F-B-F.org -

Chuck leaps into a star jump – quite a surprise, as he’s a big lad – and they’re away.It’s a merciless, fast-edit hits set: “Shut’ Em Down”, “Anti-Nigger Machine”, “He Got Game”, a rapturously-received “911 Is A Joke”, and an amazing jump-cut from “Don’t Believe The Hype” into “Rebel Without A Pause”, whose crazy kettle noise nearly takes the roof off.We expected a whole lotta war talk. Instead, there’s a tribute to Jam Master Jay, a “thank-you” for our 15 years of support, a little reminiscence about the first time they stepped off the plane at Gatwick and rocked Hammersmith Odeon, but not a lot of Bush-dissin’. After a cursory “You already know what we think – fuck the war”, Chuck lets the music do the talking.The third member of the microphone triumvirate, the controversial Professor Griff (sacked-and-rehired Minister of Information) is a marginalised figure nowadays, little more than a backing vocalist, marshalling the Security of the First World (Enemy’s private militia) Another PE founder is absent. Nowadays, turntable pioneer Terminator X runs an ostrich farm in North Carolina. Public Enemy always seem to find a turntablist with even crazier skills, and tonight’s stand-in can flip the crossfader behind his back (and, indeed, does).Before the night is through, the lethally funky “Give It Up” puts the reason we need Public Enemy into five simple words: “Mad rhymes for mad times”.Harry is the sort of person who gets better looking the more you look. At first sight, you think “Oh, just some blonde”, but something drags you back for a double-take, and suddenly she’s an English Bardot.

She’s been a pop-star-in-waiting for so long that she’s had to change her nom de microphone during the wait (from Dirty Harry, because Clint Eastwood’s people threatened to sue, leaving a defunct, but still cool, “DIRTY” tattoo on her bicep). Now, with a Rimmel advert using her music (a cover of Belouis Some’s “Imagination”) and her debut album, The Trouble With Harry, finally out, it’s time to deliver.She takes the stage in a Nine Inch Nails jacket to emphasise her alternative roots, but it isn’t long before that Wonderbra’s on show again (and stagediving into a shocked front row). Harry’s stadium moves – orchestrating overhead handclaps and the like – are incongruous in the modest Underworld, but you can’t fault her for ambition. The cover versions (“Push It”, “Imagination”) are the most indelible moments, although “So Real” (an amalgam of Prince’s “When You Were Mine” and Blondie’s “Union City Blue”) has a naggingly memorable hook. At times, it’s too mild-mannered, but when she rocks, she rocks hard.s.price independent.co.ukHot Hot Heat: Hop and Grape, Manchester (0161 275 2930), 30 April; Zodiac, Oxford (01865 420042), 1 May; ULU, London WC1 (020 7664 2000), 2 May; tour continues. Public Enemy: Event II, Brighton (01273 732627), Mon; Bristol Academy (0870 771 2000), Tue; University of Northumbria, Newcastle (0191 232 6002), Wed; tour continues. Alan Cumming, 37, was born in Scotland and trained as an actor in Glasgow.

After working with the RSC and playing Hamlet at the Donmar Warehouse, he starred in films including Emma and Titus. His performance as the Emcee in Sam Mendes’s Cabaret won him a Tony Award. Since his divorce in 1993, he has dated men and women and has just split up with his boyfriend of six years. Cumming has recently published Tommy’s Tale, a racy novel about a party boy, which he advised his parents not to read. Here in New York you can get imported Tetley tea-bags round the corner.I bet they’re like gold dust.I tell ye They’re like crack.And a cigarette?I’ve stopped now.