15th  2001

This is the story of good music, nice security staff, fucked up cameras and stupid girls that put their hands in front of the camera. But lets start with the beginning…

So here we are - in the middle of nowhere with 40.000 other rock music followers. It’s still three hours to go until the Prodigy finally rock the main stage @ Bizarre, but we (that’s my brother, me and some guys we met at the festival and we became friends with) already leave our tents and head of to the stage to get as close to the band as possible.

When we arrived at the main stage we queued up to get into a special area directly ahead of the stage. There are many securities  around  who keep telling the crowd to move back. Actually they want us to go back so that they can let some V.I.P.’s in. The first little riots come up and people start to push each other. After one hour of struggling trough the mass we finally made it to the second row of the queue and start chatting up one of the securities.  I told him that I’m only at Bizarre to see the Prodigy and that I have a website about their mastermind. I thought it’s always useful to have a friend at the security staff … and I was proved right later on.

When I was still talking with the security guy something happened that completely drove the crowd crazy and some guys kept pushing and pulling very aggressively so that the security had to react. Many guys come out and start dragging the mass back and trying to calm them down. After an hour of constant trying to stay on my own feet I realise that I lost my brother and the other guys and ended up in one of the last rows. Next to me stands a guy that I’ve been talking to before. He smiles at me and says ‘I think it’s time to introduce myself since we’re going to be stuck next to each other for another hour until the concert begins. I’m Alex.’ I start to laugh and tell him who I am and we start talking about the fact that we’ve been standing in the second row before. The securities keep coming out to the mass and tell them that no one will get in if they don’t stop pushing. But the crowd gets even more aggressive when they hear that the Prodigy have started their sound check. Finally the security supervisor starts saying: ‘Ok, that’s it nobody will get in anymore, this is an police arrangement!’ I feel completely fucked and start looking for ‘my’ security guy. Alex tells me that he got hurt in one of the bigger riots. This moment the whole thing was over, it was just the end of something that could have been a good night. We decided to wait for another ten minutes before we finally leave the waiting mass of people. Suddenly someone keeps shouting: ‘Your brother is over there.’ It’s the security I’ve been talking to before. I go to the point where he shows at and find my brother there. Then Alex, my bro and me went over to the security guy and I tell him that there’s no more chance to get in. He just smiles and says: ‘I’ll let you in!’ We went in and the night eventually started to get good…REALLY good!

We get in and a few seconds later the Prodigy already start their show. Within five minutes I made my way to the first row, Alex standing right behind me. The Prodigy start their show with a new intro which sounds kinda like a marsh consisting of different drum sounds. The intro ends and the Prodigy start to play Their law. The crowd starts to jump around now and celebrates the Prodigy. The next song is some of the announced new material. It contains a hard bassline and a piano sample and Keith and Maxim sang something I actually didn’t understand. The new song is followed by Breathe. When Breathe is finished Liam starts to play something that leads to Smack my bitch up. The crowd is still going crazy only the people around me seem to be not so enthusiastic at all because I probably ended up standing in the area where all the V.I.P.’s are. Due to the adrenaline that keeps pushing itself through my body I don’t even feel stupid being the only one jumping, dancing and screaming like a lunatic. To my complete surprise Keith realises that and comes down to somehow show me gesturing that he sees ‘my show’. After that he sets off to run through the crowd. This guy is totally crazy and I respect him for being like that. Now this night completely rocks! Liam starts to play the beginning part of Climbatize and since it sounds so weird Alex asks me if everything with the sound system is ok. The Climbatize part is only a intro to Mindfields that follows. Keith is back on stage now and starts to sing the lyrics. Mindfields is one of my very favourite songs and I enjoy every beat very much. After that Keith took some time out to grab a bottle of water, drink some of it and spit it into the crowd. Liam starts to play another new song where Maxim and Keith sing something with ‘Action – Reaction’.  Now Maxim starts to cheer up the crowd and when he says ‘I see your heads but I don’t see the motherfucking poison’ there’s no more question which song is played next. When the song is finished they guys start to leave the stage. The crowd keeps shouting and the guys come back on stage. Then something happens that I’ve never expected. Liam starts to play Charly! Again I completely freak out and start to jump the fuck out of  myself. Charly just comes over really good through the big sound system and everyone can feel the bass pumping in the heart. It’s just great. Liam only plays a shorter version of Charly and so the song ends up after two minutes. The next song that is going to be the last for this night is Fuel my Fire. The song is good but does sound a bit harder as on the album which I somehow don’t like. When the songs is ended the Prodigy leave the stage again. The crowed waits a few seconds but when the rowdies start to take the keyboards off stage the people start to leave the area. We stay for a few more moments until we get thrown out by the security.

On the way back to the tent I get to talk to a polish reporter who shows her ‘Access all areas’ bracelet and tells me that she saw the show from the side of the stage. She said that she got in a fight with Keith as he discovered her tape recorder. I told her that this was ok because the Prodigy had announced that they didn’t want any reporters to be around their gig. She just said that she her press agency didn’t tell her about that and that she slapped Keith when he was trying to get her tape recorder. But he won the fight and gave the recorder to one of the securities. This should show one more time that the Prodigy are never going to be a mainstream band that wants any kind of public promotion. They’re going to stay underground as good as they can. Thinking about that I get satisfied. It was just a great end for a great night – one of the best things you can imagine.