"I think, because everyone had pulled together to make this thing happen, there was a responsibility to put everything you had into it, to represent all aspects of what had gone on to make that song and that video come together."
#PRODIGY BAND FULL#
"I knew I had this moment where I was fronting this bad-arse song, and it needed this full energy and full performance," he explained. He knew he had to lean on the skills he’d honed to stand out once the video hit TVs around the world. Usually a dancer, ‘Firestarter’ was his first big opportunity to break out as a vocalist with the group. Nothing's trying too hard." RELATED: The J Files: The Prodigy I really mildly thought about it, just threw it together, very DIY, and sometimes that natural, honest approach to just doing what you do always pays off. I bunged it on, and it had its own impact. "I went to this second-hand store, saw the stars and stripes, and I liked the contradiction of us being this British band and wearing the stars and stripes jumper. “I was on my way to the video and went to Camden Market to find something to wear. "The stars and stripes jumper,” Flint recalled. A chance visit to the markets saw Flint drawn to the piece of clothing that he’s perhaps most identified with over 20 years on. We were just in the tunnel and it was just based on Keith's performance."Ī little bit of good fortune never hurts when trying to make something magic. "Like everything good with The Prodigy, it was all spontaneous. " pulled together this location, Aldwych Tube Station, which is this old, disused tunnel. We couldn't afford to have it in colour," Howlett said. "We had no budget left – we had 15 grand or something – that's the reason it's in black and white. The Prodigy were desperate, so they were forced to make magic with what little they had. When your back is against the wall, great things can happen. We need a video for this track in two weeks'." "On 'Firestarter' we decided to go with someone else, but I ended up ringing him back up and saying, 'Man you gotta help us out. "At that point I spoke to Walter, who'd done 'No Good…', 'Poison', 'Voodoo People' we'd worked with him on about five videos before. "They were like, 'Well, we need a video.'," Howlett said. And the band’s record label had just spent a huge amount of money on one, so they wanted results. So, I said to the label, 'Nah, I'm not using that.' So, we binned it."Ī video was a non-negotiable property when looking to break through to new audiences in the 1990s. "To cut a long story short, the finished video was just rubbish. "We turned up and he put Keith is a straightjacket or some shit," Howlett recalls. More to the point, they knew what they didn’t want. They might not have liked doing them, but The Prodigy knew what they wanted from a music video.
None of us particularly liked doing videos, it was just something you had to do."
We came across this guy we kinda liked, and we thought he could do something special for this. "Back then, videos cost a lot of money, it wasn't like now. "We attempted to do a video," the band’s Liam Howlett recalled to triple j’s Linda Marigliano recently. If it weren’t for the band’s uncompromising vision, confidence in standing up for their art, and willingness to lose a lot of their record label’s money. But this now iconic video almost looked very different.
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