It’s a surprisingly cold night in the second city and I’m aware I’m about to tick off another one of the “big boys” of 70s and 80s rock and metal. I’ve seen Priest, Sabbath, Maiden, Metallica, Def Lep, and Saxon, to name but a few, all bands I’ve grown up with, but never had the chance to encounter Mr Cooper (unless you count the drummer from Therapy?!) before. “Hey Stoopid” is in fact the only release I’ve ever owned, which I guess is something of a travesty when I think about it now, but it did contain my favourite song by him, “Wind-up Toy”, which sadly never gets anywhere near the recognition it should. However, I digress! It’s a Wednesday, and the venue is surprisingly close to full even before the early warm up band surface, much to the surprise and delight of them when they do take the stage. Their name, ‘The Meffs’, is not one I’ve heard before but they were unafraid of such a large stage and belted out seven songs, the most notable of which were covers of ‘The Prodigy’s “Breathe” and ‘The Stooges’ I Wanna be your Dog”, while also giving out something of a speech regarding social inclusion. I’m reminded of pre “Tubthumping” ‘Chumbawamba’ where they seemed to stand for something.. and that’s not such a bad thing.
THE MEFFS
As a main support group, ‘Primal Scream’ seemed something of a strange choice. Not exactly the same genre as Alice but there seemed to be quite the loyal support inside the Utilita. It’s about now though it should be noted that this concert was an all seated affair. This was somewhat unexpected, especially for a rock concert although given the average age within the venue, it’s possible this was a smart move for insurance purposes, and it’s not the first time I’ve come across this, as ‘Def Leppard’ at The Joint in Las Vegas 10 years previous pulled the same trick, but then subsequently told everyone something to the effect of “stand the *insert expletive* up as this is a *insert more expletives* rock concert.. “, but it became very obvious that here this was not going to be the case. ‘Primal Scream’ introduced us to two new songs though in their first three tracks, one of which has been floating around with a video for a few weeks now “Love Insurrection”, and the other, “Ready to go Home”, is just hitting the airwaves. They’re interesting and sound like they’ve been keeping themselves busy since the last time I heard of them but from a set of nine songs it’s really with the last four, including “Loaded”, “Country Girl” and “Rocks” that they hit their stride and the crowd here get behind them a little more. Over before 9pm but still obviously adept at what they do I’d hope for the band’s sake that for their next tour they’re perhaps with more suitable bands and audiences who will appreciate what they’re doing.
PRIMAL SCREAM
Alice hit the stage around 9.15pm complete with a giant newspaper headline proclaiming Alice is banned in England. There’s much pomp.. and lots of guitarists! Lots of makeup, and all of what you’d expect from an Alice Cooper show. 25 tracks ensue, with barely a gap 
between any of them, and it’s clear he’s in his usual great voice. The musicians are hammering out the songs but you can’t dance and it doesn’t feel especially right to sing when seated and the acoustics as they are because you’re not going to sound as good as he does, but you will succeed in annoying the person next to you. The music is full of energy, something which the band and Alice still have in abundance mind, and hit after hit abound, highlights including “Hey Stoopid”, “I’m Eighteen”, the anthemic “Poison” for which we get the first interaction with the audience on song 17, and my young lady’s personal favourite “Bed of Nails”. There’s antics aplenty too, one of which caught me completely off guard, when what I thought was a real photographer jumped up to get a close up picture on the stage only to be run through by Alice brandishing a sword cane! Whips, a very suspicious doll, and even a pulpit, as well as the (these days) obligatory python/ not so feathery boa, cunningly snuck on stage between songs for ‘Snakebite’ while the arena was in darkness. Nicely done!
Given the show spanned a good hour and a half there was time for quite the collection of songs, but also Glen Sobel on drums and Nita Strauss on lead guitar managed to have thrown in their own solos within the course of the evening, and later on there were three songs which were actually band only offerings presumably as Alice gave his vocal cords a well-earned rest and also gave himself time to go swap costumes. This gave the band something of a chance to show off, which they did with vim and vigour, Ryan Roxie
enjoying himself especially. ‘School’s Out’ is the encore track after having initially “finished” with “Elected”, and Alice, now 76, takes time within this to both insert chunks of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall”, (meaning I’ve now seen this performed twice live by other bands, Korn being the first), and introduce the band to the crowd. Chuck Garric gets his much merited mention for his contribution on bass, having driven the whole show with subtle and sometimes very unsubtle panache, as does Tommy Henriksen, also on lead guitar, who’s put in a hell of a shift.
Lots of burst balloons later and it’s all over and done with and as the crowd disperse into the Midlands’ night I get the feeling that, irrespective of all our gripes regarding the lack of standing, everyone’s come away pleased with the whole experience. The chance to see the consummate performer do what he does best, an array of musicians which compliment him, and a stage show to boot! If that’s what you came for, it has to be said, you received it in abundance!
For myself, I can wander away, another bucket list rock star ticked off my list, feeling glad that I’ve heard yet another plethora of songs I’ve grown up with, live, and given the demise of the photographer, possibly dangerous too!
ALICE COOPER
Now then, on that note, where’s my Thin Lizzy albums to walk home listening to?
