Thread: Mixmag article - did Charly kill rave?

Mixmag article - did Charly kill rave?

In their January 2002 issue, Mixmag have got a 'Retro A-Z' feature, and the letter D stands for 'Did Charly kill rave?' and relates back to an article Mixmag published in August '92 about The Prodigy.

Here's what they have to say:

"D is for 'Did Charly kill rave?
In August 1992, Mixmag put the Prdigy on the cover with the headline 'Did Charly kill rave?' a year after the tune hit the number three spot. Mixmag's then-assistant editor Dom Philips wrote: "Howlett's silly little novelty tune [is like] a million nightmare novelty records that countless grinning TOTP goons have introduced over the years." Understandaly, Liam and co were slightly upset, and in the band's video for 'Fire', they burned a stack of Mixmags.
"I felt that Liam was really talented but making obvious music", says Dom now. "In retrospect though, we made some mistakes in the way we covered the rave scene."
The Prodigy might have made 'Charly', but it was toytown records such as Smart E's 'Sesame's Street' that propelled rave towards the chino-wearing, beer-swilling high street. "I think we definitely shoved the band in a different direction", says Dom. It was another five years until Dom spoke to The Prodigy again.
In January 1998, Liam admitted: "The criticisms probably fuelled some of the music on 'Music for the Jilted Generation' - I stopped doing cartoon tunes."
The Prodigy went on to become the biggest dance band in the world. Oops. Sorry boys, we love you really."

Mixmag, January 2002

http://www.nekozine.co.uk/prodigy/in...agapology.html

Oops, China - can you move to music chat.?

Right then...

I am sick to the back teeth of people slagging the Prodigy for 'killing' the rave scene and making it commercial - utter tosh.
Liam's "Experience" album was probably a year ahead of it's time for production techniques.

Yeah, some of their later albums weren't as friendly, more of how Liam wanted the band to sound than what the masses wanted (he's quite a fussy and arrogant git anyway), but the band are, whether you love 'em or hate 'em, just quality.

I'm not embarrassed to say - and I'm sure there's other people on this forum - who can say that Charly actually got them into the rave scene for God's sake.

And don't blame The Prodigy for going commercial... special bonus prize for the label that released SL2's chronically-awful 'On A Ragga Tip', the over-rated 'Sweet Harmony' by Liquid and countless crap dance tunes.

Originally Posted by swipezster

Right then...

I am sick to the back teeth of people slagging the Prodigy for 'killing' the rave scene and making it commercial - utter tosh.
Liam's "Experience" album was probably a year ahead of it's time for production techniques.

Yeah, some of their later albums weren't as friendly, more of how Liam wanted the band to sound than what the masses wanted (he's quite a fussy and arrogant git anyway), but the band are, whether you love 'em or hate 'em, just quality.

I'm not embarrassed to say - and I'm sure there's other people on this forum - who can say that Charly actually got them into the rave scene for God's sake.

And don't blame The Prodigy for going commercial... special bonus prize for the label that released SL2's chronically-awful 'On A Ragga Tip', the over-rated 'Sweet Harmony' by Liquid and countless crap dance tunes.

I should mention that i do not agree that Prodigy killed it either. In fact Your Love is up there with my favs and was also a big fan of Charly back when it was released (don't mind it now either)

Originally Posted by Wigs

Oops, China - can you move to music chat.?

20 lashes for you

Originally Posted by swipezster

Right then...

I am sick to the back teeth of people slagging the Prodigy for 'killing' the rave scene and making it commercial - utter tosh.
Liam's "Experience" album was probably a year ahead of it's time for production techniques.

Yeah, some of their later albums weren't as friendly, more of how Liam wanted the band to sound than what the masses wanted (he's quite a fussy and arrogant git anyway), but the band are, whether you love 'em or hate 'em, just quality.

I'm not embarrassed to say - and I'm sure there's other people on this forum - who can say that Charly actually got them into the rave scene for God's sake.

And don't blame The Prodigy for going commercial... special bonus prize for the label that released SL2's chronically-awful 'On A Ragga Tip', the over-rated 'Sweet Harmony' by Liquid and countless crap dance tunes.

I don't think they killed it either.

I do want to pick up on the Sweet Harmony comment though. I really liked that track, but that's just me

its just comical to even contimplate the prodigy killed the rave scene

im not going to say anymore cause it does wind me up when this age old subject comes up

as far as im concerned the prodigys music may have gone more comercial than the raver at that time would of wanted,but then on the turn of the coin it was going comercial that brought a massive interest to the rave scene,there music became accessable to the young ,the new raver or maybe the party goer that had heard nothing but handbag music that just wanted that little more,so what if charley was cheesey i didnt stop my friends that dj'd in that time buyin and playin it,it was raw,a totally new sound and became like i said accessable to the masses which in turn i would imagine sold plenty of rave tickets that they were then doing live p.a's at

hell dare i say it got mr i dance around my mrs handbag every friday night going to raves expanding the scene further

prodigy played a good part in the scene and if they made more money selling records commercially then there was an obvious demand for slightly watered down rave music within the charts,infact there still is to a certain extent,but even commercially they stayed true to the prodigy sound and the culture,you only have to remember the out cry that "smack my bitch up"caused they have always poked and prodded the rave culture of which im glad they did


i love the prodigy

Mixmag is a pile of shit anyway they knew fuck all about the rave scene

Originally Posted by jardinio

Mixmag is a pile of shit anyway they knew fuck all about the rave scene

I tend to agree - I had the magazine on subscription for a year when I left DnB and got into the Trance scene about 1998.

They were what I call "Wine Bar" journalists - basically young yuppy kids going to posh bars and clubs (where 'no jeans' are policy ) doing wanker dust and writing absolute drivel.

I found it unentertaining, up it's own arse, and the reason I stopped subscribing to it - just bloody boring (-|

Originally Posted by swipezster

Originally Posted by jardinio

Mixmag is a pile of shit anyway they knew fuck all about the rave scene

I tend to agree - I had the magazine on subscription for a year when I left DnB and got into the Trance scene about 1998.

They were what I call "Wine Bar" journalists - basically young yuppy kids going to posh bars and clubs (where 'no jeans' are policy ) doing wanker dust and writing absolute drivel.

I found it unentertaining, up it's own arse, and the reason I stopped subscribing to it - just bloody boring (-|

I used to buy Mixmag around 91/92 and agree with what you are saying. I could never understand why none of the raves I went to ever seemed to get featured and they used to concentrate on clubs.

Mixmag is an encylcopedia of information compared the M8 magazine in Scotland!

At least they have an opinion, instead of solely promoting their own bands!

Cobblers! The Charly EP was & is fucking awesome! Pandemonium & Your Love [music] Nuff said!

They haven't mentioned Charly was educational too..... Afterall, you should always tell your mummy before you go off somewhere!!

Originally Posted by Thrash

They haven't mentioned Charly was educational too..... Afterall, you should always tell your mummy before you go off somewhere!!

I still chuckle when I see this debated, which is exactly what mixmag wanted everyone to do (In My Opinion of course). Any form of music will always have a shelf life, and it will nearly always mutate into something else call it "Re-Invention" or whatever you like. Just because Charly was the first big tune to include a well known advert sample

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDu7yYHxZr0 (Worth watching the original advert for comedy value LOL

It doesnt make it the single handed slayer of "Rave". If anything it was the catalyst for the creation of other genres. If you took The Prodigy out of the equation it would be interesting to see what genres were around in say 1993/4. The prodigy were the pioneers of rave "Re-Invention". and the fact they are still around today making albums and touring proves that. Some tracks on their last album even re-visit that early rave sound.

There would of been hundreds of bedroom producers tinkering around at the same time Charly went up the pop charts and supposedly killed rave, these producers will have all been trying to create a new tune, better than the last, sounding different than the last (and some will have been responsible for Happy Hardcore!, was Charly the catalyst for that. Another debate perhaps).

The Charly debate will always exist, but in my opinion what Charly did, and others like "A Trip to trumpton" etc was add light hearted mainstream comedy value to rave. Not long after Charly the scene splintered into many different genres and sub genres mutating the scene and re-inventing the sound. Surely thats a good thing isnt it? But was Charly single handedly responsible, I very much doubt it.

The one good thing that no one can kill is the excellent memories from the "Rave" era of 88-92, the loved up clubbers, the euphoric atmospheres, the unknown entity of what the next weekend could bring.

Debate on! LOL

I have to disagree that Charly killed rave, IMO the rave scene dying, in the original form I knew & loved, was because of a number of factors, & as for it turning the scene commercial, by that time the scene was heading that way anyhow.
Bare with me this old hard drive of a brain of mine is very full & on top of that my ram isn’t up to that much nowadays either after all those lovely yellow Californian sunrise E’s & lots of weed I took back then

I Make my case.

Thinking back it seemed mostly all the best rave tunes were coming from America, which in itself was sort of strange because America at that time didn’t have a rave scene, that took Frankie Bones to start it up a few years down the line, but us Brits soon put an end to American tunes being dominate in our scene.

Raving in abandoned houses & warehouses started mainly around 87 & so we had a couple of years before it really started to come on top, I only went to a few raves in 87 as I went to live abroad for 6 months but soon returned to go raving mad regular by 88.
Also around 87/88 the general public didn’t really have much of a clue what we was really up to in those warehouses, but it didn’t take long for them to find out.

I suppose it was late 88 that things got more awkward, at that time the name of the rave game was to “get into” a warehouse set up some lights & decks, get as many people as you could in there & hope the police decided it would take to much police man power to stop it.
The scene at that time was also really starting to pick up, it was no good organising a rave in some little abandoned house any more, raving was getting big very quick & bigger venues were needed.
That’s when the problems started, the public started to notice us & then got nosey, reporters used to go to raves & started to report what we was doing, the public, who had never seen anything like it before, didn’t like the thought of us kids taking drugs & dancing all night & soon enough laws were being made to stop us partying.

We had pirate stations to tell us where the venue was & as soon as the address was given it was a race to get there to fill the warehouse with people & stop the police from stopping it, the police would then let it go ahead because it was too much for them to stop it but this soon changed as well.

The best memories I have of the rave scene were in 89, that summer of love, what a summer that was & then that was it, the big crackdown started, people were getting arrested, the police made stopping us raving their number one priority, the rave scene had got to big for it’s own good & we was heading for a fall.

I have to say it was the public that killed the rave scene that I loved, not some rave tune, the popularity of the rave scene was its own downfall, by the time Charly had arrived the original rave scene was gone.

I believe that Charly was a great example of us ravers/record producers not taking ourselves too seriously, we wasn’t pop stars & never wanted to be such.
The rave scene was so popular by the time Charly came out & as we all know Liam does have the knack for coming up with popular tunes & that’s exactly what happened, it was a good bumpy tune made for a popular scene that at that time was becoming commercial.

I liked Charly so much I sampled a loop from it & put it on one of the tracks on my 2nd ep, the tune, kicks like a mule, sampled the same sample as I used & we released around the same time, strange but true.
I liked the idea of using a childrens programme type thing as well so I made Cambells whipped cream (campbell wick green), it was just for fun.

Anyhow! I think I best stop here this is turning out to be a novel, but that’s my case against Charly killing the rave scene.