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Alice Cooper has a long history with Glasgow going back decades. As Barbara Graustark from the legendary US magazine Circus reported in February 1973:
“In a matter of moments, Alice’s grin of excitement turned to open-mouthed terror as three thousand of Glasgow’s screaming meanies gave the band its wildest reception ever.
“Alice, Alice, Alice,” screamed three hundred frenzied fans as the red, white, and blue fifty-two seater plane glided to a landing at Glasgow, Scotland’s Prestwick Airport. But when the group triumphantly stepped down the ramp, their expressions of delight turned to open-mouthed horror as mobbing supporters broke through police barricades and caused such a disarray that Alice and the band were forced to flee to waiting limousines, leaving their baggage behind. Hurricane Alice, as the Glasgow press soon dubbed the tangle-haired superstar, was whisked off to the safety of the Central Hotel for the awesome beginning of Alice’s most tumultuous European tour ever, a tour that opened with the most frightening twenty-four hours in the history of Cooper madness…”
Graustark goes on to add:
“Beginning the reign of terror: The first tremors of the Glasgow scare were felt back in New York two days before the band was slated to appear at Glasgow’s Green’s Playhouse. Already notorious for their frequent outbursts during soccer matches, the young people of Glasgow had erupted in a bloody battle royale, at a hotly-contested soccer exhibition game, and the front page of the London Times showed a young girl being carried out of the Glasgow Stadium with a knife stuck in her head. It was no wonder that members of the Cooper team were literally quaking in anticipation of their own concert and hastily cancelling plans to have Alice go onstage carrying two scarves from the opposing soccer teams.”
Looking at the 76-year-old grandfather – and golf lover – as he snarls a reply of “Guilty” to the voiceover that booms out through the arena asking; “Alice Cooper, you have been banned in Scotland for crimes against humanity, how do you plead?” before bursting through the huge curtain custom-made to look like a newspaper front page, it’s difficult to imagine that this is the same person that caused the UK government in 1973 to consider banning him from these shores because: “his incitement to infanticide and his commercial exploitation of masochism is evidently an attempt to teach our children to find their destiny in hate, not in love.” – not sure about the hate aspect. Still, there sure is a lot of love in the room for Alice Cooper tonight.
The curtain is flanked by two sets of stairs from which Chuck Garric (bass) and Tommy Henriksen (one of three lead guitarists in Alice Cooper’s impressive band, and on that note, do check out Tommy’s amazing new band Crossbone Skully) descend, below them are lead guitarists Nita Strauss and Ryan Roxie. The tightest band in hard rock music (completed by powerhouse flamboyant drummer Glen Sobel) crank out the intro to ‘Lock Me Up’, a Cooper deep cut from 1987’s ‘Raise Your Fist and Yell’ album that has every long-term Coop fan raising their fist, and indeed, yelling in appreciation of the bone that the Master of the Macabre throws them each tour (last time around it was ‘Roses on White Lace’, and on the wish-list is ‘Former Lee Warmer’ from ‘Dada’, one of Cooper’s marmite albums from the early 80s). It’s only a short burst of the nugget which soon leads into ‘Welcome to the Show’ from the 2023 studio album ‘Road’. OCD sufferers would love the symmetry in display during the intro (and much of the night) as whenever Alice is front and centre, he is often flanked by two outfield players on either side.
The 2024 tour is dubbed the “Too Close for Comfort Tour” for a reason: for the first time, it features Alice Cooper using a video screen, allowing a front-row view to those in the nosebleed seats. The production is stunning. Fantastic lights (the stage bathed in red during ‘Go To Hell’ is particularly impressive, as are the blinding white lights darting from side-to-side during the intro to ‘Hey Stoopid’) and a clutter-free stage result in a visual feast for the thousands gathered for the opening night of the UK leg – great to see so many younger fans in attendance with many opting for the trademark Alice Cooper eye make-up. Less theatrical in the opening stages than 2022’s ‘Detroit Muscle’ tour, the front nine of the set focuses on the music – although the standard AC props are never that far away – whereas the back nine brings all the theatre.
With zero chat from Alice until band introductions much later in the set, it’s one banger after another. Not many artists can afford the luxury of dropping ‘No More Mr. Nice Guy’, ‘I’m Eighteen’, and ‘Under My Wheels’ – which features Ryan Roxie duckwalking ala Chuck Berry along the edge of the stage (a lovely tribute to Keith Moon flashes up on the screen during the 1971 classic) – in the opening twenty minutes or so.
Balancing material from the early days like ‘Be My Lover’ (“She asked me why the singer’s name was Alice…” still one of the greatest AC lines, ever), ‘Billion Dollar Babies’, ‘Cold Ethyl’, and the always-magical ‘Ballad of Dwight Fry’, are cuts from 1989’s ‘Trash’ album onwards: ‘Bed of Nails’, ‘Snakebite’ (including a special guest appearance by a bloody big snake that has a kid next to this reviewer asking his parent “Is that real?”), ‘Lost in America’, and of course, ‘Poison’.
The closing 30 minutes are the kind of stuff that makes an audience leave the venue feeling 10 feet tall, and hoarse. Very hoarse. Once ‘Poison’ fades out, it’s straight into ‘Feed My Frankenstein’ followed by a shortened version of the ‘Black Widow’ jam that showcases how special this group of players is, Cooper’s shenanigans during ‘Ballad of Dwight Fry’ mean that he must be punished and Madame Guillotine (played by Mrs. Cooper herself) makes sure that he is, with ‘I Love The Dead’ being the outcome. Only Alice atop a Yankee Doodle Dandy bedazzled staircase for ‘Elected’, and a roof-raising extended version of ‘School’s Out’ could end the show and what an ending it is.
Beaming smiles all around as the hordes pour out into the night. With his voice as strong as ever, he is Alice Cooper, a troubled man for troubled times, he makes his Grandma sick, and above all: he is peerless and shows zero signs of slowing down. On this form, why should he?
Continuing the tradition of going with tour special guests out of the left field, the main support on the tour are Primal Scream, although visitors to the Scottish rocker’s social media pages might have missed that fact as there is scant mention of the tour. This is puzzling because – being on home turf – they do a grand job of warming the crowd up. With new album ‘Come Ahead’ landing next month, new tracks such as ‘Love Insurrection’, ‘Ready to Go Home’, and ‘Deep Dark Waters’ receive their live debuts and slot in seamlessly alongside Scream beauties such as the incredible closing salvo of ‘Loaded’, ‘Country Girl’, ‘Movin’ On Up’, and ‘Rocks’. Frontman Bobby Gillespie is a touch muted throughout the set and just as he seems to be getting warmed up, the set ends. That closing twenty minutes though, ooft!
More energetic and explosive are opening act The Meffs. Seizing the moment and running with it, the Britpunk duo (Lily on vocals/guitar and Lewis on drums/backing vocals ) blitz their way through a short set that features intro music of The Stooges ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ as a guide of what to expect. There is a bit of a buzz surrounding The Meffs mainly due to their incendiary live performances, and although better suited to a dark, sweaty club where audience and artist mesh together, they are not daunted by the sight of a seated, older audience who are mostly hearing the Essex-based duo for the first time. Instantly getting the crowd on their side by asking them to boo the fact that they are from Essex, the duo plays like it is their last night on earth, and at times it’s dizzying watching Lily cover the length of the huge stage at pace. In particular; look out for ‘Broken Britain, Broken Brains’, ‘Wasted on Woman’, and ‘Clowns’.
Remaining tour dates:
October 16: Utilita Arena, Birmingham
October 17: AO Arena, Manchester
October 18: First Direct Arena, Leeds
October 20: Eventim Apollo, London
October 21: Eventim Apollo, London
Ticket information, HERE
Review – DGM
All images – Dave Jamieson
