'Fiercely Unapologetic & In Your Face': A Tribute To The Prodigy's Keith Flint

After emerging from Melbourne's now-defunct Palace Theatre on the night of 29 Jan, 2009 - satched to the bone in sweat - a passerby stopped before us with a concerned look on his face. "Has there been a fire in the building?" 

"No, we've just been to see The Prodigy." He thought we'd been doused by water from the venue's emergency sprinkler system.

The Prodigy's black-and-white music video for Firestarter was banned from Top Of The Pops after complaints about arson fixation were logged. Parents also phoned in to complain that the brazen figure of Keith Flint - gurning, reeling and cocking his head rhythmically from side to side like a curious cockatoo - scared their children. 

We're pretty sure imagery from other film clips by The Prodigy invaded many childhood nightmares as well, specifically coarse black hair growing out of walls. And Breathe's film clip featured an alligator slithering unexpectedly from a bed. 

Smack My Bitch Up contained chorus lyrics that were widely censored, with this track and accompanying film clip banned outright by some channels (including MTV); the song's film clip masterfully subverts stereotypes of gender roles (Rewatch it):

In a 2018 interview with Gaz Coombes that featured in What's My Scene, the former Supergrass frontman hilariously recounts meeting Flint during a Big Day Out tour that both of their bands were booked on. "It was us and The Prodigy and we were kind of travelling together and hanging out in hotels together... I remember the first time I met the lead singer of The Prodigy: I walked into a lift, and he was just there. I walked into the lift and it was just us two and it was quiet for 20 seconds and then he looked at me and he went, ‘I’m a firestarter’... I thought it was really funny. I was like, ‘I know. I know you are, mate’."

Flint was fiercely unapologetic and in your face.

During another of this scribe's highlight live experience that were instigated by The Prodigy, the crowd was instructed to squat down. Yeah, we know just about every other band does that these days, but not like The Prodigy. Usually a verbal cue from the lead singer is required in order for the audience to rise to their feet in unison. Not so with The Prodigy. "SMACK MY BITCH UP!" and we were all catapulted up as if simultaneously double-bounced from a massive trampoline, on the 'one' of the drop.

If you never had the pleasure of raving to The Prodigy live and with Flint out front, we're so very sorry. But The Prodigy's music will always be beautifully brutal, just like life can be. 

Wherever you are now, Keith, please keep shocking people; you always detested the safe.

If you are suffering from depression or need assistance, please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636.