A good Prodigy Interview

               2.11.94 Leicester De Montfort University

        What  exactly  are  the Prodigy?  Too underground to do Top Of
The Pops, too successful for the snobs, too ravey for the technoheads,
too  techno  for  the  junglists.   But  then again, who gives a fuck?
'Music  For  The  Jilted  Generation'  is an awesome LP, stealing from
plenty  of genres but submitting to none, a furious rollercoaster ride
that confounded the doubters.  "That's the Prodigy?  The ones who made
that Charly tune?"

        All  of  which  bothers  tonight's  audience not one bit.  The
queue stretches around the block, the venue is sold out in advance and
the  lads behind us pay £65 for three tickets.  Welcome to The Prodigy
Experience.

        The  dancefloor  is  full  and half the punters aren't even in
yet.  N-Joi are up first.  Touring to promote their new 'Earquake' EP,
their  set  is  punctuated by shouts of "Let's go!" and "Sounds of the
future!" in true MC-'91 style.  Trouble is, it doesn't really sit with
the  much  houseier sound that seems to have replaced the crazed drums
of  their  excellent  'Drumstruck' EP.  The crowd bob along tolerantly
but its clear who they're really here for.

        So  when Liam & co do appear with a quick burst of 'Your Love'
the  audience  is  more  than ready and when 'Voodoo People' kicks in,
mass  pogo-ing  ensues.  'Poison' follows and dancer Mad Keith is soon
surfing  the crowd.  Its hard to tell whether we're at a gig or a rave
and the temperature seems to rise with every track.  'Break And Enter'
('Radio  Babylon'  in  all but name) leads up to last track 'Fire' and
random  outbreaks  of skanking, but by now there's not a dry armpit in
the place.

        Years  of  p.a's  on  the worldwide rave circuit mean that the
Prodigy  have  got this down to a fine art, without ever becoming Fine
Art.  Perhaps that's why people take against them, although personally
I  can't see the problem.  They might be in a different league to your
average  techno  outfit, they might have a number one LP but that's no
reason   to   get   upset  -  The  Prodigy  are  as  hardcore  and  as
uncompromising  as  ever and, let's face it, why should they care what
you think anyway?  Are the Prodigy Techno?  Oh yeah!



re-edited by ctp/mawi^underground
underground production 1997