It’s been over ten years since UK dance gods THE PRODIGY burst out of the streets of Essex and into our lives. In those years they have produced five must-have albums, headlined at the worlds biggest festivals and toured the globe many times over.

Band members Keith Flint, Liam Howlett and Maxim Reality are pushing their forties now, but their live performances still pull fans by their hundreds and send them blissfully crazy.

Listening to an album or hearing one of their tracks out in a club is one thing; but seeing the prodigy live is a whole new alternate universe.

At the beginning of the set with Worlds On Fire the crowd seemed to be lacking in energy, Maxim was calling in between songs (which included all time favourites Breathe, Poison and recent hit Omen) for people to “get the fuck up!”, to “get it started” and that he “didn’t come here to fuck around”.

Keith Flint was jumping around the stage ‘dancing’ as always. The three or four times I’ve seen Prodigy live, I often think that although he’s awesome, Flint kind of appears a bit useless on stage; sort of like ‘why is he on stage for this song? He’s not doing anything but jumping and spinning around…?’

But then the notes sound for Firestarter and when he lets that incredible scream tear out, you know that no one in the world could produce that sound and without it, there is no Prodigy.

A big highlight was the dub-step remix of Thunder – I almost wet my pants it was so amazingly good.

Voodoo People and Invaders Must Die finally saw the crowd really throw themselves into it and they could definitely feel it on stage. Maxim actually got a little bit scary, screaming over and over “Die! Die! Die! Fucking die! Invaders! Die impersonators!” in such a harsh, menacing shriek I actually got a bit worried.

The best part of the whole night though was when Maxim made every single person on the floor get down onto their knees for the crescendo in Smack My Bitch Up, the whole crowd firing up into the air when the time came and going absolutely wild. Being in the seated balcony facing the stage and having a clear view of the whole arena, it truly was just such an awesome sight to see.

One thing I will complain about was the milking of an encore, which is so annoying. There was about 15-20 minutes left of the set when the band first exited the stage, so of course everyone was cheering for more. And to be honest, the call wasn’t even that strong, so many people actually left the arena.

Then of course the band cam back on, asked if we wanted more a few times because the response was kind of pathetic, and kicked off into another three or four songs.

The light show wasn’t half bad, if not a little bit too intense at some points. From where I was sitting I couldn’t even see the stage sometimes because I was so blinded by the lights.

But really, it was such an awesome gig. I consumed absolutely no alcohol and I came home so pumped up on the music. I had so much fun and am willing to say I actually enjoyed myself more completely sober than all the other times I’ve seen the Prodigy completely wasted.

Its music that gets you going, no matter what.

And it’s something you definitely need to add to your list of things to see before you die.

- Stevey-Lee Ginger, Festivals & Nightlife