Alice Cooper + Man Raze @ Wolverhampton Civic Hall – 1st December 2009

It seems The Civic Hall is destined to be home to a number of veterans of rock this evening in one guise or another….and no I am not just talking about the legendary king of theatrics, Mr. Alice Cooper! It might come as a surprise to some to learn that support band Man Raze is made up of some fine musicians from rock history in the form of vocals/guitarist Phil Collen (Def Leppard), bass player Simon Laffy (Girl) and last but by no means least, drummer Paul Cook (Sex Pistols).

Perhaps you are thinking what a strange blend of musicians, renowned for completely different styles, to put together? Well amazingly it does work, each of them ably demonstrating their skills on songs such as ‘Skin Crawl’, ‘Its Entertainment’ and ‘Turn It Up’. Perhaps though, due to their impressive rock heritage I was expecting something really special and I regret to say I don’t think Man Raze quite lived up to that. Yes, they are a tight, slick, cohesive unit performing to a good standard but in my book their sound is one of ear-pleasing, non-offensive stadium rock and I think that position has already been aptly filled by Bryan Adams!

Nothing wrong with that I hear you say…and you might be right. Maybe I just had expectations they could never attain but I was not alone — nearing the end of their set, as if reading my mind there was the odd heckle from behind me of “Goodbye” after every song and to be honest mid set I took the opportunity to get a hot chocolate and a packet of crisps from the bar — not exactly captivating stuff…..or just maybe it was because we were really there to see the once regarded antithesis of non-offensive — Sir Alice Cooper (I wish the Queen would get a move on and knight this man for services to entertainment! O.k. o.k. I realise he wouldn’t strictly be able to use the title if knighted…..but still…..)

The moment we had all been waiting for was upon us, with Alice tearing down the tapestry veil to the Theatre of Death whilst belting out ‘School’s Out’, the place heaving with fans cheering and singing along. Without further ado we were knee deep in ‘I’m Eighteen’ and the drama began to unfold during ‘Wicked Young Man’ with Alice hilariously bitch-slapping a stooge on stage before himself being beheaded at the end of ‘Ballad of Dwight Fry’ by the guillotine; which quite frankly I could have done with down the back of the venue to kill the bugger beside me who insisted on chatting his way through several songs with his lady friend!

By the time I had successfully relocated myself somewhere quieter the likes of ‘Guilty’, ‘Welcome To My Nightmare’ and ‘Cold Ethyl’ are just a blur and after what seems a bit of a lull in the proceedings, the crowd seems to renew their vigour after hearing ‘Poison’, later followed by my favourite Cooper song ‘Is It My Body’ and ‘Be My Lover’ — I have to say vintage Alice Cooper is what I love best!!

At this point we are treated to a guitar, bass and drum solo and it is fabulous — no overkill, just talented musicians giving a quick glimpse of their musical prowess. It is as Alice emerges atop a ladder tower, it dawns on me the solo was just an elaborate rouse to allow him time to slip into his spider suit for ‘Vengeance Is Mine’!

From here on in it is one Cooper classic after another ‘Billion Dollar Babies’, ‘I Love the Dead’, ‘No More Mr. Nice Guy’ and ‘Under My Wheels’….and then the only itsy bitsy annoying bugbear occurred, one of my pet hates…for the encore we had ‘School’s Out’ again!! It is beyond me why a man with over 18 albums to choose from would want to play the same song twice — despite its popularity – he easily could have made his entrance to ‘Elected’, ‘Muscle of Love’, ‘Teenage Lament ‘74’ or the fabulous ‘Hello, Hooray’.

However, it was a fantastic finale with space-hopper sized balloons bouncing around the crowd and Alice in a glittery top-hat and tails which is why I am willing to forgive him…and let’s face it this man is worthy of his superstar showman status, I mean where else can I go to a gig and see the star garroted, spliced, decapitated and hung — long live the immortal Alice Cooper!

Review – Amanda Jones
Photos – Steve Bulley

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