It seemed eerily apt Public Enemy should be performing in the middle of a war, such is their predilection for battle fatigues and apocalyptic lyrics.

Not that Chuck D and his cohorts condone the onslaught led by the Coalition chez Saddam.

Their pleas for peace in Iraq were consistently vociferous throughout a breathtaking set, which featured old and new material.

The outfit repainted the hip-hop landscape in the late Eighties by pioneering revolutionary rap both politically and musically.

Their brutal rhymes and juddering street beats were screamed from the mouths of self-aware and pro-black young men and made them the most definitive rap group of all time.

Public Enemy returned 21 years after their formation, extolling the virtues of Brighton and Hove as Chuck D peeled off his orange boiler suit.

They snarled across the stage with their full band, taking the mainly young and behatted crowd through a quartet of tracks from their second album, It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back.

The dense and chaotic sounds of Bring The Noise raised the roof as a maelstrom of nodding heads went wild.

Don't Believe The Hype, Rebel Without A Pause and Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos were soon to follow.

There were more references to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan than you could shake a pair of Nikes at as PE continued to flow.

The heavy guitar of Son Of Bush, from the album Revolverlution, appealed to the youngsters with baggy trousers before the anthem Fight The Power was played.

The 1989 release caused uproar at the time for its attacks on Elvis Presley and John Wayne.

Then Chuck's comic foil and stop-clock obsessive Flavor Flav took over, performing solo with 911 Is A Joke, I Can't Do Nuttin' For Ya Man and Lampin'.

It was like they had never been away. They were awesome, a little saggier than before but still a major force in hip-hop.

The underlying messages in their songs, which built on the beats of Run DMC and the incisive words of KRS One, are still as relevant today as they were back in the day.