The Prodigy are an English electronic dance music group from Braintree, Essex, formed in 1990 by keyboardist and songwriter Liam Howlett. The first line-up of the band also included Maxim (MC and vocalist), Keith Flint (dancer and vocalist), Leeroy Thornhill (dancer and live keyboardist), and female dancer and vocalist Sharky. Along with the Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, and other acts, the Prodigy have been credited as pioneers of the big beat genre, which achieved mainstream popularity in the 1990s. The Prodigy first emerged in the underground rave scene in the early 1990s and have since achieved popularity and worldwide recognition.
The Prodigy were founded in Braintree, Essex, in 1990 by keyboardist and songwriter Liam Howlett. He had taken piano lessons in his youth and gained the ability to play difficult passages in just a few run-throughs. After he decided to pursue a music career, Howlett met dancer and vocalist Keith Flint in mid-1989 during an outdoor night party at which Howlett was spinning records. After Flint requested Howlett make a mix tape for him, Howlett obliged, returning a cassette several days later with a collection of his own songs on the other side. Howlett had scratched the word "Prodigy" onto the cassette, the same name as the Moog Prodigy analogue synthesizer, and Howlett's moniker. The tape was well-received by Flint and keyboardist Leeroy Thornhill who developed new dance sequences to the music and suggested to Howlett they begin a group together. They were soon joined by MC and vocalist Maxim, then known as Maxim Reality, and female dancer and vocalist Sharky, a friend of Flint's. Together they became the first line-up of the Prodigy. The group's first live gig occurred at Four Aces in Dalston, London. With a group secured, Howlett wrote, produced, and mixed a 10-track demo tape on a Roland W-30 sampling workstation keyboard, and approached Tam Tam Records with the hope of securing a record deal, but they declined. He then turned to XL Recordings, headed by Nick Halkes and Tim Palmer, who agreed to a meeting and subsequently picked up the demo. In February 1991, the band released the extended play What Evil Lurks on 12-inch vinyl, containing four songs that Howlett had produced on the demo. In August 1991, the Prodigy released their debut single "Charly", which samples dialogue from the Charley Says series of animated films produced by the Central Office of Information. It became a hit in the rave scene at the time, and reached number 3 on the UK Singles Chart, thus catapulting the band into the wider public attention. The success of "Charly" began a trend of mixing dance and "hardcore rave" tracks with cartoon samples, such as "A Trip to Trumpton" by Urban Hype and "Sesame's Treet" by Smart E's, which were a hit with speed and ecstasy-fuelled clubbers, but not to reviewers and critics, who dismissed the music as "kiddie rave" or "toytown techno".
When did the band form?
1990 1990 1990 The Prodigy were founded in Braintree, Essex, in 1990 in 1990
in 1990