Liam Howlett(I)

The man behind the music of the Prodigy, Liam Howlett, was born on August 21, 1971 in Essex, England. Ever since his childhood, Liam had an undying devotion for music. His father forced him to take piano classes but his interest was grabbed by other musical styles. He particularly liked the Ska movement, and "Ska's Greatest Hits" was the first album he'd ever owned. While the majority of his fellow youth were out playing sports, he remained in his house to record programs off the radio and later create his own remixes with a pause button and a burgeoning musical talent. "When I was 14 years old," recalls Liam, "I used to record things off the radio and do mixes with the pause button on my cassette recorder. I was charmed with that one. I never liked sports. Doing mixes was what I always wanted to do". When Liam entered high school he became involved in the Hip Hop movement - the graffiti, the clothes, and the break dancing. His remixes influenced his style. He developed a liking to the rap music of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five and he watched the 1984 movie Beat Street (1984), a film dedicated to break dancing. A friend demonstrated a remix to him in his bedroom, and Liam has since been hooked. He got his first job in order to save money up for two record players. He was practicing several hours every night and at some point in time, he joined a local Hip-Hop group called "Cut 2 Kill". They already had one DJ, but they were impressed with his talent and gave him his first opportunity to play publicly in clubs like the YMCA. Since he had a degree in graphic design, Liam began work in designing emblems for the band. After obtaining his degree, he got a job during the day in an independent magazine based in London called Metropolitan and continued DJ'ing at night. After seeing several of the band's performances, Liam's boss at Metropolitan was duly impressed. He eventually gave them the proposal of being their manager, and would give them four thousand pounds to record an album. After recordings were finished, however, there was not enough money to release the album. Most major record companies thought that their album was a fruitless endeavour and turned their backs on it. In spite of these problems, though, the group edited his only two works before separating: "Jus' Coolin'" and "Listen To The Basstone". They had very little success afterwards, and with the constant problems that Liam was confronted with in the night clubs he usually attended eventually drove him away from the hip hop scene in 1988. Soon after, his love of music was invigorated when he began attending a club called "The Barn", a popular hangout specializing in the block rocking beats of the "rave" scene. Mr. C was the "The Barn"'s resident DJ, but within a mere two months, Liam started to take part in celebratory parties and got a DJ'ing job at the club. One night, two young dancers, Keith Flint and Leeroy Thornhill, were dancing in the club while Liam had been DJ'ing. When he had finished, Keith approached Liam and asked him to record a few remixes of his favorite songs. Liam agreed and recorded a session, adding four tracks he had mixed himself to the B-side. He wrote "The Prodigy" on the cassette, which was the name of the synthesizer that Liam had used: "Moog Prodigy". When Keith and Leeroy listened to the cassette they were impressed by the quality of all four songs. The next time they visited "The Barn", Keith asked Liam if he would be interested in forming a group. There he would play his music, and Leeroy and Keith would dance to his songs. Liam accepted the offer and together, with another dancer named Sharky, they formed what is widely considered to be the best electronic group of all time: "The Prodigy". The group's first concert was in 1990, in the mythical Labyrinth, in Dalston's City. It was at this time that Liam realized that they needed an MC - Master of Ceremony - for the performances. His search led him to Keety Palmer, known as Maxim Reality, an MC born in Peterborough, who was subsequently hired by the group. In 1990, Liam received an offer from a record company, XL-Recordings, to sign a contract and produce his own songs. He withheld the news from the rest of his bandmates, however, until he was sure that everything would work out. When it eventually did, Sharky decided to leave the group because she didn't like the idea of transforming it into a commercial enterprise. 1991 was the year when the group's first single was released. "What Evil Lurks" became a classic within the rave scene and a very popular vinyl between collectors. Afterwards, they released several more singles, including such hits as "Charly", "Everybody In The Place", "Fire" and "Jericho". Their first album titled "Experience" was released the same year. It was critically acclaimed and was considered to be the best `dance' album of the year. In 1995, The Prodigy had released their 2nd album titled "Music for the Jilted Generation" which had a `grunge' feel to it. In 1997, "The Fat of the Land", the Prodigy's long-awaited follow-up to "Music for the Jilted Generation", debuted at #1 in 22 countries including United States. People were blown away by the sound The Prodigy had to deliver. "The Fat of the Land" was touted as the album that would bring electronica/techno to a wide American audience. After a 6 year break. Liam now has returned to the spotlight with "Baby's Got A Temper", the new "Prodigy" single. It's a completely different song from their previous work, and is a track that presents a more aggressive face of "The Prodigy". In summer of 2004, the fourth highly anticipated album of the British band, entitled "Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned", will hopefully be unleashed upon the world.