#Jilted30: Voodoo People · 30th Anniversary Ⅱ - theprodi.gy

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#Jilted30: Voodoo People · 30th Anniversary Ⅱ

On 1 March 1995 the maxi-single Voodoo People was released in the USA on Mute Records, featuring an extended tracklist and an alternative cover. To mark this date, we will take a closer look at how it differs from the UK release, uncover the story behind its artwork, and, for the first time, provide a detailed account of the filming and editing process of the ‘Voodoo People’ music video, which had premiered six months earlier. To present the full picture, the All Souvenirs team spoke with producer Russell Curtis , editor Mark Reynolds , and designer Alison Fielding — alongside director Walter Stern , they brought to life the visuals that have captivated fans for over 30 years. We were also fortunate to get a few words from Walter himself!

After the release of Music for the Jilted Generation , The Prodigy’s popularity began to extend beyond the UK, and in the US, their releases were handled by Mute Records. In the spring of 1995, Mute released the American version of the ‘Voodoo People’ single, which featured an alternative cover.

Alternate single artwork.

Photographer: Stuart Haygarth

Art Direction: Alison Fielding<br>Recently, our team discovered that the sleeve designs for XL Recordings and Mute Records were created simultaneously. Alison Fielding , who was the art director at XL at the time, gave us a detailed account of how the artwork was developed.

Alison Fielding for All Souvenirs: ‘The initial idea was to use a top hat based on the James Bond villain Baron Samedi, who wore it in “Live and Let Die”. I got hold of the top hat that was used for the video and it was on the office shelf for years afterwards and taken to a few festivals by a good friend of mine! This is the top hat we chose for the cover.’

Fielding and her team decided to surround the top hat with vibrant colors to make the image as striking as possible. The paint pigments were purchased from Cornelissen , a London store that is still in operation on Great Russell Street.

Alison Fielding for All Souvenirs: ‘They had amazing names: spinal black, caput mortuum, quinacridone red! And we had to buy kilos of them to make it look impactful. The feathers were from another incredible haberdashery shop in the West End.’

However, Liam Howlett had a different idea for the cover — he wanted to create a voodoo doll that could be set on fire and melt, so on the day of the shoot, the team hastily put one together from scratch. ‘We just went out, bought a load of candles, and melted them down!’, Fielding recalls. In the end, Liam chose the melting doll as the official artwork, though Alison always preferred the top hat.

Nevertheless, in the autumn of 1994, a photograph featuring the hat was still used as promo for the upcoming XL Recordings single and was later selected as the main cover for the American release on Mute.

The photographs were taken by Stuart Haygarth , who had previously created the iconic cover image for ‘Music for the Jilted Generation’. Stuart told the All Souvenirs team that he remembers the shoot for ‘Voodoo People’ but couldn’t recall any details of the process. Most likely, it was just one of many freelance assignments he was working on at the time.

The expanded Mute maxi-single included seven tracks, featuring four versions of ‘Voodoo People’ along with three B-sides from other tunes.<br>Nerd alert: a closer look at the official releases of ‘Voodoo People’ reveals some mastering differences. The original 1994 XL release of ‘Jilted’, including the original single, differs from the 1995 Mute single and the 2008 reissue ‘More Music for the Jilted Generation’. In particular, the ‘More Music…’ reissue is more compressed (perhaps not surprisingly), while the Mute version shows significant EQ changes.

Notably, this release marked the first time that a remix by Chemical Brothers was credited under their current name — in the 1994 UK release, they were still listed as Dust Brothers . By that point, the duo had begun working in the US and faced the need to change their name. According to multiple sources, Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons had originally adopted the name Dust Brothers as a tribute to the renowned Los Angeles producers behind Beastie Boys’ album ‘Paul’s Boutique’, believing they would never achieve mainstream success. However, in the beginning of 1995, the original Dust Brothers reached out to them, and to avoid legal disputes, the Chems were forced to abandon their old name.

Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons, mid-1990s. Photo by Mark McNulty<br>Speaking of legal disputes, it’s worth noting that in the American release of ‘Voodoo People’, a sample from Boogie Down Productions’ track ‘Poetry’ (the line “this beat may drop but not like all the others”)...