The Prodigy did not kill rave, they reanimated Rock 'n' roll

Keith Flint of prodigy celebrates another fire, Radio 1 big weekend in Swindon, from 2010. Photography: Andy Sheppard/Redferns

It seems unbelievable now, with the prodigyof 20 years of history as figureheads of out of control, hedonistic, hardcore with dedication, dance music, but there was a time where Liam Howlett was accused of murder rave. With their public information films cat-sampling hit techno Charly, "Liam tried sincerely to capture the essence of rave," ran an editorial in the issue August 1992 Mixmag. "The tragedy was, he did. Charly had left the large non-washed in on the exclusive secrets of clubland. "Will we ever remember said Charly as previous generations have known Heartbreak Hotel of Elvis, the Beatles' Penny Lane or even shock London Calling," predicted the editorial. the prodigy answered by the combustion of a pile of Mixmags in their next video.

Buy the CDprodigyliving worlds on fire (CD & DVD)take Me to the Hospital2011

It is a Sunday sunny in 2011 and I played just Charly for umpteenth time. Prodigy and my former employer Mixmag have made long and I remember all the good times that went with this record. Prodigy began as strangers from Braintree decidedly unhip and they remained so, a position which is not kill rave, but he suffered as music requiring external validation to survive. They have helped with its multiple variants becoming folk music true, indestructible of Britain in the 21st century.

There is never any clear of Prodigy, anything designed to please NME, just a constant desire to move stronger, stronger, more offensive. The Central thesis of their Music For The Jilted Generation album, released in the course of the Justice criminal Bill furore in 1994, was concise: "Fuck em and their right!"

Firestarter, since 1996, introduced Keith Flint as the standard of new pop folk-devils. The Fat Of The Land album made massive Prodigy in the USA, a goal which strips the time Britpop had worked towards with little success. Prodigy was out of the bubble dance to supremacy in a field of their own: electronic Rock 'n' roll.

Kraftwerk, electronic music had already his Beatles. Now, he had his Sex Pistols: outrage and excitement, always the same and always different. The Prodigy are still in love with their original obsessions: noise, heat, energy, the abandonment of cancel all glorious in mind which reminds you that you are of flesh and blood. As their centre of gravity moved folders never live shows, clubbers discovered that a concert could be as a rave, with a focal point. And rock kids raised on Oasis or traits has discovered that there was a more relentless form of live entertainment. Next week sees the release of On Fire of the world, a live album from Prodigy and DVD, filmed in the Milton Keynes Bowl, their more wholesale never show, last summer. It shows how they was still, in the best possible way, as the world kept returning to their way of thinking.

Listen to beyond a cat yowling sample and it is not all that great a difference between 1991 and dance of the Warrior of 2008 Charly. Then, or now, the message is the same, and it is the only ever mattered: "come with me to the dance floor / you and me ' cos that's what it is for".