Jaxx of hearts

DANCE stars Basement Jaxx are guarding a royal secret - was it Harry who got heiry at their Hyde Park gig?

The music-loving prince saw the veteran duo headline the Wireless festival . . . and rumours are rife HE was one of the fancy dress gorillas who joined them on stage for classic hit Where's Your Head At?

Excited Simon Ratcliffe was on the point of unmasking the truth to Rated. "Shall we just tell what happened?" he blurted out to pal Felix Burton.

But Felix thought that would be totally the Kong thing to do. "There may or may not have been some monkey business going on," he said with a grin. "We were asked by the Prince's people not to say anything about that.

"What we can definitely say is that, after the show, Harry said, 'That was the best live gig ever!' So Basement Jaxx are By Royal Appointment now."

After 10 years of hits like Where's Your Head At and Red Alert, the pair are sure new album Scars will keep Harry and the rest of their legion of fans excited. But Felix, 38, revealed it was a struggle to finish it after he got MUGGED by a gang of hoodies near the band's studio in Brixton, South London.

He had his bike stolen in the attack last November - and it put him off making music for a while. "I'd had a bit to drink and was wobbly," said Felix, the bespectacled one of the duo.

Target

"These kids must have been thinking 'easy target' and came running at me.

"I tried cycling towards a passing bus. It was night and I was going quite fast. I could picture the headlines - DANCE STAR T**T DRIVES BIKE INTO BUS."

Eventually, Felix let the muggers take his bike and he ran off. But he then had to face going back to the studio the next day. "It was terrible," the usually jokey Felix sighed. "You feel like you've been beaten and ground down, and you're trying to think 'Hurray! Time to make some exciting music!'"

Although he and Simon still live in South London, they decided to record Scars in Berlin and New York, with guest singers like Yoko Ono, Sam Sparro and Santigold.

Since their previous album Crazy Itch Radio in 2006, Simon, 39, has become a father and says his three-year-old daughter has changed his priorities.

"We used to work through until 7am," he said. "We just can't do that now. I'm still in the studio with Felix all the time, it's just our working hours are a bit more sane."

Newlywed Felix isn't yet ready for parenthood himself. "I want to hold off being a dad," he admitted. "There's a lot of energy needed for our band, and I'm not ready to do both."

Having wowed Prince Harry at Hyde Park, the duo finish festival season by headlining Creamfields tonight and Jersey Live next weekend. And they revealed they'll go ape themselves if their new equipment doesn't behave.

The computers where they store their backing tracks keep going wrong. "We used to have this stone-age equipment," said Simon. "Our music was stored in a huge metal box - but it worked.

"Everyone said we needed to update on to laptops, but they keep breaking.

"Now we're nervous before going on stage. At a festival in Poland the other week, the songs started playing backwards!"

New single Feeling's Gone is out on September 14. Album Scars follows on September 21.

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