Keith Flint, the Prodigy lead singer who captured the hedonistic spirit of 1990s British rave culture, has died aged 49 in what the band’s founder described as a suicide.
Flint was one of the best known faces of British electronic music, performing apparently random dance moves often with eccentric hair cuts, sometimes styled as devil’s horns, and heavy makeup around his eyes.
“I’m a firestarter, twisted firestarter,” Flint sang in the 1996 hit that introduced the blistering sounds of Britain’s underground rave generation to the mainstream. “I’m the self inflicted, mind detonator, yeah.”
It is with deepest shock and sadness that we can confirm the death of our brother and best friend Keith Flint. A true pioneer, innovator and legend. He will be forever missed.
— The Prodigy (@the_prodigy) March 4, 2019
We thank you for respecting the privacy of all concerned at this time. pic.twitter.com/nQ3Ictjj7t
Liam Howlett, founder of the group, said Flint had taken his own life. "Our brother Keith took his own life over the weekend. I'm shell shocked, f**kin' angry, confused and heart broken," Howlett said on Instagram. "RIP brother."
Police were called to an address in Essex, eastern England, shortly after 8.10am on Monday, where they found the singer, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
Keith Charles Flint was born in London in 1969 and after leaving a broken home, he spent time in Israel as a market-stall trader. He didn't take his main school exams.
The Prodigy had their first gig in Dalston, east London, and released dance track Charly in August 1991. Will Hodgkinson, rock critic for the London Times, said Flint personified the British rave culture of the early 1990s.
“After meeting Howlett at a rave in 1989, Flint helped to turn the Prodigy into a band that captured the spirit of young Britain at the time: hedonistic, semi-legal, and definitely interested in doing some freaky dancing at a rave at three in the morning, ideally on ecstasy,” Hodgkinson said.
Prodigy’s 1994 Music for the Jilted Generation was seen as a response to the corruption of rave culture and the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, which criminalised raves.
In 1995, Flint danced frantically at the Glastonbury Festival with cropped pink hair and extensive facial piercing. The video for Firestarter, which featured Flint performing in a manic manner, attracted a record number of complaints to the BBC’s Top Of The Pops TV music show because parents said it was scaring their children.
British music magazine NME said the 1997 Fat Of The Land album, which included Firestarter and Breathe, had sold 10 million copies to date.
“It is with deepest shock and sadness that we can confirm the death of our brother and best friend Keith Flint,” other members of Prodigy said in a statement. “A true pioneer, innovator and legend. He will be forever missed.” – Reuters
