Smuggled Sounds: The Prodigy

In 1997 The Prodigy headlined the V Fest in Chelmsford cramming almost 50,000 rave heads into the main stage of Hylands Park. It was intense, and one of many high points for the band who were at that time on the top of the music planet.
11 years on and with a bizarre twist of fate due to a site plan rearrangement, the Essex rockers found themselves back on the same spot, but as headliners of the second 4 Music stage. And just like but just like 11 years ago the all conquering dance act had the crowd in the palm of their hands.
They ripped through a 65 minute set of corking rock rave and 90s groundbreaking dance classics to an enthralled Chelmsford crowd.
Despite playing second fiddle this year to Muse, the atmosphere felt like they were the headline act of Saturday night.
As guaranteed as England not qualifying for a football championships front man and human firecracker Keith Flint delivered a supersonic performance. With every bounce and lunge to his tunes, the icon lifted the crowd's energy and kept them hooked, naturally revelling in the limelight.
The high point was the show stopping finale, as vocalist come scream champion Maxim proudly bellowed to the amassed worshippers: "We're taking you back to 1991," and then for the next five minutes they unleashed a momentous performance of Out Of Space. It's incredible to think the song is 17 years old but the drive and ability of The Prodigy live makes it sound as fresh as ever.
He even managed to get the dance friendly crowd singing the chorus out loud for at least 20 seconds - a fine feat considering most of them had been boozing the day away.
Other highlights for the crowd were the band's biggest smashes. The trio - who continually reminded everyone in the place that they were from Essex - hammered hard cracking lung-shaking versions of Breathe, Poison and Smack My Bitch Up.
The lesser known Spitfire proved to be one of their highlights as well.
What amazed me most about their show was how The Prodigy stylishly combined their complicated backing tracks, rhythmic underlays with live guitars and drums. The band were so tight it's difficult to know just who was playing what. In all honesty it was a master class in performing live.
The set was pretty damn good considering I expected the lads just to go through the motions after almost one and a half decades of hammering out festival gigs.
The intensity of the band still remains up there with the best of the UK's live talent.
The only question remains is how long will their fans from the old school will keep turning out for them. It was all too obvious the biggest cheers came from the 30+ mob.
Though judging by this performance I'm sure many of the new school will want another taste of what The Prodigy have to offer.