to a considerable proportion of the people who had bought The Fat of the Land, Keith Flint was The Prodigy. "Here was a performer who seemed happy to own the moral panic, to look and behave - on camera at least - like middle England's nightmares come true. As Alexis Petridis of The Guardian points out, it was Flint's elevation from dancer to frontman that catapulted The Prodigy - whose music was generally the work of producer Liam Howlett, who was not really a performer - to universal acclaim and international success. Though brought in simply as a dancer in the early days of the chart-topping group, his importance in the group's success - and his position in the history of British music in general - cannot be overstated, as indeed a great number of the retrospectives written about Flint's short life made clear. Other international helplines can be found at fans around the world were shocked and saddened in 2019 by the news of the sudden death of Keith Flint, the instantly recognizable and era-defining frontman of U.K. And in Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-80. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email or The Mind helpline is: 03 and CALM: 0800 58 58 58. It was such a celebration of his life, as it deserved to be. Lots of people came just to rave outside – Keith would have loved that. Most funerals are buttoned-down, but his was full of the most authentic expressions of love. Keith’s funeral will stay with me for ever. I doubt he’d agree with me, but I think he would have been an amazing old man. I remember getting my diary out straightaway, making a note, thinking: “I’ve got to do something for Keith for that.” But he never got there. We were all so shocked.Īt the start of this year my daughter was looking at a celebrity birthday site, and I noticed that Keith’s birthday was on 17 September, and that he was turning 50. Keith Flint takes time to meet a fan Riding Keith Flint’s Moto2 bike Flint was at the forefront of dance and rave culture for almost 30 years and alongside his music, was famed for his love of. It’s impossible to be philosophical about what happened. But it’s important to recognise that living life to the max then dying the way he did is not really something to celebrate. He got involved in motorcycle racing, which he’d always been a fan of, and became incredible at it. Keith lived life full-on, and he gave himself to everything he did. He lived in the countryside in Essex, and he loved being there. He’d go home between tours and take care of his animals. He’d hang around backstage and be nice to people, and just pour this different character out on stage. What the Prodigy were doing was so strong the mainstream had to understand it, and had to bend towards it.Īfter Firestarter, the Prodigy became huge and they’ve kept playing at that level ever since. When The Fat of the Land got to No 1 in America, Keith was in the frontline, presenting something new, something powerful and completely undiluted. He dissolved the barrier between audience and performer, and people connected with him from all kinds of musical backgrounds because of that: not just dance music but hip-hop, punk and metal. He’d go to places on stage no one else could go. He was a very different kind of frontman. I remember seeing him on stage around that time, and being genuinely in awe. Keith’s first vocal for the Prodigy was for Firestarter. Keith was the embodiment of that feeling of freedom to me. He understood the freedom music represented to people, and how they yearned and lived for that at the end of the working week. Keith became one of the Prodigy’s dancers, and that’s what he did for the first five years. He became friends with Liam Howlett, really encouraged him to do more of his music, and that’s how the Prodigy began. When he came back to Britain, he heard about the rave scene through a friend, so went to one, and that was that – he was in.
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