Profile of Liam Howlett on Famous Like Me

Liam Paris Howlett (born August 21, 1971) is the core member of the British band The Prodigy. Born and raised in Cressing, Essex, Howlett was trained in classical piano from he was a child. In 2002 Liam got married to former All Saints star Natalie Appleton of the band Appleton and they have a son Ace Howlett (born 2004).

At the age of 14, he mixed songs recorded from the radio using the pause button on his cassette player. It was the time he went to school when he first got influenced by hip hop music and the whole culture about hip hop. He learnt break-dancing alongside his crew called ‘Pure City Breakers’ and used to DJ in his first band Cut 2 kill before he started writing his own music. He decided to leave Cut 2 Kill when they nearly got into a shooting one day when they where trying to have a gig at a bar where most of the guys were black dudes. He was just filled up with the prejudices, the vibes and he didn’t see any changes going on in the hip hop scene.

He became connected to rave music when he went to his first rave in 1989, at the age of 18, which was held at Essex-based venue called ‘The Barn’. He became hooked immediately and from this point in time onwards he would spend his time recording and mixing rave tunes in his bedroom.

At the weekends he went to all the raves and when the clubs closed down in the early morning those ravers went on to party on the beach while Liam played a compilation of the latest rave tracks out of a van. One day Keith approached him and asked whether Liam could do some mixes for him. When Liam had done the mixes he would pass it to Keith and one night when Keith and Leeroy were in Keith’s car returning from a rave they flipped Liam’s tape onto side B to find some of Liam's own tracks on it and got completely hooked. They decided to approach Liam and ask him if he wanted to play on stage with Keith and Leeroy dancing at the front of the stage. After Liam hesitated a few seconds he eventually agreed… and The Prodigy (named after Howlett's first Moog synthesizer) was born.

In 1998 Liam was offered the chance to do a mix for Mary Anne Hobbs radio show he dug out some of his old favourite tracks again and this prompted him to release an edited (due to some copyright issues) version of the mix in February 1999. It was the first material which was recorded in his new home studio ‘The Dirtchamber’ so accordingly the album was to be called ‘Prodigy presents the dirtchamber sessions volume one’. The CD has got excerpts from about fifty tunes cut to eight tracks with a duration of 59mins.

The Prodigy
Members	Liam Howlett • Keith Flint • Maxim • Leeroy Thornhill
Albums	Experience • Music for the Jilted Generation • The Fat of the Land • The Dirtchamber Sessions Volume One • Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned • Their Law: The Singles 1990-2005

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