He and Flint joined the band as teenagers, leaving Essex to travel the world and mix with royalty. As Thornhill publishes a book of photographs from that era, he talks about the fun, friendship, chaos – and sorrow

The first time I encountered Leeroy Thornhill, he invited me around to his place to smoke banana skins. I was only 12 years old at the time – but before you call social services, let me reassure you that this wasn’t a real-life interaction. I was simply reading the sleeve notes of his band the Prodigy’s debut album, Experience, where the peculiar fruit-based invitation was offered up to the band’s fans. Just above it was a photograph of the group sharing a joint. They seemed thrillingly above the law – and the rules of being in a band itself.

For a start, half of them – Thornhill and his best mate, Keith Flint – were employed as dancers. A third member, Maxim, was a vocalist who didn’t seem to appear on half the songs, which left only Liam Howlett to make all the music, a furious collision of breakbeats, helium vocals and space-age synthesisers. It was the kind of outfit you might dream up after a night smoking, well, banana skins. Did they actually do that?