Time for a little review of the year behind us ... (trust me, if it hadn't been so great I wouldnt do this). Take a few minutes with neko to review the past 12 months and most important happenings in Prodigy land. January 2004 The year starts with a rather big surprise for all Prodigy fans, when the unexpected happens: Liam Howlett talks to nekosite.co.uk in a first interview about the new album (not sure which of the two is the unexpected bit, probably both!). Just when we had all almost given up on them, Liam announces in the interview that the album is almost finished and for the first time he talks about tracks like Girls, Wake Up and The Way It Is and famously promises "And it really is fucking coming out this time, it's no joke!". Oooooh, a great year is ahead! Relive the moment - - - > [HERE] February 2004 & March 2004 Two quiet months follow and things go back into mystery. Fans in the know around the world are counting the days and weeks until June, July... or August? Meanwhile Liam is busy in the studio, putting the finishing touches on the new Prodigy album: Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned. April 2004 First rumours about Juliette Lewis appearing on the new Prodigy album appear in the press and at first you guys didn't believe it, then didn't like it much, but decided to go with JJ's advice and "In Howlett We Trust". And indeed I haven't really heard anyone complain about Hotride (well, pre-el batori at least) or Spitfire ever since! Read what you said at the time - - - > [HERE] On the last day of the month then finally some more news from Liam. He's finished the album and writes in a note to the fans published on nekosite that "this album is about reminding people what the prodigy was always about---the beats and the music.". Relive the moment - - - > [HERE] May 2004 A last quiet month in Prodigy-land ... June 2004 The month starts with Maxim's release of his single Survivor, which he also makes available on his own website to listen to. Read what you said - - - > [HERE] The news about a Gallagher (both) collaboration on AONO now finally hits the news and not unexpected, NME are first in the queue to report the 'Oasis news'. Relive the moment - - - > [HERE] The big news this month though starts in a topic called "FUCk THEY'VE PLAYED it...". Yeah, boys and girls, the new Prodigy track "Girls" gets first radio play (in Norway, out of all places) and just a couple of hours later it is played pretty much non-stop on everyones stereo, laptop, carspeakers and so on. First new Prodigy material in years and suddenly thousands of fans realize that Liam was not actually joking when he said "I want people to go 'fuck, is that the Prodigy? I didn't expect that'", cause that's exactly what we all say when hearing it. Relive the excitement - - - > [HERE] Other exciting news are that finally now the tracklist and artwork for AONO get confirmed. Read how you found out - - - > [HERE] XL host a special 'limited download' of new track Memphis Bells. 'Buy your own version out of 5000 for £2', something like that. This is a bit a weird one, as the idea had potential but the realisation of it probably wasn't ideal. For example the fact that keen buyers weren't actually able to connect to the payment server until hours after it all went online. But who cares about details if you can get yellow, blue, green AND red artwork, all for the price of £2 each. Read how you were struggling to buy - - - > [HERE] July 2004 A topic spreading over 47 pages on the forum, read over 29'000 times, yet not mentioned in the news section ... it has to be the very early leak of the album on the Internet. Every Prodigy fan with a half-decent Internet connection was suddenly faced with the question: "Should I or shouldn't I?". While I'm confident most of you people, being fan enough to wade through this page so far down, have bought at least one copy of the album, it was a tough decision to be made. There were definitely some who decided to 'wait', whereas most of course had to give into the temptation. XL sending out promos of the full album to a lot of people was probably not the best idea of the year either. Read how you reacted to the unexpected - - - > [HERE] Liam also does some selected interviews this month, including a TV interview on MTV2's Gonzo and an interview for Radio 1. Read what you said - - - > [HERE] Keith Flint officially launches new side project Clever Brains Fryin' with a performance at Global Gathering festival. Since the band have no web site, they've provided and exclusive audio download of track "Oozy" to nekosite so the fans can listen to what it's all about. Listen to Keith again - - - > [HERE] August 2004 The Girls video is out and XL are kind enough to let us see it. Lovely. Look at Girls - - - > [HERE] Prodigy announce UK and Ireland Tourdates for December. Yes, it's definitely happening, they will be playing live again. And it's small venues too, ... perfect! The shows go on sale and sell out within hours. Before the album has even come out and with little to no promotion, Prodigy are definitely still wanted. Read how desperate you were for these tickets - - - > [HERE] In other news, the Guardian mentions and recommends nekosite as "wonderful fan site", awwwwwww - - - > [HERE] The Prodigy's new album Always Outnumbered Never Outgunned gets released on 23rd August and hits No. 1 in the UK, wooohooo! Read how you snapped up these limited black covers - - - > [HERE] Just one week after the album, the single Girls is released as well, due to the nature of being out after the album obviously not as high in the charts but we loved it to bits anyways. Read what you said - - - > [HERE] September 2004 Prodigy confirm European and Japanese tourdates. YAY!! Neko starts packing! Read how you shared travel details - - - > [HERE] To add to the excitement, Liam reveals he's written a new track called " Warning" - - - > [HERE] October 2004 Just a couple of days before the first show, Liam talks to nekosite again and a new very in-depth interview gets published in October. He talks about how AONO got finished, writing new post-AONO material and his plans for the live shows. And more. Of course. Read what Liam plans to do - - - > [HERE] The tour starts with a weekend in Athens and Istanbul. OH MY GOD! New post-AONO stuff is played and it's all fresh and and and and .... Relive the moment - - - > [HERE] Prodigy continue their tour with a show in Reykjavik [CHECK IT], Copenhagen and Stockholm. Check the comments - - - > [HERE] November 2004 Prodigy release the Hotride EP. As a cool gesture to fans it features 4 tracks and is not eligible for the singles chart as a result of it. nice. The band get a video done, but dont like it and bin it. In the end the EP is released without a video to promote it. As a wise man (Liam Howlett) once said: better no video than a bad one. See the artwork - - - > [HERE] No better time to go to Spain than November. I venture off to my '4 shows and 4 cities in 4 days' adventure and return hungover, tired, but happy. The liveshow is getting better and better, whereas insiders tell me my 'reviews' are heading the other way. ah well. Quality stuff - - - > [1] [2] [3] [4] We may be neutral but us Swiss love the Prodigy - Zurich gets a gig and shares the Caipiroshkas - - - > [HERE] Next on Cologne and Amsterdam, no surprise this is a good weekend - - - >[HERE] The month is finished off with two shows in Japan - - - > [HERE] December 2004 I had already thought that the year had started great, but ithen how it ended, whoaaah! Having had the privilege to interview Liam was already something, getting a new album in the same year and a tour was another, but this UK tour will be something to tell my grand children about. Prodigy, now with a Grammy nomination in their bag as well, play 9 shows in 11 days in UK and Ireland, finishing off this year with one of their best live performances ever at the Olympia in Dublin on 12th December 2004 in front of 2000 people, ending with a special one-off encore playing "Out Of Space". I was ill, hungover, and hadn't slept for a week, but this was the best weekend you could ask for. Birmingham & Brixton - - - >[HERE] 2005 ??? I doubt it can get much better, but by the looks of things we may end up with a pretty good 2005 as well. The band are to play shows all over the world again; Australia, America and Europe definitely seem to be on the cards. Liam's already been talking about the release of a double 'rarities' album to come out next year. And a DVD. And then maybe a live DVD. and and and .... [go home] www.nekosite.co.uk - copyright © 1998-2004 by neko - all rights reserved |
