20th December 1995 Blackpool Empress Ballroom, Blackpool, England

Review by Paul Bidulph aka Pauly B
It is a cold wet night as my friend ‘Andy’ and i get off the train at Blackpool station, we are going to our first ever Prodigy gig, we are only sixteen and very nervous. We get a taxi to our hotel near to the arena leave our stuff and head straight to the gig. Outside we met by a small queue and a tall rasta man with big dreadlocks selling tickets, but we are ok. Inside into the foyer part we can here the bass of the warm-up dj’s and we enter the room, which is a massive ballroom as Blackpool is famous for them. After an hour the support band come on, The Chemical Brothers who were reletively unknown then but really rocked!!! They played for about an hour, then after another hour a guy comes on stage “Everybody go mental and give it up for THE PRODIGY!!!!”

The disappointing half-full crowd scream loudly, Liam takes to his keyboards and plays an intro which i have never heard before blasting into Break & Enter on which Maxim and Keith take to the stage, Maxim looks the same “Blackpool are you ready?” he cries, Keith has the punky look i have seen in the papers but with it shaved down the middle, cool! The band then play Fire and mix in a bit of Music Reach “1,2,3,4”, Leeroy comes out wearing a really shiny top and blonde hair and goes mental with his famous dancing, then Rhythm of Life which i recogonise from the ‘Electronic Punks’ video, then Poison, Maxim is shouting “I got the venom”, everyones bouncing up and down, i remember being very very hot by then. Then they play a song which is only second time i heard as i saw it on the TV when they played Glastonbury its called Funky Shit it was excellent and Leeroy dancing to this is amazing. I remember a bit of Weather Experience with the weatherman talking before the quality riff of Their Law started and the place goes mental, Maxim is really vibeing with the crowd now “Everybody JUMP” he cries as he and Keith pogo up and down with the crowd. Jericho is played followed by a new one which had Liam on two small drums, Leeroy took the the keyboards and Maxim shouting “Rolled and Rocked, Rocked and Rolled, kicking up a brainstorm” this was my least favourite of the night, crowd just stood.

But then oh my god, Keith took the microphone and was screaming to a really heavy thundering bassline “I’m a firestarter”, so cool, im to hot now!!! They then played Voodoo People and played No Good and got some people on the stage, then they left the stage, everyone screaming “ENCORE, ENCORE” they then came back and did another really funky heavy basstone track to finish which i later find out is Gabba. “Thank you and good night” Maxim and Leeroy take a bow, Liam claps the crowd, they walk off to a raptureous applause and it was fantastic, although i have never sweat so much in my entire life, BRILLIANT!!!