Jilted Generation: 30th Anniversary

Released on 4 July 1994, Music For The Jilted Generation undoubtedly changed the world of electronic music and had a huge impact on the pop culture of the Nineties. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Prodigy’s second LP, All Souvenirs tells the full story of the album’s legendary artwork, which has become as iconic as the music it represented.

We spoke to the owner of the sculpture on the cover and caught up with the photographer who took the final shot. We also uncovered rare details about the rejected designs, got some exclusive footage from one of the designers and shed some light on the artist who created the original sculpture…

A random purchase

 
One day, Samantha Fisher and her then boyfriend Danny were strolling through London’s Camden Market in the very early 1990s. It is a popular destination for counterculturists of all stripes: since the mid-1970s, tourists, punks, teenagers and old ladies have flocked to Camden’s long rows of stalls all year round to buy books, clothes, jewellery, souvenirs, toys and more. As one of the main attractions in London, it is visited by a quarter of a million people every week.

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These photos will be posted
on our Instagram on 4 July 2024
Join in: instagram.com/theprodi.gy

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In fact, by the end of the preparations for the album, Liam Howlett could not make up his mind about the final message he wanted to convey: the doubts extended not only to the design of the record, but even to its title. Martin James wrote in his We Eat Rhythm that the record could have been called Music For The Cool Youth Juvenilia or Music For Joy Riders – although Liam argued that both of these titles were made up by the music press.

 

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Fight For Your Right: Inside Sleeve

 

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Font & Logo

On the inner sleeve of the album, after the traditional credits and respects, there is a separate line with the message ‘How can the government stop young people having a good time. Fight this bollocks’ – a very clear reaction to the bill.

The font used for the inner booklet and album title is called Handel Gothic, and it clearly captures the spirit of the times – you may recall that Pop Will Eat Itself used it on their own releases and adverts around the same time (they actually still do).

The original ‘Experience’ logo by The Unknown Partnership‘s Steve Gribbin (aka Jaffa) was slightly altered on the band’s second album: Beggars’ Alison Fielding distorted it into a bulgy shape. Some will recall that there were actually two versions of this logo: the first was used on ‘One Love’ and ‘No Good’, where the shape was more radically distorted, and the final ovular version was used on the rest of the ‘Jilted’ era releases.

XL Recordings reissued the album several times, but the most interesting release came in 2008: the artwork for the reissue, entitled More Music For The Jilted Generation, featured a never-before-seen shot from the same final photo shoot by Stuart Haygarth, while the fans were treated to some unreleased tunes on the second bonus CD.

 

The artist behind the sculpture

 

Liam Howlett for Clash Music: The cover is alright, the sleeve is alright. People don’t give a fuck about covers anymore, but in those days… To be honest, ‘…Jilted’ isn’t one of my favourite sleeves, but people seem to like it. Everything you see is the effort of the band to get things right

The Prodigy’s second album, which became an anthem for generations, could hardly have attracted so much attention without its artwork: in this case, the visuals are probably as important as the music itself – and with the design of this record, everything fits perfectly. The cover perfectly reflects the spirit of the time in which it was created.

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Headmaster: SPLIT
Additional thanks to: Samantha Fisher, James Fry, Stuart Haygarth, Mark Reynolds, Jeremy Downes (header source photo)

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