Nothing’s trying too hard.”įirestarter was The Prodigy’s biggest-selling single to date, topping the charts in the UK, Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, and Norway. 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,” Flint told Triple J a few years back. #Prodigy #Firestarter #raveon /CrozDor26F- Alex Jenkins ? March 18, 2021Īnd as for happy accidents, the now-legendary Stars and Stripes jumper, forever linked to Flint’s new image, was reportedly purchased on the way to the video shoot. The Prodigy lozenge logo uses Keedy Sans from Emigre. The sleeve was designed by Alex Jenkins, art director at XL Recordings – featuring the notorious image of a grandmother clutching a Molotov cocktail – with the famous Prodigy lozenge logo using the Keedy Sans font. It cost like £100,000 but I just put it in the bin.” “In the original, Keef was in a straight jacket and had this ball bouncing – it was just nonsense. “The guy finished the video for Firestarter and I just hated it and thought it wasn’t good enough for the song,” he said. It’s a natural progression.”Īccording to an interview Howlett gave to the BBC a couple of years back, the now-famous clip was actually the band’s second attempt at a video for Firestarter, with the group having already spent a tidy sum on a video that was ultimately scrapped. And obviously the press and the fans are going to latch onto him now. “People only started to notice when he dyed his hair. “But he’s been insane for five years! He was insane the day I met him dancing in The Barn in Braintree. “People say Keith looks insane these days,” Howlett told the music paper. The iconic video, directed by Walter Stern and filmed in the depths of an unused London Underground station, was filmed over a 12 hour period, with Flint in full-on deranged clown mode, or a ‘schizo-barmy Mr C meeting a speedball-bonkers Gary Glitter in hell’, as the NME put it at the time. The royalties kept me in coffees for many years.” They wanted our “Hey”, the one on Close (to the Edit) – no other would do. The proudest for me was the Prodigy on Firestarter. I could explain it to you, but I wouldn’t for the magazine.”Īs with many other Prodigy tracks, Firestarter incorporated a number of samples, woven into the final tapestry by Howlett, including a wah-wah’s guitar riff from The Breeders’ SOS, a drum sample from Ten City’s Devotion, and the most notorious of all, the “hey” sample, which was taken from Art of Noise’s 1984 smash Close To The Edit.Īs Art of Noise’s Anne Dudley told The Guardian in 2018, “I love to say that we’re the third most sampled group of all time. Possibly the only time in history that Keith Flint and Gianni Versace shared the same cover, August 1997Īs for the lyrics of Firestarter, in which Flint refers to himself as a ‘self-inflicted mind detonator’ and ‘the bitch you hated’ – implying a degree of self-hatred – he was less forthcoming, however. I think that’s a brilliant piss take on a lot of people, and that gives me a buzz.” “I love the fact that there’s people out there that have been trying since the age of nine to sing and get the voice right - do, re, mi and all that - and I can roar in, not ever written anything or performed lyrically anything, and write a tune that’s so successful. When The Prodigy came to record Firestarter, Flint recalls how he and the group’s Liam Howlett listened to it about 30 times, mesmerised by the group’s dark new direction. That is the punk-attitude, DIY aspect of the Prodigy.” “If I could get a mike and just go, ‘Fuckin’ hell! Fuckin’ hell!’ I would do it. Yes! Fuckin’ hell! Rockin’! Just yelling at each other, dancing away. From the party scene, when a tune came on and it was your tune, I wanted everyone to know it was my tune. “Why does a river turn into an oxbow lake? I’ve spent six years expressing myself with my body, shouting with my body. Five years on from the group’s debut, what prompted Flint to pick up a pen and start writing lyrics, interviewer Chris Heath asked. In August 1997, The Prodigy gave an interview to Rolling Stone, with the cover of the magazine featuring the Essex native in his punk pageantry, in which Flint offered some background on the inspiration for his new persona.