The prodigy smack
The poor cat looks a little bit hungover in The Prodigy’s own version clutching a gutted fish bone, his pained meows punctuate frantic live footage. The music video, meanwhile, parodies the original information cartoon in flickering, psychedelic style. Riffing off a 1970s short film for children – which originally warned against the dangers of talking to strangers – The Prodigy’s ‘Charly’ infamously samples the film’s line “ Charly says, Always tell your mummy before you go off somewhere”. Many of these same cowering children now credit the song as being their gateway to rave music perhaps that explains the fretting mums? It’s captivating, apocalyptic brilliance. An intense, physical performer, he sprints on the spot and hangs menacingly from a spider’s web spitting each line with brash venom.
Taking centre stage in the intense visual, ‘Firestarter’ marks Flint’s first track as a vocalist for The Prodigy. Meanwhile The Mail on Sunday ran with the headline “Ban this sick fire record”
The video also broke an impressive record: achieving the highest number of complaints ever received by the BBC. Several channels banned the song altogether after concerned parents complained that scary Keith Flint was causing their darling children to cower in fear behind the sofa. Shot in a spooky abandoned London tube station (Aldwych, to be precise) The Prodigy’s video for ‘Firestarter’ terrified thousands watching Top of the Pops in ‘96. As we remember and pay tribute to a true icon of dance culture, these visuals show the group – and Keith himself – in the most fearsome form. The band’s mohawked dancer, frontman, troublemaker and music video menace Keith Flint has sadly passed away at the age of 49. From winding up parents with their provocative antics, to the iconic moment that the group’s Keith Flint terrified impressionable youngsters around the UK during one notorious appearance on Top of the Pops, they’re a band that embody brilliant, unchained chaos everything that dance music should be.
The Prodigy have always pushed every boundary going.