Alice Cooper's Theatre of Death in Plymouth

I’ve only recently got into Alice Cooper and for this I have to thank my mates Glyn and Andy. They’re not punk rockers but they know what I like and knew that I’d like some of the songs from Vincent Furnier’s long career. I once bought an Alice Cooper album because it had School’s Out on it but the other songs didn’t appeal. That and Elected seemed to be enough for me for years but on a foray through Alice Cooper’s back catalogue I found plenty to like about it, even if he sometimes sounds like Barry Manilow (but I'll ignore such soppiness).

Alice Cooper is about spectacle as much as anything so when I heard he/she/they was/ were playing at the Pavilions in Plymouth I moved pretty sharpish to get my ticket. Andy saw Alice Cooper at the Cornish Coliseum years ago and will rave unprompted about how this was one of his favourite all time gigs.

But would they live up to Andy’s expectations? Or to mine having discovered classics like Eighteen, Poison and No more Mr Nice Guy?

Of course!

It was a cracking night – pure theatre with lots of death, death followed by amazing comebacks. Alice Cooper got killed four times – lethal injection by the mother and father of all syringes, hanging from a gallows, decapitation by guillotine and the deathly embrace of an Iron Maiden – not the Iron Maiden you understand but one of those sarcophagi with the interior spikes.

Sister Rosetta was on stage, too, and it was she who did the trap door on Alice and closed the Iron Maiden on him. In between, he strangled her so it was only fair. And they both soon got over it.

Watching her take a grinder to her chastity belt was difficult. I'd seen blokes doing this to their codpieces in The Circus of Horrors during Edinburgh's Fringe Festival but this image bothered me a bit. I just think pretty girls shouldn't be using dangerous power tools there.

Alice Cooper reminds me of that kid at school (C’mon we all know the sort) who’s always in trouble, maybe not because of his fault to start with but in the end he’s gone bad. You can’t help like him, though, because he always bounces back, even if it’s only into a worse scrape with authority/girlfriends/death. (For some of us it's hard to tel, the difference between these three.)

The band rocked out well and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves a hell of a lot.

But the sound wasn’t brilliant.

It was good for The Specials but muffled on Wednesday night. Perhaps it depends where you are. Andy was up in the goods behind the sound desk and said it was fine. Glyn and I were near the front on the far right and couldn’t even tell if the support act Man Raze were playing an Iggy Pop cover or not. I think I might like this ex-Sex Pistols, ex-Def Leppard, ex-Girl three piece outfit – if I could’ve heard them properly.

And even though most people around me were singing their hearts out (I love community singing!) I don’t think we were making ourselves heard.

But the show was still brilliant. Alice Cooper sported some amazing suits and
pulled some great theatre to entertain us. At one point in the show he was a spider with eighte arms and another he was covered in chrome. Another time he wore a jacket with what looked like a complete crocodile skin down the back and had a hat festooned with game bird feathers.

Alice Cooper not only helped define the heavy metal sound, he probably did more than anything to develop the "rock-chic" look. Fashion icon, showman, rock'n'roll pioneer and your best worst nightmare, Alice Cooper lived up to (and died down to) expectations.

I think the crowd could have been more receptive but maybe this was The Curse of The Pavilions again and their appreciation couldn’t be transmitted to the stage properly. Many, many people had dressed up. I wish I’d taken my camera now but I tend to get mixed up in the event. I’m sure I would’ve managed a snap at another Sister Rosetta in the audience – all in white, mostly PVC but with a hat that looked like it had been signed by the band.

Let’s maximise the positive – I didn’t have any ringing in my ear afterwards. But I would still liked to have heard the words.

However, I now have an MP3 file of the live show. I thought this was an excellent idea – it’s mixed on the night and on sale immediately afterwards. All it lacks is the encore and you get that through a code and a download from the official Alice Cooper website - better than a bootleg and with the endorsement of the best Prince of Darkness you’ll ever meet.

It’s the MP3 files that will eventually form my memories of that night - so The Theatre of Death will overcome The Curse of The Pavilions (just like Alice overcomes injections, hanging, loosing his head and an encounter with an iron maiden)