The Prodigy O2 Academy review: Band put on a stellar show and delight fans with their classic bangers-Steve Jelbert-Entertainment – Metro

The Prodigy wowed fans at Leeds O2 Academy with their hits (Picture: Getty)

Though everyone seems to have forgotten it now, the real winners of the Nineties Britpop wars were The Prodigy.

The Essex lads – musical boffin Liam Howlett and some more extrovert friends to front up before crowds of rave-crazed youth – managed to appeal to everyone from old punks to dayglo dancers, hip hoppers and metal heads alike with some of the least nostalgic pop music ever made.

So, to mark 25 years since the 10-million-selling The Fat of the Land, they’ve gone out to play some (but not all) of it in rooms that even now seem far too small for them. 

They took to the stage at Leeds’ O2 Academy, with previous tour dates including Liverpool and Sheffield, before they head to London and Manchester for gigs throughout July.

It was great fun. The classic bangers were all present, from the opening blast of Breathe – still the best punk single to top the UK charts – through Voodoo People, Poison and the time capsule of No Good (Start the Dance).

In what was the band’s first tour since the death of Keith Flint, his presence was missed, with the absence of his guitar heavy grind through Firestarter even more poignant.

This was the band’s first tour without Keith Flint (Picture: Redferns)

However, the lead singer – who died at the age of 49 – was honoured by his bandmates, with his famous grandma-scaring silhouette etched by lasers most effectively.

The light show throughout was terrific incidentally, transforming an unpromisingly cramped venue into a mini-arena.

Even less exalted, later tunes like Wild Frontier and Get Your Fight On, little more than chants over those oh-so seductive and familiar beats, were fine in context.

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It might not be a new sound, but it’s their sound and it still works.

So, the music may not have changed, but everybody in the house, onstage and in the crowd, has.

No longer fluorescent adolescents, but adults who’ve dealt with life changing events, good and bad, they all let their inner teenager out tonight.

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