The Prodigy on tour 2004 - Birmingham & Brixton

the prodigy in the UK 2004

Part 1: Birmingham & 2xBrixton

Thursday, 2nd December 2004: Birmingham

by neko:

It's Thursday afternoon and having just left work early, I am on a train to Birmingham. After all these trips abroad it's weird having been at work in London and seeing the Prodigy on the same day. Yes, my friends, it can only be the start of the UK tour!

Once in Birmingham I first have a couple of drinks with my forum moderator "James Jupiter" though and later meet some other friends. At 7pm we then enter the venue. I had been here once before and it's quite small for Prodigy with a tiny stage, great!
Apart from the XFM DJ Eddie Temple Morris, support band Youth of Britain are on. I had seen them once before at the Rhythm factory with CBF, but didn't like them much back then. Tonight though, they're actually really cool and I like what I hear and see. Great beats and a very outgoing frontman makes this a great support for Prodigy.

Eddie Temple Morris then is on for another bit and by playing an Out of Space remix obviously gets the crowd going. I am properly excited now ... Less than two weeks since Amsterdam but it seems like a long time ago already.

Just after 9pm then the change over and it's the start to The Prodigy's UK tour with the Wake Up intro ... and the setlist goes something like this:

Wake Up Call
Beats
Their Law
Warning
Spitfire
Breathe
New Track (Amsterdam)
Girls / More Girls
Firestarter Intro
Firestarter new remix
Hotride new remix
Back to School
The Way It Is
Mindfields

encore:
Poison
Release Yo'Delf fill
SMBU

The atmosphere at the gig is totally great. We're right at the front in the middle where you really get most of the energy and it is mad, but worth it. I have to say I really like that Firestarter Intro played in Birmingham, it's very quiet with some cool guitar parts by Jim, creating a really great build up to the track. The Firestarter remix works well, some cool new beats in it, and it sounds very hard. I'm pretty sure most kind of hard core fans of the band loved it, but for the more casual fans it's probably more difficult hearing a such different version to the original. Personally I am pleased with it though. I'm a bit dissapointed Medusa's path has dissapeared from the set, personally thought it always worked very well. The new track from Amsterdam is one of the highlights, and so is of course Back to School. All great!

The set feels quite short. I know it's all hard work for the band, but it was really only about 1h 20 min or even less. Just before 10.30pm it's all already over and I'm off to catch my 11pm bus back to London...

Guest Review by 'James Jupiter':

The doors opened just after 7pm and first on was the XFM DJ Eddy Temple-Morris. During his set he played the Prodigy Mix of Method Man's"Release To' Delf". I thought he may have been told not to play that as it is usually incorporated into The Prodigy set as part of "Poison". Other notable tracks played included The Chemical Brothers "Galvanize".

Next up was Youth Of Britain who consist of two guitarists, a vocalist and a techie boffin. They had a scrolling message display on stage which said "youth of britain.com - You either love it or you hate it". They also had a screen which showed the videos for each track they played. The crowd response to YOB was very mixed. During a track called "Free Money" the vocalist threw a wad of notes into the crowd. The crowd proceeded to try to grab the notes as they floated to the ground. The notes were fake $100 bills. A few of the security personnel picked the notes up and had a close look at them - no doubt hoping that the notes were real. MP3s and videos of YOB are available here: - http://www.youthofbritain.com/

Following YOB Eddy Temple-Morris returned to the decks. During this stint he played a bootleg (?) mix of "Out Of Space". This started a crowd sing along session. At this point a few beats started to be played over the top of the record that Eddy was playing causing Eddy to break out into a broad grin -
Liam warming up the machines from behind the curtain.

The front of the stage was cleared of the DJ equipment and the curtain was removed to reveal a drum kit, Liam's rig of equipment (including two Laptops - one with a sticker saying "ZX81 Yeah!" (a reference to the ZX81 Sinclair computer of the early 1980s) and the other with a sticker saying"Liam Lives Here") and a star made up of lights on a black background behind Liam's rig.

Liam walked onto the stage and took his place behind his machines whilst Keiron Pepper took his seat at his drum kit. The instruction to "Wake Up" started coming out of the speakers and then Maxim, Keith and Jim Davies walked on stage. Keith's outfit deserves a special mention. He was wearing black Addidas '3 stripe' trousers and jacket. The jacket has a big cat's (Jaguar?) head printed in white on the back. He also had a belt with a silver Jaguar's head buckle and sported a Top Hat with a long feather stuck in it and was carrying a black cane with a crystal top.

The set list was: -
Wake Up Call Intro
Wake Up Call
Their Law
Warning
Spitfire
Breathe (With Strobe light used to full effect)
Girls / More Girls
Dead Ken Beats* - This was a breather type track in a similar style to Medusa's Path. The track featured orchestral strings and hard beats. Gun Release* - Featured vocals from Maxim and heavy beats.
Firestarter - The new mix gives the track a new lease of life. The beats are hard and there are new guitar parts.
Hotride El Batori Mix - The Prodigy are about the beats and you could certainly tell with this! The track sounded like it had been stripped down to just the beats!
Back to School - Awesome track. Keith did his 'fast feet' dancing to this track.
The way it is - Some additional beats and a very generous use of the
'Thriller' sample in the middle of the track.
Climbatize Horns leading into Mindfields

Encore: -
Poison (Poison transitioned into a few minutes worth of the Prodigy's mix of Method Man's "Release To' Delf")
Smack My Bitch Up
Liam played beats until the end. The beats gradually getting slower and slower until they stopped.

* Evans was standing next to the sound engineer during the gig and he read the new track names off engineer's set list.

A few random memories from the gig: -
Most of the tracks are 'beefed up' for the live show. Liam drops extra beats into most tracks.
It's hard to judge after just one listen but first impressions of the 'Firestarter' remix, 'Dead Ken Beats' and 'Gun Release' were good. Keith seemed to disappear from the stage for large portions of the gig. I
didn't see him but I assume he was at the back stirring up the crowd. Keith was full on with his twitches, face pulling and drooling. He stood above a female security member dripping sweat onto her. Later Maxim went face to face with the same female security member and stared her out. People trying to spit on Maxim and Keith - What's that all about?

Friday, 3rd December 2004: Brixton

by neko:

And the story continues... Friday is a rather big and stressful day for me. It starts by getting back home from Birmingham at 3am, then about 2 or 3h of sleep and straight to work in the morning. I've got my work team's x-mas lunch today, which not only includes drinking from 1pm onwards, but despite my fragile state I'm also responsible to organise this whole thing for over 30 people, provide the entertainment and have little speeches, so I need even more drinks for courage. By 5pm we relocate into a pub and at about 8.30pm, after 7h of drinking it finally strikes me that I need to go to Brixton, NOW!

When I finally rush into the sold out Brixton Academy in south London, the band are already halfway through Wake Up Call. I make my way towards the front, and all I remember from the 90 minutes after that is jumping around like a mad woman to what seems to be the best gig ever. The setlist appears to be pretty much the same one as in Birmingham last night and I'm even conscious enough to notice that the Firestarter Intro has unfortunately gone. This is bad, but it's been replaced with an Action Radar fill, instrumental but with the female Ping Pong Bitches vocals. Ohhhhh, very teasing not giving us the full thing, I'm loving the fill though!

All in all an amzing show and such a good evening. Yeah!

Saturday, 4th December 2004: Brixton

by neko:

This isn't exactly my favourite day ever as the punishment for last night is very evil but by 9pm I finally manage to eat a bowl of porridge (very rock n' roll) and am steady enough to go to this late night Brixton show. Tonight I'm dragging along my younger brother for a change, so should be good fun.

We get there halfway through Youth of Britain's set and I still like what I see a lot, definitely not a bad choice for supporting Prodigy at all. Next on is a DJ again and then the 2nd support act, Clor. Not really my cup of tea I'm afraid, some nice tracks, but a bit too little energy for a band supporting a band like The Prodigy.

Now on is Eddie Temple Morris DJing again and the anticipation in the venue is rather massive. It's almost midnight and we all want The Prodigy to come on, now!

Predictably then, the Wake Up Intro. I've made my way to the front row, on the very far right in front of the speakers, from where I've got a very good view of the whole stage. Wake Up Call then opens the show, lots of energy and you can it all works just fine.
Their Law then the next great track, of course it being one of the older ones and a live favourite it goes down particularly well with the audience. I look back and all I can see is hundreds of people behind me jumping up and down, waving their arms, going crazy.
Warning as a new track goes down very well too. I'm loving it. Maxim returns on the stage now for Spitfire and then Breathe.

Although up to here the setlist and tracks are quite similar to what they've been for the last couple of shows it all seems fresh still. There's also some new lights around Liam's keyboards, making him look more prominent on stage. He's now got two laptops instead of just one, and also has stopped giving Apple free advertising by covering the logos with black stickers .... The drums look different than before as well, and if I'm not mistaken there are more lights than there used to be.

Next on is this new track debuted in Amsterdam less than 2 weeks ago. Apparently Liam only just wrote it in the afternoon before the Amsterdam show (I mean, what else is there to do when you're in Amsterdam ... ). This track so rocks though. It keeps getting quieter, then builds up until it erupts into these amazing hard beats. Cool!

Now Girls / More Girls, as usually goes down well. Then the Action Radar Fill. Oooooh, how much am I hoping that Paul Jackson, the guy who does the vocals on the actual track, will turn up and they'll do the full thing, but that's not happening unfortunately. There have been so many rumours about collaborators appearing with the band for the Brixton shows... Paul Jackson, Liam Gallagher, Juliette Lewis ... I can understand Liam though, he needs to bring back the band for what they are first now. A performance of collaborator after collaborator would have overshadowed the fact that The Prodigy are back and strong as what they are, so it's probably a good thing. I love the Action radar fill though, great highlight of the set.

Now next is Firestarter, a slightly different version from the one in Birmingham, sounding more like the original, but still with some additional beats. I personally prefer it to the original, but that might be just because I've seen the original so many times now. Not sure whether someone who hasn't seen the band since '97 would feel the same! I definitely think that it's a shame that the Firestarter Intro from B'ham has gone though, that was amazing, worked really well with the guitars and all!

Hotride has been slightly 'refreshed' as well, definitely a different version than before the UK tour and possibly even slightly different here now than in Birmingham already. I love the hard beats that the track has been reduced to and it does work better live now than the El Batori mix they used to play, BUT on a negative side it has also lost a bit more from its original Hotride vibe now. Maybe it had to, because it was never going to work live with that vibe, it just doesn't sound enought like Hotride anymore, as a trade-off to making it a better live track.

Big highlight for me now of course Back to School, oooh, this track is just so good. The track alone is great to hear, Maxim's vocals then make it even better and watching Keith do his old skool dance is just the icing of the cake. It's also great to see how it goes down so well with the London audience, of which almost no one would have ever heard this track before.

Now The Way It Is, it's not a secret that this isn't really my favourite live track, probably the least favourite one. I do like the track, it's just slightly too long. Much better then of course Mindfields, which once more shows Maxim at his best. Keith also remains on stage for almost the entire set today, occasionally walking through the front rows to see the fans.

The band then leave and return to play the encore: Poison, some Release Yo'delf beats and Smack My Bitch Up. The latter is of course as usual a very strong final song, leaving everyone behind wanting more.

oooh, sooo good! I'm struggling to make up my mind which one's the 'best show' now. Barcelona, Amsterdam, Zurich and the Brixton shows definitely all deserved to be called exactly that, so I think I'll stop doing any rankings now.

Right... 6 more to go this week, watch this space ...

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