düsseldorf, Berlin, Frankfurt and Stuttgart. The story of The Prodigy begins in 1990, when techno was still in its infancy. Back then, band leader Liam Howlett was a hip-hop DJ and break dancer and initially had nothing to do with the burgeoning scene. It wasn’t until the resurgence of acid house that he turned to harder club sounds. At a party, he first met Keith Flint and shortly afterwards Keith Palmer, who had already gained local merit as an MC under the name Maxim Reality.
Leeroy Thornhill joins the band, but he leaves the project, which is called The Prodigy, in 2000. Right from the start, the band enjoyed great success in England. Their first singles, „Charly“ and „Everybody In The Place“, reached the top 3 in the charts, while their debut album „Experience“ reached number 12. With their second album „Music For The Jilted Generation“, released in 1994, they not only achieved their international breakthrough – the album is still regarded today as the prelude and blueprint for innovative electronic music, which to date has combined all known styles of house and techno.
Hits such as „No Good“, „Voodoo People“ and „Poison“ are considered classics and can still be heard in clubs. But The Prodigy want more – they are looking for the absolutely new, the never-before-heard. They achieved this with the album „The Fat Of The Land“, released in 1997. With singles such as „Firestarter“, „Breathe“ and „Smack My Bitch Up“, they moved away from classic techno and created a new genre: the big beat, which gave electronic music a fresh aesthetic full of broken beats, punky sounds and powerful vocals.
The Prodigy finally join the ranks of the superstars. They win countless awards for the album, are nominated for two Grammys and play a triumphant world tour. At the zenith of their career, The Prodigy seem to be overwhelmed by a creative crisis: they had revolutionized dance and club music – what was to come next? The members took several years off and released solo albums, including „Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned“ by Liam Howlett, which was released in 2004 under the name The Prodigy without the involvement of his two bandmates.
The trio didn’t get back together until 2006, and in 2009 they released the overwhelmingly powerful comeback album „Invaders Must Die“. Two more fantastic longplayers followed with „The Day Is My Enemy“ and „No Tourists“, before another caesura occurred in 2019: Keith Flint was found dead in his home on March 4, 2019. Initially, the band canceled all dates and tour dates, and it was not until 2022 that The Prodigy played a few shows in the UK again to celebrate the 25th anniversary of „The Fat Of The Land“.
After playing a few international festival dates this summer, the first European tour in memory of Keith Flint will follow in the fall.
Live Nation Presents:
The Prodigy Army Of The Ants European Tour 2023
Tickets:
www.livenation.de/artist-the-prodigy-8441