Beijingers Mourn the Passing of The Prodigy's Keith Flint
Beijingers have been paying their respects to Keith Flint, the lead singer of UK electro-rave group Prodigy, who was found dead in his Essex home over the weekend. He was aged 49.
The Prodigy played once in Beijing, at 2016's Strawberry Festival, drawing and converting fans with their brand of punk-inspired club bangers. Flint, standing center stage, embodied the band's deranged image, sporting barbells through his nose and ears, eyes darkly rimmed with black makeup, and his devil-horn tufts of hair dyed every color under sun. The unrelenting energy made for an unforgettable show. Of course it was just Prodigy doing what Prodigy did best.
Upon hearing news of Flint's death, which is believed to have been a suicide, a number of Beijing's music insiders had posted messages on WeChat in mourning. Gouzi, co-founder of the recently closed Beijing livehouse Yugong Yishan, spoke to the Beijinger, saying, "For me, The Prodigy was the first electronic band to give me a kind of new feeling by fusing punk rock with electronic music. At [Strawberry] festival many people, including me and many of my friends, left before the other Chinese bands had finished just to go and see them."
READ: Yugong Yishan Officially Closes After 11 Years of Groundbreaking Gigs
Lei Jiangtao, content manager at Modern Sky Lab, the music label and promoter behind Strawberry Festival, echoes that point, saying, "The Prodigy was my gateway to knowing electronic music well, and I think they were a truly historic band for Chinese people who loved both indie and electronic music."
Sadly, fans who had anticipated seeing Prodigy at the Shanghai leg of Strawberry Festival, the day after their Beijing performance were not so lucky. As Ting Ting, the now Shanghai-based founder of music promoter Borderless, recalls: "I came down to Shanghai and waited to see The Prodigy but it got canceled because of a problem with their flight from Beijing to Shanghai. I stood in the rain watching shitty DJs instead. It was basically one of the worst days of my life. Now it’s even worse because Keith is dead."
The band, who is considered one of the pioneers of the breakbeat-influenced big beat genre that reached critical mass in the 1990s, gradually built a fanbase before garnering worldwide success upon release of their 1997 album The Fat of the Land. That explosive album quickly became a classic, birthing songs such as "Breathe," "Firestarter," and the controversial "Smack My Bitch Up."
Unsurprisingly, the latter track didn't make the cut when they played Beijing's Strawberry Fest in May 2016 but that didn't seem to put a damper on the show, which by all accounts was pretty wild. Speaking of that gig and The Prodigy's influence at large, Gouzi says, "Many people have tried to imitate their live electronic band style but in my opinion, no one has been able to create the same results."
You can watch the music video for "Breathe," which documents that performance as well as footage from their travels through China, here.
If you, or someone you know, is in suicidal crisis, please click here for a link to a list of mental health support services in Beijing and China.
