extinguished

Went to bed, after watching Leaving Neverland, feeling troubled...

Woke up uneasy, to find out that Keith Flint has died.

Every week there seems to be some new sickening blow (as if the actual news-news wasn't sufficiently distressing).

What a performer, an energy force.



As Andrew Harrison noted in  New Statesman, "the best pop stars are cartoons – instantly recognisable, bright, bold and primary-coloured, and in their simplicity far larger and more thrilling than life."

Keith Flint's commitment to his 2D role gave it an electrifying conviction. 



I always liked to compare the cross-over era Prodigy with The Sweet - pure excitement for its own sake, a perfectly wrought storm of hooks and hysteria.

That analogy doesn't quite work because Howlett and crew were an autonomous unit, rather than puppets - writing and producing their own material, fully in control of the hit factory.

But perhaps another punk-before-punk parallel does fit: Alice Cooper. A band that worked perfectly as pop-with-edge for teenagers, while grown-ups might enjoy them without being able to take it seriously. And yet, and yet... for all the vaudeville aspect, a band that in moments actually conjured - purely through sound and structured frenzy  - a sense of apocalyptic drama and danger.



Another in that lineage would be Adam and the Ants.

drummage #4

Quick one under the heading of "wattage" - examples of drumming that aren't particularly elegant or inventive but transmit a feeling of pure unstoppable power.

Can't remember where I read this (possibly Chuck Eddy in Stairway to Hell)  or who it was originally in reference to, but the phrase "generates enough energy to keep a hospital running" always springs to mind when listening to Ray Philips on this Budgie track from 1972:

Same goes for Mick Tucker here

That's lousy sound quality but picked for the view of Mick right at the start. This is better
.

  

Okay, bassist Herbie Flowers is the true star here, but drummer Jim Gordon is close behind. As well as power supply he also contributes a drum solo, but a pretty basic one.

                                      

That was actually a single and got into the Billboard Top Thirty in 1972.  It could almost be off Fly.

And finally Hugo Burnham, the man-machine.