Public Enemy

Homelands England 2000

Saturday 27th May 2000
The Bowl, Matterley Estate, nr. Winchester, Hants., England MAP

It was wet, cold and muddy and they were scheduled between two out and out house DJ's, but Public Enemy still brought the noise to a soggy Homelands.

After a heavy scratch intro by DJ Lord - Terminator X's replacement as Public Enemy's tour DJ - and the emergence of the S1W's (PE's onstage bodyguards) to bust some ill kung-fu/samurai moves, Professor Griff, Flavor Flav and Chuck D attacked the stage, rolling out the classics from a long hiphop career, reaching way back to 1987's Yo, Bumrush the Show. They kept a crowd of curious ravers and Public Enemy fans transfixed by the ultimate hiphop onslaught. Most people weren't dancing, just watching or nodding heads to the slower beats, but don't think that people weren't feeling them - the huge Home Arena tent was packed throughout, and the muddy but unbowed crowd roared approval whenever prompted by the infamously unbalanced Flav.

Public Enemy showed why despite a landmark recording career, they are equally famous for their live show - they've been doing this a while, and stuck to the formula that has served them so well - the on-stage menace of the S1W's, call and response routines with the crowd, a killer set of classic hiphop bangers, and the total lyrical contrast between the lunatic Flavor Flav and the rhyme animal Chuck D, who even had time to harrass Jeremy Healy while he was preparing for his set. Flav, despite looking fragile - he was being helped around stage at times by someone who was old enough to be his dad - was bouncing about hyping the crowd with his genius/gibberish rap and mad physical stylings.

While they were totally different to all the other acts at Homelands, Public Enemy rocked it because of the contrast, and because people know them so well - it was wicked to hear plenty of punters singing along to the old school classics like "Public Enemy No. 1", "Fight the Power", and "Rebel Without a Pause".

As Flavor Flav said towards the end, Public Enemy were the only rap act at Homelands, so, sandwiched between Armand Van Helden and Jeremy Healy, were they able to rock a crowd of happy and muddy ravers with the angry PE noise attack? Hell yeah.

Click here for some more great Public Enemy photos.

Public Enemy