‘After losing Keith we couldn’t even think about the band’: The Prodigy on returning to Reading & Leeds

The Prodigy have spoken out about returning to the Reading & Leeds stage for the first time since losing frontman Keith Flint.

In a new interview with NME, band co-founder Liam Howlett discussed the challenging process of getting back on the road following Flint’s death in 2019. “After losing Keith we couldn’t even think or talk about the band,” he shared. “I think it was two years after his death that me and Maxim started bringing it up. ‘Could we play live again? Did we even want to? Why? How?’ All that shit.

“We realised the only possible real way to know how we would feel was to do it: get back on stage and do a bunch of gigs,” Howlett continued in the interview. “It was so hard to walk onto that stage without our brother, but we really felt the crowd with us. Those gigs were highly emotionally charged, but we came out the other end with our answer.”

The Prodigy embarked on their first live tour as a duo in 2022, incorporating a tribute to the late frontman during ‘Firestarter’. Captured on fan-shot footage, the band can be seen performing their seminal 1996 single while a laser outline of Flint dances in the background. Now, the band are back to play Reading & Leeds festival for the sixth time this weekend, headlining the new electronic music-focused stage, The Chevron.

Howlett spoke to NME about the milestone moment, which will mark the group’s first time performing at the UK festival without Flint: “There’s only one plan and that is to get on stage and proceed to tear the place apart.”

“Our 1994 ‘Jilted’ album ‘smashed’ rock and electronic music together, and [R&L] have always supported and been behind us as a band since those early days when we were trying to do something different,” he added. “Reading & Leeds always feels special and we’ve buzzed off every time we played these festivals.”

The Prodigy also revealed that they are cooking up new material, inspired by getting back out on stage. “The ideas flow more when we are right in it, touring,” Howlett told NME. “Playing live fuels the music for me. It’s always been that way. If I have too much time off, I start getting distracted and wandering off course. I like to keep it on edge and moving.

“We have owned our own sound since the start, so we ain’t about to change. It’s all about writing bigger tunes and finding different ways to sonically attack the crowd when we play live,” he added.

The Prodigy will headline The Chevron stage at Reading festival this Friday (23rd August), and Leeds festival on Saturday (24th August), with other sets across the weekend coming from Nia Archives, Dom Dolla, Bou, Kenya Grace, Denzel Curry, Barry Can’t Swim and plenty more. Check out the full stage line-up below.

Read the full interview here.

Earlier this year, The Prodigy shared a tribute to their late frontman on the fifth anniversary of his death. “It’s been 5 years. We miss you so much brother”, they wrote on social media alongside four photos of the “unforgettable face of rave rebellion”. 

In 2023, The Prodigy celebrated the 25th anniversary of ‘The Fat Of The Land’ with a new remix album.