Change Your Attitude; Not Your Outift

Went to see Prodigy at the NIA in Birmingham last and it was f*cking awesone (pardon my French!). In between all the pogoing, moshing and weird ravey style shapes I was throwing I had a bit of an epiphany (in case you're wondering I'd had half a lager, half a bottle of Smirnoff Ice and a Maccy D's, so it wasn't an epiphany of the E's are good variety!).

As I looked around the crowd before Prodigy took to the stage I was quite surprised by how many young'n'trendies were surrounding us (we were about 1/3 of the way back in the standing area). They were all there preened and polished. Girls in party dresses and 4" heels, blusher brushes at the ready to guard against any make-up malfunctions. Boys in neon rimmed shades. They danced around to the DJ like they were at Hed Kandi and I seriously thought I was getting old.

Prodigy storm on stage with Worlds on Fire - the place goes semi-mental but there's not quite the atmosphere I was expecting. Fair play, this is a track off their new album so maybe some people don't know it. A few tunes in and there are massive pockets of space around us. We move forwards. The space fills with a more up for it crowd, out to dance; not out to impress - suddenly there's an atmosphere. Was it just me, but did the young'n'trendies like the idea of saying they "went to see Prodigy last night, ah it was mental" but didn't actually want to get mental in the process?

I am obviously too young to have ever been to a proper rave, but I'm thinking the atmosphere was as close as you could get in an environment as sanitised as the NIA. The vibe was fantastic. A mish-mash of baggy trousers and trainers, cyber-kids with glow sticks and some girls who'd chosen nice dresses but were more interested in the vibe than if their mascara had run (respect!). Didn't see any trouble by us. If someone invaded your space, a gentle tap on the back was enough to get them to move out of your way.

As I left the gig (covered in sweat and beer, make-up sliding down my face; but with a euphoric feeling in heart) I thought it just goes to show you can spend as much money as you want on the trendiest items in town, you can spend hours preening yourself and looking pretty. But at the end of the day its your attitude that makes you enjoy life, and that's something you can't buy.