Alice Cooper / Twisted Sister

Nottingham has started to attract legendary artistes to its venues - the newest and biggest venue for concerts is the Nottingham Ice Arena - which this week alone has attracted two of the biggest legendary artistes around.... Tuesday saw the one and only Bob Dylan play and tonight it was the turn of legendary rocker Alice Cooper!

Tickets for this tour sold rapidly as not only were fans getting to see their idol Mr Cooper but they were also getting to see Twisted Sister - a very popular band in their time. In effect this was a double headlining show, with both bands given the same amount of stage time to make it as equal as possible! Why they agreed to do this tour together is anyones guess, as both bands have such loyal fans that they would be able to sell out the venue even if they played on their own.

Twisted Sister arrived on stage and even though I personally never liked their music, their stage show is vibrant, colourful and is packed full of the typical rock clichés. There is no denying that the years have caught up on the band members, but how many bands can say that they have been around as long as these (30 years)?



The fans seemed to lap up every minute of Twisted Sisters set and so I was clearly in a minority for not liking their music!

The stage was then set for Alice Cooper’s imminent arrival. Now this artiste needs no introduction - he is the original shock rocker - unlike some copycats we could mention such as Marilyn Manson.

Just thinking of his name instantly brings numerous images into your mind - running make up, and lots of tight leather, or snakes and guillotines and stage antics that could be deemed as shocking.

The set opener ‘Department Of Youth’ instantly got his loyal fans to their feet, and from then on, he had them eating out of his hand. The pace shifted up a notch as Alice and his band belted out ‘No More Mr Nice Guy’ which allowed the audience to shout at the chorus at the top of their lungs.


It was obvious that at some point he would be including a few tracks of his stunning new album ‘Dirty Diamonds’. Sure enough he played the title track, and a couple of others such as ‘Woman Of Mass Destruction’ and ‘Sunset Babies’. However these were scattered throughout the well-balanced set and unlike some other artistes who constantly tell the audience to go and buy their latest album Alice just decided to let the music speak for itself.

The stage theatrics are still a big part of the show, with Mr Cooper doing the usual tricks - beating up a woman, escaping from a straight jacket, being guillotined and then coming back to life from a coffin. This is what makes an Alice Cooper gig so special - you get a full show, and boy does he know how to entertain!!

As you would expect all of the songs that have made him so popular were included in the set:- ‘Schools Out’, ‘Lost In America’, ‘Billion Dollar Babies’, and who can forget the immortal classic ‘Poison’ which was saved for the encore!


Everybody was more than happy by the end of the show, and so the punters left the arena feeling as if they had got their moneys worth.

To the best of my memory, the last time Alice came to Nottingham was during the ‘Brutal Planet’ tour, which was five years ago. Fingers crossed that we don’t have to wait another five years to see him in Nottingham again!

FUTURE GIGS

sorry, we currently have no gigs listed for this act.