Forgotten 20th anniversary (pt.2) • Little Goblin

In the first part of our «Forgotten 20th anniversary» article, we created a detailed coverage of the four concerts that took place in summer 2001 as part of the band’s first European tour in two years. Today it’s time for the second one — we will try to sum up everything that happened with the team at that time: we’ll dispel some «No Souvenirs» rumors and will even recall about The Prodigy collaboration with Perry Pharell from Jane’s Addiction! We will also present you another live track that was carefully restored by our team — in the concert setlists this tune was marked as «Little Goblin», or simply «Goblin»…

During the four August concerts, in addition to the much-loved Trigger and Nuclear, the band also presented a new live filler, the track called «Little Goblin» or simply «Goblin» in some setlists — a one and a half minute quick sketch based on the loop from the track «Dr. Frankenstein» by the Italian progressive rock band Goblin (by the way, these wonderful gentlemen are still playing shows and recording new stuff).

Full audio restoration in high quality is available on our Patreon!

About half a year later, the track was a little tweaked, and some of its excerpts could be heard on the official The Prodigy 2002-2003 website — however, «Goblin» was hardly planned for a full release, therefore it was used as a musical background on the band’s website. At the same time, the sketch sounded fresh and bright.

Another nice point is that Frankenstein will come to life on yet another track from those summer gigs. Liam uses a different sample from the track in the «Trigger» mentioned above — and a couple of years later, this reversed guitar riff from the beginning of Goblin song will finally migrate to «Shoot Down».

In 2001 in addition to Liam, Maxim and Keef, the Prodigy’s live line-up also included drummer Kieron Pepper, who started working with the guys back in 1997, and guitarist Alli MacInnes. The band loudly declared themselves to be back again, and in the wake of the summer gigs, several articles appeared in the press. For example, NME in their 1st September issue published some travel notes from the tour. There you could read how Howlett lazily talked about the upcoming marriage, about the impressions of new popular music, about the well-fed life after «The Fat Of The Land» and about his impending thirty years. He also flirtatiously reflected on the fact that The Prodigy «are still relevant as fuck». The team felt themselves on top after the minitour, but the continuation was not destined to happen: 9/11 attacks were to blame — we mentioned this at the very end of the previous article.

One way or another the press became interested in the band again. That’s why some rumors began to circulate about the release of the «No Souvenirs» single. Unfortunately, this was just bullshit generated by a bunch of journalists, waiting for at least some news about The Prodigy. Despite the fact that the first versions of «No Souvenirs» were already done back in 1999, Liam quickly and decisively threw it to the far shelf. All work on «No Souvenirs» and its remixes later on took place almost exclusively at the initiative of Robert Del Naja, the track co-author and «a good lad», as Liam himself calls the founding member of Massive Attack. Mr. Howlett did not plan any singles in 2001 and was actively working on the new music of The Prodigy.

However, the actual news still came out from behind the scenes. Howlett was interviewed by Q Magazine in October 2001, where he mentioned that he’s doing the track with Perry Farrell from Jane’s Addiction! We can also remember that The Prodigy was supposed to go on tour with Jane’s Addiction in September before all cancellations took place.

The work with Farrell was planned yet back in 1996-1997: Liam originally planned to use him as a vocalist in «Narayan» / «Climbatize» (these tracks most likely were recorded at the same time), but busy touring schedules prevented the collaboration. The idea of ​​working together survived until 2001 and the track recording process was reported as began — but it never saw the light of day. Liam Howlett also assured Q Magazine that Keith Flint himself would record the guitar parts for the band’s new material…

In the next 2002, the band will have 15 gigs in different parts of the world. One of the most difficult periods in The Prodigy’s career was coming!

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