30th anniversary of ‘Firestarter’ (pt.2)
Released on March 18, 1996, Firestarter marked a true point of no return for The Prodigy. Thanks to Liam Howlett’s masterful production, the iconic guitar sample from The Breeders, and Keith Flint, who took the mic for the first time, the track instantly cemented its legendary status in ’90s dance music. In today’s article, dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the single’s global premiere, we’ll focus on the story behind it. Why was ‘Firestarter’ specifically chosen as the first release from the upcoming album? What is known about the B-sides? What’s the story behind the cover art? What actually went down on the set of the music video, and where did the very first, unreleased version of the video vanish to? The full story is waiting for you below. Let’s dive in!
A while back, we published an in-depth history of the making of ‘Firestarter’ — from its initial inception and recording process to a detailed breakdown of all live versions and remixes.
To recap the track’s origins, it is worth noting that back in 1993–1994, Liam Howlett became heavily drawn to the guitar-driven sound of Nirvana and Rage Against The Machine, which fundamentally shifted The Prodigy’s trajectory. This influence, first hinted at in ‘Voodoo People’, was fully realized in Firestarter, marking Keith Flint’s vocal debut. For Keith, this experience became an unexpected yet crucial outlet for self-expression. While working at the Strongroom studio, Howlett deliberately avoided over-polishing the sound: he wanted to preserve the raw energy and aggressive ‘attack’ of the original demo recorded in his Earthbound home studio on the outskirts of Braintree. Ultimately, Liam succeeded in capturing that exact visceral power which, in his own words, was literally “straining at the leash”.
Towards the end of 1995, ‘Firestarter’ became the first fully completed track for the band’s new album, setting the tone for the whole record — so when it came to releasing the first single from the forthcoming album, the choice was obvious.
Official press release: “The single represents another leap forward from the ever innovative Liam Howlett, the man described by the NME as “a Robocop and modern-day Beethoven rolled into one.” A high impact slab of metallic breakbeat, ‘Firestarter’ is also an incredibly infectious track, sure to become the first Prodigy record to receive extensive daytime play at Radio One. The single includes an utterly uncompromising mix from label-mates Empirion, an instrumental version, and another new track: ‘Molotov Bitch’.”
The first test pressings of the single appeared in the 20s of February 1996. Depending on the edition, the release included up to four tracks: a shortened ‘Edit’ version (which was sometimes replaced by the full vocal version), an instrumental, a remix by Empirion, and the fresh instrumental hip-hop banger Molotov Bitch.
MUSIC VIDEO
Released in March 1996, ‘Firestarter’ became the track that paved the way for the band’s crossover to rock festivals. The iconic black-and-white video forever established Keith Flint’s image as a wild, pierced punk — decked out in a stars-and-stripes sweater with a manic gaze and that signature hair. He remained a hostage to this image until the very last days of his life.
Yet, few people know that this legendary visual was actually the second version of the music video. The original, prepared specifically for the single’s premiere by director Rob Sanders, was scrapped by the band and shelved forever.
It all started with his commercial for Mustang jeans: the guys from The Prodigy saw the ad, which was on heavy rotation on MTV around the turn of 1995-1996, and got fired up about working with its creator. The editing for this commercial was done by Mark Reynolds — at the time, a close friend of the band, the director of the ‘Electronic Punks’ video, the man behind the backstage footage for the ‘Poison’ single, and a collaborator on many of their future projects. Liam asked Mark to connect the band with Sanders, but this venture turned into an absolute disaster.
That said, just as with ‘Poison’, Mark also made a fascinating behind-the-scenes footage of this first version of the video, which, it seems, isn’t destined to be released until Liam himself decides to do so.
In November 2018, during an interview with BBC News, Liam Howlett shared memories of how much stress and money had been wasted. “We’ve probably thrown away four or five finished videos,” Howlett confided. “The guy finished the video for ‘Firestarter’ and I just hated it and thought it wasn’t good enough for the song. In the original Keef was in a straight jacket and had this ball bouncing – it was just nonsense. It cost like £100,000 but I just put it in the bin.”
British artist and entrepreneur Ben Oakley, who now runs the London-based Ben Oakley Gallery, was working on the set of the first version of the video. His comments can occasionally be spotted under Instagram posts dedicated to ‘Firestarter’, and exclusively for All Souvenirs, Ben shared photos of the prompt boards with the track’s lyrics that were used during the shoot.
Ben Oakley in Instagram: “Remember working on the first ‘Firestarter’ Video where Keith & other band members were strapped into an electric chair. Still got the promt boards. A long days filming never to be seen. The boys were all very pro”
To the absolute horror of XL Recordings (the band’s label at the time), the entire allocated budget and all the time had been spent on shooting and editing a video that was never destined to see the light of day. Unfazed, Liam Howlett decided to bring director Walter Stern back on board: fortunately, he was ready to take over the project. Stern had previously directed the videos for ‘No Good’, ‘Poison’, and ‘Voodoo People’ for the band.
Liam Howlett for BBC: “Videos cost a lot more money in those days and I think we only had £20,000 left, so I asked Walter if he could help us out. The reason why the video was black and white was because we couldn’t pay for colour. This is how these things happen with our band, they’re very spontaneous”.
On March 18, 2026, to mark the 30th anniversary of the single, Dazed published an interview piece with Walter Stern, who shared his memories of the spontaneous commission. According to him, roughly a week passed from Liam’s initial phone call to the actual shoot — there was virtually no time to discuss any ideas because the band was falling severely behind schedule.
After a four-day shoot for the original, the new black-and-white video was filmed in just a single day. The shoot took place in the abandoned Aldwych tunnels in central London, near 170 Strand. Prior to this, Walter had been discussing a music video with the band Leftfield, who wanted to shoot right inside a Tube train. While scouting locations, the director and his team wandered down into the Aldwych utility tunnels, looked around, and thought they looked significantly more spectacular than Leftfield’s original concept.
Walter Stern for Dazed: “So when the Prodigy came to me, I had this location in mind. I took them to the location, showed them around, and there was pretty much no discussion of ideas. Keith already had his idea for his character; he was starting to get a bit more manic, and it was more or less his show”
The initial location scouting for the video was conducted semi-legally. At first, the crew was only permitted to inspect the station platform, but they ventured deeper into the tunnels on their own accord. It was there that they discovered a large ventilation shaft, which became the key backdrop for Keith Flint’s vocal scenes. Stern notes that during the actual shoot, the team was allowed to bend the rules significantly—even going so far as to use an angle grinder right on the railway tracks. In hindsight, the director doubts whether they should have been down there at all due to the frankly hazardous conditions: an abundance of rats, toxic chemicals, and asbestos dust sparkling in the air. Liam Howlett unanimously recall the exact same details.
Liam Howlett for BBC: “We all moaned, everyone was whingeing we’re gonna get asbestos poisoning from the tunnel — from being down there sweating like crazy — but the result is great. It’s one of the greatest videos ever.”
Mark Reynolds, who was also present during the filming of the second version of the music video, confirmed that it was “really horrible down there after a couple of hours”.
The filming process was complicated not only by extremely tight deadlines but also by high physical risks on set. The camera dolly traveled from one end of the tunnel to the other at high speed, creating a constant threat of injury to the crew. The potential appearance of trains posed an additional danger: one of the adjacent tunnels was still active and periodically used for government purposes.
Walter Stern for Dazed: “The fear was that, if someone pressed a switch, a train could come down that tunnel, and there was nowhere to hide. We heard trains passing by the whole time, and there was always a sense of, ‘I hope someone hasn’t flicked that switch’. So the making of it was pretty similar to what the actual video looks like: fast, quite angry, and chaotic. But maybe that just helped with the atmosphere”.
An interesting detail: while Liam’s use of the Art of Noise vocal sample is a well-known fact, the striking similarity between the music videos for Close (to the Edit) and ‘Firestarter’ is somehow rarely mentioned. Nevertheless, Walter Stern’s work looks like a clear visual homage. The parallels speak for themselves: the railway aesthetics (an open-air station for Art of Noise versus the abandoned London Underground tunnels for The Prodigy), blinding sparks from circular saws and angle grinders, and a persistent sense of mundane madness from strange people doing strange things. Is this a mere coincidence or a deliberate visual quote?
Mark Reynolds filmed the entire shoot from start to finish, creating his second official behind-the-scenes video for The Prodigy, following ‘Poison’. This footage debuted in 2005 on the ‘Their Law: The Singles 1990–2005’ DVD, and 12 years later it migrated to Mark’s YouTube channel — this time featuring a couple of exclusive extra shots at the very beginning.
During the breaks in filming the video itself, the band also managed to take part in an equally legendary photoshoot by Derek Ridgers down in those same Aldwych depths. For many, The Prodigy are still associated with these exact images to this day. On the 30th anniversary of the single, the All Souvenirs crew and Derek published a joint Instagram post, where you can see a couple of other rare shots from the same photoshoot.
Editor Tony Kearns edited the video in two and a half days. Initially, he was reluctant to take on the job because he knew about the rejected version of the video and thought it might look bad from an industry perspective — as if the team were making a remake of something that had already been rejected. Ironically, this became a career-defining moment for him.
Tony Kearns for British Film Editors: “[The band] came in to look at ‘Firestarter’ for the first time. They were really nice, really courteous. They watched it, and Keith actually turned to the director and said, ‘Well, it’s the dog’s bollocks.’ So we thought, ‘Okay, he likes it.’ That was exactly what they were looking for. And then Walter said, ‘Oh, we’ve got another half day where we need to work on it. Well, don’t fuck it up,’ you know. They were very, very happy.”
SINGLE DESIGN
Speaking of the single’s fiery aesthetics, the work on the release’s sleeve design deserves special mention. The primary work on the cover was done by Alex Lloyd Jenkins. At the time, he had just started collaborating with XL Recordings: having barely finished the iconic circular XL logo as a test assignment, he received the brief for ‘Firestarter’ almost immediately. This was his first cover for the label, and, as the designer himself recalled in several interviews, there was a huge element of chance in the final result.
Alex Jenkins via Instagram: “I designed this 30 years ago at XL Recordings. I vividly remember listening to it for the first time when Richard [Russell] asked us to come into his office to listen to it. Mind blowing track. I was 24 years old and finally living a long held dream to design record covers”.
The concept for the cover was proposed by Liam Howlett — he had the idea of having a photo of a granny about to throw a Molotov cocktail. Alison Fielding from Beggars Group, who had worked on the design of several releases of The Prodigy prior to Jenkins, handled the preparation of the shoot.
The team sifted through several candidates and settled on an elderly lady from the London-based Ugly modeling agency. The shoot itself was conducted by British photographer Colin Hawkins: he recalled with a laugh that the granny genuinely thought she was playing an alcoholic. In the studio, she was dressed up and handed a whiskey bottle filled with tea, with a rag stuffed into the neck and set alight. The woman was a great sport – even when the team asked her to look like she was about to throw the burning bottle. According to Alex Jenkins’s recollections, the granny spent most of the time nervously eyeing the flames, expecting the whole thing to explode at any moment.
You can also spot Gizz Butt in the crowd in the foreground! According to Gizz – “it’s a complete coincidence!”
Ironically, this same actress participated in the British show TFI Friday, hosted by Chris Evans. From 1996 until the late 90s, she appeared on it as a recurring visual gag — the “incredibly tall old lady”. In the Freak or Unique, she was invariably positioned among the other contenders, as if waiting for Chris to pick her and call her to the stage. The old lady’s only “unique” feature was her supposedly incredible height. That was the core of the comedic absurdity: she was a perfectly ordinary granny standing completely visibly on a wooden crate. Because of this, she was on principle never picked to participate, simply serving as a background meme from episode to episode.
It is known that in 2000, the actress was still working at the Ugly agency. Her face appeared on the cover of their 2000–2001 modeling catalog, but after that, her trail goes cold. The woman’s name, as well as any other projects she participated in besides TFI Friday, remain unknown.
Jenkins bought the ornate, museum-style gold frame that borders the photo on the single, while walking past a local sandwich shop in Wandsworth — he thought the frame looked incredibly cool. Some time ago Alex tweeted that he still got it in his attic!
The tiger-print background also came about by accident: it was actually a black-and-white zebra-print skirt worn by Alison Fielding. Alex borrowed the skirt, scanned the fabric, applied a color filter, and created the background that would define The Prodigy’s visual style for months to come. Alison thinks she’s still got this skirt somewhere!
Alex Jenkins designed a new logo for the band itself: the March single ‘Firestarter’ became the first release in The Prodigy’s history to feature this logo, which subsequently became legendary. The work on the logo and the cover design evidently happened simultaneously: the same Keedy Sans font by Emigre was used both for the single’s typography and for the logo, which took the form of an elongated plaque with an ant inside a white circle. The ant was an inheritance from the band’s previous era: the very first version of this symbol appeared exactly a year before ‘Firestarter’, on the merch for the March 1995 ‘Poison’ tour.
Alex Jenkins for Covet The Cover: “The ant represented something small but mighty – a fitting metaphor for the band. With this new mark I aimed to echo elements of the XL logo, which I also designed”.
The back cover proudly displayed a shot by Phil Nicholls: a gritty urban photograph of all four members set against a derelict wasteland on the outskirts of Chelmsford. This spontaneous photoshoot, which took place on January 15, 1996 — just a couple of months prior to the release of the phenomenal single — ultimately set the tone not only for the record and the music video, but also defined the band’s visual identity for decades to come. We have previously published an in-depth feature covering this shoot and all the stories involving The Prodigy that day.
The inner sleeve features another shot from Colin Hawkins’ session: a Molotov cocktail sitting next to a shopping trolley.
A treated black-and-white image of the bottle from this photograph became the central focal point on the promo version of the vinyl release, which dropped that same spring in 1996 and was strictly not for commercial sale.
Incidentally, years later, in June 2022, this black-and-white promo artwork featuring the bottle was resurrected as the official cover for Andy C’s remix of ‘Firestarter’. The remix was released in celebration of the 25th anniversary of ‘The Fat of the Land’, hitting streaming platforms as well as getting a physical vinyl pressing.
Alex Jenkins at CreativeMornings Cardiff: “[In 1996] that went to number one, which when you want to design record sleeves, that’s your dream. You sort of sat there in the office thinking, I know I’m being paid 14 grand and I’m skint, but this is fucking brilliant”.
Shortly after the single’s release in March 1996, official merchandise featuring an updated design went on sale. The classic logo and the band’s name were no longer placed against the usual black, but rather on that exact tiger-print background from the ‘Firestarter’ cover. Moreover, this visual concept made its way onto more than just t-shirts — from time to time, it served as a massive stage backdrop at The Prodigy’s solo and festival gigs throughout that year.
Just over a month later, on April 27, tickets went on sale for the upcoming UK mini-tour scheduled for October. All promotional materials strictly followed the aesthetic of the fresh release. Six months later, during the actual shows, the visual concept was brought directly to the stage: the monitors and parts of the rigging were draped in fabric with the signature tiger pattern, while the photo of the old lady holding the Molotov cocktail hung behind Liam. The image was displayed in the actual, life-sized frame from the cover — the very same one Alex Jenkins had randomly spotted in Wandsworth.
In honor of the release’s 30th anniversary, at the very end of March 2026, a t-shirt featuring the frame and the old lady from the cover will appear on The Prodigy’s official store website.
EMPIRION REMIX
For 15 years following its release, the Firestarter (Empirion Remix) remained the only widely known official remix of the track. The members of Empirion had known Liam and the entire Prodge crew since the mid-nineties: the artists were close and often went on joint tours.
Moreover, Jamie Smart from Empirion even recorded an exclusive mix that was sold on tape as official merchandise during the ‘Poison Tour’ in March 1995. So, the appearance of their remix for the band’s new banger was an absolutely natural continuation of this connection.
Empirion released their debut LP ‘Advanced Technology’ only in October 1996, but they had already made a name for themselves in the underground scene back in ’94: their early singles quickly gained respect among electronic hardcore fans. And although the band still exists today, putting out fresh material from time to time, the wider audience knows the band primarily for their ‘Firestarter’ remix. Does this bother them? Not in the slightest.
Jamie Smart himself had to say about it in an interview with German Volt magazine in 2019: “Naturally, we were proud of the remix, which clearly left a lasting impression. It was embraced both by fans of The Prodigy and by followers of the darker electro scene. We have never taken issue with the fact that some people first discovered Empirion through this mix — nor will we ever — because, in our view, that is precisely why we make remixes in the first place. That said, there was a life before the ‘Firestarter’ mix, and our core supporters have been with us from the very beginning.”
Fun fact: upon closer inspection, the single Jesus Christ, released by Empirion in 1995, turns out to be the direct precursor to their remix of ‘Firestarter. The similarities in the bass structure, percussion patterns, individual samples, and overall drum parts suggest that the band used their own tune as a foundation, adapting it for Keith Flint’s vocals. Although there is no official confirmation of this continuity, in the electronic scene of the 90s, such an approach was standard practice: utilizing a proven, maximally heavy-hitting foundation to create an exclusive mix for labelmates. Yet, each of the tracks turned out to be unique in its own right.
In the summer of 1996, various hit compilations began to surface, including specialized editions for DJs. Among them, the American ‘RoadKill!’ series from the Hot Tracks label stood out. It was there that Jim Thias’s remix of ‘Firestarter’ was officially released under license from Mute Records. Thias adapted the Empirion version for the club floor, making it more DJ-friendly.
Compilation sleeve notes: “The Prodigy are back and as fierce as ever with their latest single from their new album. Any Prodigy fan knows that this isn’t their only song with “fire” in the title, and Jim made sure that “fire” theme was further emphasized by including some very appropriate “fire-related” samples. The original mix had a very intense intro, but not too DJ-friendly. Jim went to work to correct that and in doing so, included samples from Nine Inch Nails, Lords of Acid, and Art Of Noise. The appropriate middle and outro break were also included. Play this mix and set your floor on fire! “See, momma was right, little boys ain’t supposed to play with fire!”
In 2018, Empirion themselves decided to slightly freshen up their remix for their live shows, as they regularly played it in their sets.
In early 2025, this remix unexpectedly found a second wind thanks to a viral set by Japanese DJ Yousuke Yukimatsu at Boiler Room Tokyo. During his performance on January 16, the artist suddenly wove the classic ‘Firestarter (Empirion Mix)’ into his modern techno set. The appearance of the old-school banger in such an unexpected context sparked immense excitement in the electronic community: listeners were amazed at how devastatingly the track still works on the dancefloor, even almost 30 years after its release. The case didn’t go unnoticed by Empirion either — in February, the band proudly posted a snippet of that very performance on their Instagram. And The Prodigy have invited Yousuke Yukimatsu to be the support act at the upcoming Warrior’s Dance festival in Milton Keynes.
MOLOTOV BITCH
Released as the sole B-side to ‘Firestarter’, the track Molotov Bitch became a logical continuation of the band’s shift in style. There are practically no elements of early rave here — instead, Liam Howlett emphasizes a heavy beat and hip-hop influences, cementing The Prodigy’s transition to a heavier big beat sound.
Official Press Release: “A new track, ‘Molotov Bitch’, which, like ‘Poison’, sees Liam exploring a slower hip-hop tempo.”
Work on the track began in mid-1995, following the release of ‘Poison’. Initially, Liam recorded a short demo that ended up in the end credits of ‘Electronic Punks’ that summer, and by the end of the year, this sketch had evolved into a fully finished tune, firmly securing its place in The Prodigy’s live setlist.
Right up until the release of ‘Firestarter’, the track existed under the working title ‘Come Correct’. It appeared under this name in ’95 live shows and was mentioned by Liam in interviews from that time.
NME review from the gig at Ilford Island ’95
Only at the final stage, prior to the release of ‘Firestarter’, was the title changed to ‘Molotov Bitch’, which looked far more organic in the context of a single about an “arsonist” — with its fiery aesthetics and visual nods to the Molotov cocktail.
Over time, typical fan mythology grew around the track. Some tried to link it to an early, almost identically named demo, ‘I Come Correct’, from Howlett’s 10-track 1990 demo tape for XL Recordings (which we’ll cover in detail in our next article). Occasionally, attempts were even made to “solidify” this connection by labeling the early demo track as a sort of ‘Original Mix’ — hinting that it was supposedly an early version of ‘Molotov Bitch’. In reality, however, this theory does not hold up to scrutiny: the key element of the track — that pitched-up guitar (in the intro and throughout the track) — was sampled from The Criminal Minds‘ track Drums Of Doom (Slipmatt Remix), which was only released in 1993, meaning this sample couldn’t possibly have been present in a 1990 demo. The truth is much more prosaic: in 1995, Liam simply remembered a catchy old title of an unreleased track and temporarily used it for a new one, before definitively renaming it to fit the concept of the ‘Firestarter’ release.
- Sample: guitar
- Sample source: The Criminal Minds – Drums Of Doom (Slipmatt Remix) [Ghetto E.P, 1993]
There were also separate rumors that the instrumental demo of ‘Molotov Bitch’ was at one point considered as the foundation for a collaboration with Kool Keith of Ultramagnetic MCs — alongside the instrumental for ‘Blow Ya Mind/Diesel Power’. However, no evidence to confirm this has ever surfaced.
ANDY C REMIX
On March 13, 2026, to celebrate the single’s 30th anniversary, XL Recordings reissued the release with a slightly updated cover: the tiger-print background noticeably lost some saturation, while the remaining elements stayed in place. The tracklist was short one B-side — ‘Molotov Bitch’ didn’t make the cut for the single, and in its place, that very Andy C Remix was added.
As mentioned above, this remix was released previously – twice, in fact: first in 2022 as a standalone release featuring a single remix, and then in 2023 to mark the 25th anniversary of the album ‘The Fat Of The Land’, as part of a four-track release featuring remixes.
Andy C first debuted this track immediately following the passing of Keith Flint in March 2019 and began dropping it in his DJ sets as a tribute.
Keith’s vocals for this remix were actually re-recorded: it is clearly audible in the track that the acapella noticeably differs from the 1996 version. By all appearances, the remix was being prepared for some sort of special release (similar to ‘Breathe’ featuring RZA), but after Keith’s passing, it was shelved for three years prior to its official release.
Liam himself was highly enthusiastic about this Andy C’s version — for live shows, he created a special live-edit of the remix, which regularly blasts at the band’s gigz to this day.
‘Firestarter’ will forever remain as a game-changing release — both for The Prodigy themselves and for electronic music as a whole. By celebrating its 30th anniversary, we are effectively opening a portal into ‘The Fat of the Land’ era. Ahead of us lies a whole slew of anniversaries dedicated to the band’s loudest and most iconic times, and we certainly won’t be bypassing them. So, how old were you in 1996 when this black-and-white chaos first crashed into your TV screen?
Headmasters: SIXSHOT, SPLIT
Additional thanks to: Alison Fielding, Mark Reynolds, Ben Oakley
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