Michelle Corbett (From Warrington Guardian)

Michelle Corbett

"MANCHESTER!" roared Maxim. "It's been too long!" Cue an explosion of light, a tsunami of sound and the return of the holy trinity of dance - Liam Howlett, Keith Flint and Maxim - for the first Prodigy gig the city has been blessed with in seven aching years.

Resplendent on an elevated platform, the Prodigy himself Howlett - conducted events from behind a bank of laptops, leaving Flint and Maxim to whip the crowd into a dervish's frenzy.

Howlett has single-handedly mastered the group's new album, Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned, so it was a relief to see he had dragged Flint and Maxim along to provide some visual entertainment throughout the ride.

If the tracks from this more than respectable effort formed the backbone of the set, then it was classics from The Fat Of The Land and Music For The Jilted Generation that provided the heart and lungs.

Practically tribal in his whooping delivery, Maxim stormed through the likes of Their Law, leaving Keith to do as only a post-apocalyptic Keith can do with a show-stopping performance of Firestarter - the stage burning crimson with light.

Throughout the hour-long set, it was almost unbearable knowing that the bass lines, thundering unrepentant drumming and anthemic vocals would at any moment spill over as Howlett consistently wound the mood down until we were literally begging him, hands aloft to bring the beats back.

Having mentally prepared myself to grin and bear the new stuff for the sake of the old-skool material, it came as a joyous surprise to find the tracks are every bit as good.

Sampling the likes of Michael Jackson's Thriller and The Dead Kennedys' California Uber Alles, Howlett may have recruited a bizarre role call of celebs to provide vocals for the record, but Flint and Maxim more than fulfilled their shoes back in Blighty.

Predictable and yet no less delicious, Smack My Bitch Up was the encore we'd all been craving.

Still fully in position of their collective mojos, The Prodigy managed to re-engage their old fans at the Apollo as well as excite a whole new jilted generation.