The Prodigy performed at The Venue in Lochee’s Stack Leisure Park 30 years ago on their journey to becoming global superstars.
The Prodigy headlined the Sweatbox event in September 1993 with entry costing £8.
Liam Howlett, Leeroy Thornhill, Keith Flint and Maxim Reality were touring a circuit of small venues having established themselves at the head of the dance scene in 1991.
The Courier Rocktalk column predicted big things on the horizon for the Essex band in 1993 and suggested their live show would put many “proper bands” to shame.
“One of the great myths about the dance music of the last five years is that it makes for a lousy live show.
“Alongside the likes of The Orb and The Shamen, The Prodigy have helped blow that theory out of the water.
“Their live shows, a manic extravaganza of lasers, lights and mad dancers, have become one of the best in the country and puts many ‘proper’ bands to shame.
“What is more, they haven’t relied on making their reputation in packed clubs.
“Already they have completed one tour organised on more traditional rockist lines.
“The result?
“They sold out every venue.
“That’s the sort of confidence which has taken The Prodigy to the top.
“Rave itself may be on its last legs in Britain but that doesn’t mean the end of dance and, with the new sub-genre exploding all the time and bands like The Prodigy to take it to the masses, it will be here for a long time yet.”
The Prodigy played for 45 minutes
The 45-minute Lochee performance included tracks from 1992 album Experience and songs which would eventually feature on 1994’s Music for the Jilted Generation.
Out of Space, Jericho, Full Throttle and One Love were played during a typically storming set and ravers danced until 2.30am.
Keith Flint performed with long hair and was wearing baggy rave gear.
Changed days!
Showbiz fixer and club owner Tony Cochrane was responsible for bringing a host of top stars to Dundee in the 1980s and 1990s including The Prodigy to The Venue.
His career started by running Northern Soul nights at the Angus Hotel and the Marryat Hall and he went on to help launch the careers of the likes of Take That who performed at Buddies in 1992.
The man himself takes up the story.
“Louis Parker was the owner of Concorde International Artistes and the main agent for The Prodigy, who found success in 1991 with the debut single Charly,” said Tony.
“He asked if I would sort some shows out for the band in Scotland in 1993.
“I was running the early Sweatbox events and we put on a show every Friday at The Venue where we had the second room, which was exclusive for our regulars.
“The Prodigy were great and always wanted to put on the best show.
“They didn’t disappoint in Lochee.
“The energy from the stage was infectious and it paid off.
“They were a fine bunch of lads and were never afraid to innovate.
“I just knew they were on the way to becoming a major act and it was great to have managed to get them to play in Scotland back in 1993.”
Charly gave the band chart success
The Essex band never wholly belonged to any genre since forming in 1990.
Their first release – the What Evil Lurks EP, issued in 7,000 pressings in February 1991 – was a hardcore anthem that set the heavy pace for The Prodigy’s later outings.
Chart success followed with Charly in August 1991, which was a mind-bending techno track overlaid with a sample from the 1970s public information film for children.
The band’s popularity grew as the British government tried to clamp down on the country’s rave scene and indie kids and even bikers were now making up the audience.
The Prodigy achieved mainstream popularity and 1994’s Music For The Jilted Generation was named by David Bowie as being one of his favourite albums of all time.
The Prodigy played an incredible set at T in the Park at Strathclyde Park in 1995 and performed at Glastonbury while turning from rave chancers into a festival powerhouse.
Up until that point Flint had been the Prodigy’s dancer.
The Prodigy went interstellar during the Britpop era in 1996 with the release of Firestarter, which was the first track from 1997’s 10-million-selling The Fat of the Land.
“If I’m ever going to do any lyrics, I’m going to do it to this tune,” he said.
The dance track was accompanied by a black and white video showing a wild-eyed, mascara-wearing Flint sporting a reverse Mohawk in an abandoned tube station.
The sight of Flint, complete with bull-style nose ring, was enough to prompt complaints from the public who felt the video should only be shown after the watershed.
The band weren’t complaining, though – the song was their first No 1.
The Fat of the Land became the fastest-selling record ever in the UK and The Prodigy teased their global star power with a headlining set at Glastonbury in 1997.
They headlined T in the Park at Balado in 1998 on a bill which included Robbie Williams, Pulp, Beastie Boys, Ian Brown, Portishead, Travis and Stereophonics.
The Prodigy were unstoppable.
The Prodigy return to Dundee – triumph then tragedy
The band returned to Dundee in January 2010 on the Run with the Wolves tour when they decided to “bring the show to fans who don’t often get a chance to see us”.
Unwanted headlines followed at the 2,300 sell-out gig when 23-year-old Angus man Leigh Reeve jumped 20 feet to the floor of the Caird Hall from the upper seating area.
The Prodigy played on, encouraged by emergency services because it was felt it would be more disruptive to stop suddenly.
Reeve was unconscious and was taken to Ninewells Hospital where he was found to have slight bleeding on the brain, lung injuries and a broken pelvis.
He spent 11 days in hospital but made a recovery doctors described as “remarkable”.
The flying leap cost him £750 when he appeared before Sheriff Richard Davidson in Dundee and admitted behaving recklessly and placing other concert-goers in danger.
Solicitor George Donnelly told the court Reeve had been drinking vodka and Red Bull earlier in the evening, although the energy drink certainly did not give him wings.
“The fact is, he sank like a lead weight,” said Mr Donnelly.
Seven years elapsed between The Prodigy’s all-conquering Fat Of The Land and the 2004 follow-up album, Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned.
The public didn’t take to it and the media pretty much ignored it, although they never ceased being a vastly successful live band despite the departure of Leeroy Thornhill.
Invaders Must Die released in 2009, signalled a return to the rave sound of their debut.
It was followed by 2015’s The Day Is My Enemy before No Tourists came out in 2018.
The album debuted at No. 1. Their sixth consecutive studio album to do so.
There were plans to tour the US before tragedy struck.
Keith Flint was found dead at his home in Essex on March 4 2019 at the age of 49, after taking his own life.
Prodigy members Liam Howlett and Maxim Reality decided the band would continue and they returned to the stage in 2022 with a 2023 UK tour planned in November.
Flint’s legacy – and that of dance music in all its forms – lives on.
There will also be plenty of nostalgia when Tony Cochrane brings Sweatbox back to Dundee next month.
Flint surely won’t be far from his thoughts.
- Sweatbox will be at Fat Sam’s from 9pm to 3am on October 6 with a floor-filling line-up of top DJs.
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