Alice Cooper No More Mr. Nice Guy Live tour review

Live Review: Alice Cooper plus special guests The Treatment

It’s a stormy night in Sheffield city centre and people have come from miles around to witness the rebirth of the king of shock rock and the price of all things dark and ugly, Alice Copper. Alice Cooper, now 63, has risen from the grave to give Sheffield the show of a life time on his Halloween Night of Fear tour and for one night only.

Backing Mr. Cooper himself on this road trip from hell was the London band “The Treatment” who in my opinion, were an 80’s wanna-be old school metal band. For nearly all of their set the crowd were sat down and didn’t really take that much interest in what these guys had to offer. I thought they were very good and could have related to the old school Iron Maiden as lead singer Matt Jones weaved in and out of different singing styles just as Paul D’Anio had done back in 1980. These guys gave you blood, and in the words of AC/DC “If you want blood, you got it!!”

Since becoming famous back in the 60’s for his “Schools out for summer” single, Alice “Vincent” Cooper has become one of the most iconic performers on this planet mixing his take on theatre and somewhat un p.c songs and putting them together into one show-stopping act. Since the 60’s Alice has been through a few changes in line up but has brought back one of his original guitarists Steve Hunter for his Halloween tour. He also has recruited Michael Jackson’s would be guitarist 25 year old Orianthi. Together along with Glenn Sobel, Tommy Henriksen and Chuck Garric they make the ultimate team of terrors.

As the house lights dimmed the big curtain at the front of the stage lit up and Vincent Price’s voice sounded through the whole room and the certain dropped to reveal Cooper stood on a big podium with horrifying spider’s arms coming out of him. Now usually when people go to a Cooper show they expect a big bang for the first song but Alice had decided to do one of his early songs “The Black widow” from the Welcome to My Nightmare album, a less thrill- seeking song. At either side of the stage stood the band mates and in the centre Cooper’s Servants. Alice stands at the top of the podium arms spread to reveal each spider arm and leers down at the crowd. Without even doing anything Alice always seems to get the crowd going as almost every person in the room was trying to get as close as they could to this creature of the night.

As Alice Cooper said his first words the room felt the chill go up their spines and they knew he meant business. One of the best things you get when you buy a ticket to see Cooper is that you know you’re getting what you paid for... a show that could wake the dead! He is able to communicate with his audience without having to talk between songs, each song flows from one to the other, almost all of them been ended with Alice beating his fists to the final bloodcurdling beats.

“Brutal Planet” followed as Alice stepped down and puts on a studded jacket with his previous tour’s “No More Mr Nice Guy” written on the back and strutting up and down the stage glaring at the crowd. The whole atmosphere changes as whoever was behind the lighting controls knew how to make a good scene. As the song ends Cooper picks up a huge crutch and “18” begins to play to which the crowd, thirsty for blood, erupt. Cooper staggers around on stage with this massive crutch supporting him and when it comes to the chorus’s lets the crowd scream out the lyrics. Out of all the shows I have attended I have never heard a crowd have so much energy when it comes to singing along. 18 is one of Alice’s old classics and he stands looking proud as people, young and old chant his words back to him. More classics such as “No More Mr Nice Guy” and “Billon Dollar Baby” follow to which Alice turns on his theatrical charm. At the start of “No More...” Cooper thrusts his cane out to the crowd and looked delighted at the carnage he had caused as the crowd fought for it.

The solos that came from his band members were very impressive and gave you what you wanted when you came to a rock show, especially Orianthi’s solo at the end of “Billion Dollar Baby” to which a bright spot light hit her as she stood in the middle of the stage and belted out a screeching solo that made blood pour out every hole in your body. For a 25 year old she did very well to get this far. As the show progressed it was clear to me that Cooper, for this show, was concentrating on the songs and the energy rather than the whole stage show, which after 2 years of his “Theatre Of Death” tour I reckon he should have.

It was now time for what the crowd had been wanting, which was to hear a song from his new album “I’ll Bite Your Face Off” to which Cooper emerged wearing a leather jacket with the words I’ll bite your face off on the back. The crowd seemed to love it and when Cooper sang that chorus I really wouldn’t have gotten too close. During the rhythmic guitar solo Cooper took of his jacket to reveal a bloodstained shirt underneath and as he turned the words “New song” were printed on the back. The new song was a success as everyone was trying to get the words right as they tried to sing along.

So far the night had been a great comeback for Cooper in Sheffield’s eyes as not one person was sat in their seat but the crowd knew things were coming to a slow end. The lights dimmed and a very worn out Cooper was seen sat on a small stool on stage ready to sing the Ballard “Only Women Bleed” to which he passionately serenaded and kissed a “women” doll at the end. This song merged into his questionable and un p.c “Cold Ethyl” to which he turned into the wicked man he is and rags the doll round the stage, does unthinkable gestures and sings about Ethyl who’s great in bed and she should be because Ethyl’s dead! Alice does a great job at doing this song and after meeting the legend himself after the show back at the stage doors I can tell all you readers that all the actions he does in the song is purely his persona “Alice”. A second pre-recorded voice filled the sweaty hall as feed my Frankenstein starts and for the first time we get to see some of Alice’s Stage charm as he and “Egor” bring to life a 15 foot monster which chases the bloodstained Cooper round the stage singing along to his own song. This generated a few gasps from the crowd as never before had Cooper attempted this level of stage trickery. The 15 foot beast was truly hypnotic as the crowd didn’t dare to peel their eyes away in case they missed anything. 

The band exited the stage and remerged all dressed as Alice to do a song from the less successful album of “Flush the Fusion” which afterwards may prove to be a song that they now do on every tour as the crowd had obviously not heard this live before but had proved to be a definite win. “Wicked Young Man” proved itself also as Cooper’s Torturous stage antics returned to have him stab a camera man. Next comes one of Coopers most famous gimmicks, the head chopping act to which a drum roll beats to his death and the crowd lifts their hands as a token of respect to the dead rocker.

Schools out brought it altogether for one last rock out, a bell rang out and Alice is seen stood there with his head down and raises it to begin the ultimate rock anthem “Schools Out”. Alice is now equipped with his trusty cane again and has the best costume change of the night, a silver jacket and top hat. To the audiences surprise the middle of the song contained an extract of pink Floyds Another Brick In The Wall to which after Alice screams it’s party time in Sheffield and it was indeed as about 20 balloons the size of beach balls were launched at the crows releasing confetti and glitter. The band gave their final farewells and were ready to rest again but not before one final song and elected was the chosen one. Cooper marched onto the stage with a tribute to the United Kingdom... a giant union jack flag and for the first time all night spoke out to the crowd after screaming out the song “Elected”.

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SCHOOLS OUT SHEFFIELD!!