The Prodigy's Liam Howlett reveals his favourite 'Experience' songs as album turns 30
The classic album was released on 28th September 1992
The Prodigy’s founder, songwriter and leader, Liam Howlett, has picked his favourite songs from the band’s debut long-player ‘Experience’ as the classic album celebrates its 30th birthday.
Released on XL Recordings on 28th September 1992, ‘Experience’ was recorded by Liam Howlett between 1991 and 1992 and it went on to change to face of dance music forever.
The record peaked at Number 12 in the UK, shifted more than 300,000 copies, and spawned the singles ‘Charly’, ‘Everybody in the Place’, ‘Fire/Jericho’, ‘Out of Space’ and ‘Wind It Up.’
Celebrating its landmark today, Liam Howlett reflected upon making the record three decades ago and he also revealed his four "choice tunes" from ‘Experience.’
“Yes people, 30 years today we released our first album ‘Experience’,” Howlett wrote.
“I’ve got many memories of writing and mixing this album in my bedroom studio using minimal equipment and then taking them live to 100s of raves. It was an amazing time.
“All these tunes have been played live at some point over the years. My choice tunes off this album are ‘Jericho’, ‘Wind it up’, ‘Out of space’ and ‘Fire’. What are yours??
“Keep it FIRE peoples!!! Old skool will never die!!
“Master H”
Listen to Liam’s choice tunes:
The Prodigy played a sold-out UK tour in July – their first live dates since the death of Keith Flint in March 2019.
Facts about The Prodigy:
Their song ‘Firestarter’ spent three weeks at number 1
Despite causing controversy for its lyrics and video upon its release in 1996, Firestarter was The Prodigy's first number-one single on the UK Singles Chart.
Liam Howlett named the band after his first synthesiser
The Moog Prodigy was the analogue synthesiser the band used to record their first demo tape and early tracks. Liam Howlett also wrote 'Prodigy' on the mixtape he gave to Keith Flint when they first met. This synthesiser is still sometimes used by the band in their live shows.
'The Fat of the Land' is the fastest selling dance record of all time
In 1999, The Prodigy's third album won a Guinness World Record for selling over 317,000 copies during its first week. It's since gone on to sell over 10 million copies worldwide.
Maxim is a successful mixed-media artist
Choosing to keep his career as a musician and artist separate, Maxim started selling his artwork under the pseudonym, MM back in 2002. He has since gone on to exhibit at several successful solo shows in both London and L.A. and even has his own range of mugs and cake plates, based on the imagery in his paintings.
The iconic Firestarter video was filmed in an abandoned tube tunnel
The Aldwych tube station in Central London to be precise.
The Beastie Boys tried to get the band removed from Reading Festival in 1998
The band contacted Liam Howlett at his home in Essex to ask that they cut "Smack My B*tch Up" from their set because they found it too offensive. They chose to ignore the Beastie Boys request and Maxim introduced the song by declaring "They didn't want us to play this f------ tune. But the way things go, I do what the f--- I want".
The Prodigy used to be a five-piece band
The band was originally made up of Liam Howlett, Maxim, Leeroy Thornhill, Keith Flint and Sharky. Sharky, the only female member of the group, left shortly after they signed with a record label, but she is still credited on their first two albums.
Liam Howlett was the only one to sign their first record contract
While The Prodigy has always been made up of several members, keyboardist and songwriter Liam Howlett was actually the only one to sign their initial record contract back in the early '90s.
Keith Flint owned his own motorcycle racing team
An avid motorcyclist himself, Keith founded Team Traction Control in 2010 with the ethos of a few mates going racing together to simply have a good time. The team went on to win two Isle of Man TT races in 2015 and 2016.
The band originally met at a rave club in Essex called ‘The Barn’
Liam was a house DJ when he met Keith and Leeroy and they enjoyed his set so much they asked for a mixtape. Keith insisted that Liam should be playing his songs on stage and that he could dance to them, along with his friends Leeroy and Sharky.
The band were introduced to Maxim through a mutual friend, but they didn't actually meet each other in person until the day of their first show.
In 1996 The Prodigy had 10 songs in the UK Top 100
These songs included Firestarter, Everybody In The Place, Fire, Out Of Space, Wind It Up, One Love, No Good Start The Dance, Voodoo People, Poison and Charly.
The band performed to just 20 people during their first live performance
Despite only playing to a small crowd, the show at the Four Aces Club in 1990 was so well received, the band was asked to play again the following week. This time far more people turned out to see them play.
'Breathe' is The Prodigy’s most commercially successful single
It peaked at number 1 in 9 different countries, including the UK, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. It was the second single from their 1996 album, 'The Fat of the Land' and had 977,000 combined sales.
‘You’ll be under my wheels’ was used in the Need for Speed: Most Wanted video game
The song which was taken from the band's 'Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned' album has also been used in the end credits of the film, The Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift and for a BMW 1 Series advert.
A feature-length documentary about the band is in the works
In February 2021, the Prodigy announced that they would be working with long time collaborator Paul Dugdale to create a documentary that tells the band's story. The documentary will be dedicated to late vocalist Keith Flint.
Maxim and Liam Howlett said in a joint statement: "After the devastating passing of our brother Keef in 2019, the time feels right for us to tell the story of our band, all of it, the whole 9 … It's a story of the chaotic and troubled journey of our gang, our band, the peoples band -- The Prodigy."