We arrived to Swindon tonight in the freezing
cold and pouring rain watching hundreds of die
hard Alice Cooper fans queuing around the corner
of the venue waiting to be let in, when we finally
got in I had a good look at the crowd and seemed
that there was a friendly bunch of people in the
house tonight with a massive age group ranging
from your late teens to people in their 70’s
with the odd exception of a few children dressed
in over sized Alice Cooper t-shirts, thick black
eye makeup whilst holding their dads hands, it
was cute to see and a sign of just how hardcore
the fans if Alice Cooper are.
The main support band tonight was Man Raze a band
made up of Phil Collen from Def Leppard on vocals
and guitar, Paul Cook from Sex Pistols on drums
and Phil Collen’s friend Simon Laffy on
bass and backing vocals and the great thing for
Collen being in Man Raze is that he can now play
those towns and venues that were are simply impossible
for him to play whilst in Def Leppard as it would
be absolute carnage.
 When Man Raze took to the stage they had a simple
set up of three men with their instruments and
basic lighting, Phil Collen appeared on stage
without his shirt on and I have to say that health
wise he is the fittest 51 year old that I have
ever seen, the man has a six pack and showed off
some big muscles. Man Raze played a great set
with their straight ahead rock sound, instrumental
they were extremely tight letting off some outstanding
guitar riffs and generally amazing instrumental
work, they played a great selection of songs such
as ‘Connected To You’, ‘Shadow
Man’, ‘Halo’ and finished with
the catchy sounds of their brand new single ‘Turn
It Up’ which featured more bounce than a
space hoper being thrown off the Empire State
Building, the crowd seemed to take in the sound
of Man Raze but they also seemed to be restless
with people forever barging past me to enter and
leave the main hall favouring the merch stand
and the bar to the music at times.
 There was a long 30 minute wait for the crew
to set up the stage for Alice Cooper, a massive
banner with a skeleton face saying Alice Cooper’s
Theatre Of Death got erected at the front of the
stage so no one could see what was happening behind
the scenes as the stage show was being set up.
The wait may have been long but it was worth it
the whole show was spectacular from the opening
bell ringing on ‘Schools Out’ right
into the closing bell of ‘Schools Out’
again which happened to be the starting and closing
point of the show tonight.
Alice Cooper had a massive stage show, and the
show defiantly lived up to its Theatre Of Death
name as the show was so well put together that
it actual came across like a massively produced
theatre show, as soon as the main curtain dropped
at the start of the set Cooper was standing there
dressed in his finest black clothing whilst holding
a black baton and he kicked straight into his
vocals for ‘Schools Out’ whilst marching
around the stage, the touring band Alice Cooper
takes out on stage with him were fantastic with
those classic guitar riffs, bass lines and drum
beats being executed perfectly.
 The stage props used tonight were some of the
best that I have ever seen at a concert, at one
point Alice appeared on stage with a crutch which
was made up to look like bones, minutes later
a villain appeared on stage tampering with the
equipment which led to Alice and the villain having
a short scrap before Alice penetrated the villains
chest with a massive pole and leaving him for
dead, due to his crime Alice was then put into
a straight jacket whilst finishing the song and
he was then led to a guillotine which chopped
his head off a minute later, obviously none of
this was real but was well thought out and even
better carried out.
The set featured over 20 songs and the highlight
for myself and the 3000 other people here tonight
was ‘Poison’ as everyone sang along
word for word whilst jumping along having the
time of their lives, it was so surreal to see
people in their late 60’s singing along
and moving in such an energetic fashion to the
sound of Alice Cooper but once again it is proof
of how much of a legendary icon Cooper is, the
song finished with nurse Tiffany injecting what
has to be the biggest needle of poison that I
have ever seen into the chest of Alice Cooper.
 Other songs played tonight were newer songs such
as ‘Vengeance Is Mine’, ‘Wicked
young Men’ and ‘Dirty Diamonds’
which featured Alice Cooper throwing many silver
chains into the crowd which had his fans jumping
with joy trying to catch what their hero was just
holding, many old classic Alice Cooper songs were
played as well but it was ‘Schools Out,
‘Poison’ and ‘No More Mr Nice
Guy’ which really got the crowd moving tonight,
however it wasn’t just Alice Cooper who
kept the crowd entertained tonight as whilst he
was off stage on a number of occasions guitarists
Keri Kelli and Damon Johnson jammed out in style.
Alice Cooper may be 61 now but he is still as
good as he was when he first started, his stage
show is the best that I have ever seen and bands
such as Marilyn Manson who base their stage show
on the show of Alice Cooper have a long way to
go before they ever reach the greatness of Alice
Cooper, the crowd was also the most friendliest
I have ever seen at a show with no crowd surfers
and just hardcore fans who were out to have a
good time, the show was so good even the security
couldn’t resist looking over their shoulders
to see what was going to happen next, overall
the show was epic.
Man Raze - 4/5
Alice Cooper – 5/5
Review By Trigger |
