Rage against the war is so entertaining

Mark Steele, compère at this Stop The War benefit gig, must have known he was shooting fish in a barrel: ranting against Blair, he described the Iraq War as "the most unbelievable cock-up since Puff Daddy made a Sting song even worse".

Every peak of his tirade was greeted with whoops. He was preaching to the choir, but most lines were funny in their own right: "Even the head of the Army thinks we should pull out.

That's like going out on the tiles with Pete Doherty and he says, "Easy mate, time to call it a night'." This benefit was as entertaining as it was worthy. When headline act The Nightwatchman - Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello - dedicated a song to "all the working people of Britain... and, uh, all the students", he'd clearly clocked on to who his audience were. Earlier, Ed Harcourt delivered a brilliantly diverse solo set, using guitar, keyboard and tape loops, his voice howling like a sleek but wounded dog. His adaptation of Randy Newman's Political Science proved as pertinent to today's troubled planet as it was when Newman wrote it in 1972 - "let's drop the big one and see what happens/ there'll be no one left to blame us".

Morello has been dropping the big one for years with the lessthan-subtle Rage Against The Machine, but his solo acoustic set was astute and nimble, punching out politically sharp words with venom.

If anthems like One Man Revolution were overstated, his more subdued numbers recalled Springsteen's haunting The Ghost Of Tom Joad. As a one-man band he worked the crowd supremely, shifting mood and tempo until it seemed an army of conscientious objectors was onstage. Maybe Blair won't be allowed to go gently.

The Scala
Pentonville Road, King's Cross, N1 9NL