The lone crab might be the most prominent reminder of The Prodigy’s The Fat Of The Land, but it could have been so different.
Alex Jenkins, graphic designer for the different incarnations of FOTL tells us about the original sleeve:
“This kebab was going to be the cover until Liam changed his mind at the last minute. We hired a kebab shop on Holloway Road and did an eight hour photo shoot with a real, sweaty, steaming kebab that had been branded for us by Pirate model makers.
During the shoot, the typography started distorting as the kebab began congealing and collapsing, so we propped the kebab up with bits of stick and metal. At the end of the shoot, Stavros (that was actually his name), the shop owner, took the bits out, wrapped the kebab in cling film and stuck it in his freezer. Some people in North London have eaten rock and roll history!
I was under pressure to come up with a concept as the licensees were requiring urgent artwork for promotional use. I remembered seeing a documentary on Christmas Island where millions of red crabs invade the island. I found some stock library shots, Liam and I picked one and I retouched the crab claw, making it huge, added the zoom effect and boosted the colours.
Liam approved the final design at about 1am by fax (black and white, shit quality!). I think we liked it as it had two fingers up to the world.”
Checkout original contact images from the shoot at Stavros’ can be seen here: http://xlrecordings.com/news/cachedfatofthelandtogo
Original article: http://xlrecordings.com/news/cachedfatofthelandtogo
Thanks to Pierre Vermeersch for the heads-up via Fanboy Facebook.