Chart entered : 24 August 1991
Chart peak : 3 ( 66 on re-release in 1996, 73 on re-release in 2004 )
Number of hits : 18
Despite its success, I don't think anyone guessed what a game-changing band this lot were going to be when this single came out.
The Prodigy are the most successful act to emerge from the early nineties rave scene. They began when Liam Howlett a DJ and keyboard player from Braintree, Essex met dancer Keith Flint at an all-night rave in the summer of 1989. Liam gave Keith a mix tape with some of his own material on the other side with the name "Prodigy" ( after one of his synthesisers ) on the inlay card. Keith shared it with his friend and fellow dancer Leeroy Thornhill who suggested they form a group. They then invited Keith "Maxim" Palmer, a rapper to be their onstage MC. and a female dancer Sharky to enhance their visual appeal.
They got a deal with XL and released their first record , a 12 inch EP called "What Evil Lurks" in February 1991. "What Evil Lurks" is a simple, repetitive bass line augmented by vocal samples. "We Gonna Rock" is a super-fast statement of intent, hardcore and uncompromising. "Android" has slightly more melodic content and was the favoured track in Holland. "Everybody in the Place" is an early version of their second hit , a stop-start rave tune with Keith declaiming the title at regular intervals.
"Charly" was their next release. The main hook is played on a synth with the volume being adjusted on each note to queasy effect over the usual skittering drum pattern. This is then punctuated with either an Orbital-like second riff on the keyboards or samples from the "Charly" Public Information Films about stranger danger, a dimly-remembered feature of my early school days where a cartoon cat warned you not to go off with people you didn't know. Liam knew the rave demographic and tapping into twenty-something nostalgia made this a huge pop hit as well as filling the floor in the clubs. It was only kept off the top by the two behemoths of that summer, Bryan Adams and Right Said Fred.
The record set off a wave of singles marrying childhood samples to rave backing tracks - Roobarb and Custard, A Trip To Trumpton and Sesame's Treet to name a few - by fly-by- night outfits, a phenomenon derided by critics as "toytown techno". This exposed The Prodigy to the mortal peril of being perceived as a novelty act and they did well to steer a course out of that cul-de-sac.
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