Alice Cooper, Manchester Arena. 4th October 2019

As we walked in to the Arena tonight we were greeted by Golden Brown, quickly followed by Peaches with alt lyrics “I can think of worst places to be, like old Trafford on a Saturday afternoon”. The Stranglers still sound bloody fantastic. As good as the post punk grandads are though, they get blown away when Alice comes on. No one puts on a show like Alice Cooper, it’s full on leather clad theatrics, but if that were all it were there’d be a problem. Back that up with a catalogue spanning decades of awesome songs however and you’ve got a 90 minute rock n roll party. He should by rights be retired (like a good portion of the audience), but is clearly having far too much fun up there. He strides and struts, orchestrating a ridiculously tight band. Totally shameless with Flying V solos and a stage set like a castle, it’s Spinal Taps dream gig. There’s even an extended drum solo. When will drummers learn, no one’s having any fun but you! Once that’s over though it’s back to banging out a mix of classics as canes are pointed, cannons are fired and yes heads are chopped. At his age he should know better. Thank god he doesn’t!