Rock and Pop: Review - Public Enemy at HMV Forum
Published: 15 September 2011
by DAMIAN O'LOUGHLIN
AFTER a quarter of a century in the business, hip hop’s fiercest ambassadors have still not strayed from their ethos of bringing the noise.
Last Thursday’s show was billed as a straight play through of the polemic outfit’s third album Fear of a Black Planet, after blasting out the LP’s intro, leader Chuck D launched into a trademark rant about the state of the world, referring to the recent London riots and letting us know in no uncertain terms what he thought of David Starkey.
He then informed the crowd that we were to be treated to a “Fear of a Black Planet remix”, which, it transpired, meant a greatest hits show with a very strong emphasis on Fear.
Combining live instrumentation and the turntable work of DJ Lord (Terminator X no longer tours), the outfit went on to blast out politically charged sonic bombs – Welcome to the Terrordome was thunderous, so was a rare outing for War at 33 & 1/3.
It was the most entertaining and well-executed set I’ve seen the group perform and seeing Chuck D and Flava bound around the stage at the age of 51 and 52 with the same passion as 25 years ago is pretty special in its own