Just a quick note on the actual audience at the gig, it truly was a testiment to Mr. Cooper's career, kids from 14 right up to leather clad monsters who I wouldn't dare guess the age of. Despite the age range though it was the leather clad monsters who were the majority, if it wasn't for the fag smoke I could of probably smelt engine oil, which isn't a bad thing as these people were top quality and managed to jump higher than us kiddies at times!
Alice struts on stage drawing every single eyeball in the Apollo onto him. The god of stage threatrics marches left and right with a long sword repeatedly sticking it in the back of his extremely talented band with him tonight. Sadly the names escape me but the 15 minute drum solo conducted in the middle of the set of quite simply, awe inspiring.
For the first 40 or so minutes Alice and his cohorts blasted the eardrums of the audience with new material from his latest album "Brutal Planet" while some older songs like "Feed My Frankenstein" and "Only Women Bleed" put between the newer songs to mix it up a bit.
During the first part of the show a woman appearing in a full leather catsuit complete with and also complete with a large roar the males in the crowd (me included), she later appears as a nurse (GRRR) and at the end of the show as Britney Spears (bigger GRRRR). I later found out this woman was actually Alice's daughter. Good job I decided not to go back stage and chat her up then me thinks.
Just after the infamous Alice death sequence where he gets slapped into a guilotine and inevitably beheaded the drum solo finished. This signalled the start of the classic songs like "Billion Dollar Babies" and crowd karaoke favourite "Poison". Not once in the whole show (bar costume changes) did Alice slow down, if anything the countless miles he's done on the road has made him into an even bigger stage god!
Audience interaction was fairly limited but then he was singing near non stop so I think the audience forgave this. However he did take time out to poke fun at a guy in the front row wearing a Marilyn Manson t-shirt.
The show was nearly over and as the school bells ring around the packed to the rafters Manchester Apollo, huge ballons are thrown into the crowd and "School's Out" begins. Everybody leaves the stage and people begin to turn away when suddenly the band spring back into life to give us one last sonic blast, this time in the form of "Election" with the added spoken chorus of "Fuck the Labour Party, Fuck the Conservatives and vote for me!"
By now Alice was sporting a "Britney Wants Me...Dead" t-shirt which was put to good effect as mid way through the closing song his daughter comes out dressed in a tiny school uniform lip syncing to "Hit Me Baby One More Time"... Naturally Alice obliges and hits her, while his band lays into the black suited sun glasses wearing bodyguards of Ms. Spears.
All in all it was a top quality show and THE best 2 hour set I have ever witnesses. Some people write Alice Cooper off due to his age, but he is still as explosive as ever and if he ever visits a town near you get to that show!!
