Alice Cooper – Wembley Arena 2007

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Dubbed the Psycho Drama tour this was initially planned to be the tour supporting Alice’s new album Along Came A Spider, but with delays in recording it simply became a stop-gap tour. Seeing as it’s been a couple of years since he last toured, no one’s complaining.

People rarely complain about the support bands Alice brings with him either. Such is the level of respect he has amongst his peers, the tour packages he can command are amongst the best. This time Joan Jett And The Blackhearts opened, with a nearly full length set from Motörhead as special guests to follow.

The length of Motörhead’s set wasn’t welcomed by some. It was certainly disproportionate; only ten minutes shorter than Alice’s. Motörhead aren’t to everyone’s tastes, and are certainly a lot heavier a prospect than Alice, but for everyone else they were a support band that they would quite happily have paid for in their own right. That said, for this night the crowd had paid to see Alice Cooper, so to see a show that more or less ended up being a co-headlining show didn’t go down incredibly well.

Of course no one knew Motörhead would go on that long when they started, so for much of their top-form performance they were predictably, and rightfully well-received. A lot of people were fans of both the top artists (Joan Jett less so) and fully enjoyed what was essentially Motörhead’s regular Kiss of Death tour set. But at around the 45-minute mark – optimum special guest support time – people started to get restless. At 60 minutes people were thinking “alright, fair enough, it is Motörhead after all, but surely that’s it”. Then they went off and came back on for a 15-minute encore which really, as the closing number clearly stated, was overkill.

Alice consequently didn’t come on until 21:40, which meant only one hour and 20 minutes for him to play. In the end he went five minutes over the usual curfew, and with an Alice Cooper set you can get a lot of songs in that space of time. With no new album to promote yet the set was basically the hits, two off the last album, and one or two extra old songs. I think a more varied setlist would have been appreciated by those who have seen him a few times before (well, those without the Status Quo we-only-ever-want-to-hear-the-hits mentality, anyway). For instance, although two songs from last album Dirty Diamonds remained in the set, there was nothing at all from the previous four; Brutal Planet, Dragontown, The Last Temptation or The Eyes of Alice Cooper.

The return of Cold Ethyl, Muscle of Love after many years in the wilderness, and a surprisingly heavy It’s Hot Tonight as an opener were a nice change, but the rest was the same ‘best of’ material played every time, either side of a shortened mental asylum section which lacked the theatrical impact it’s enjoyed on previous tours (due in no small part to the short set time). With a catalogue the sizes of Alice’s he’ll never please everyone, but after so many years I think he can afford to change it up a bit.

The biggest talking point of the Psycho Drama tour is the return of the gallows after a very long time on the sidelines. For several of the previous tours the guillotine has kept it’s place as the main theatrical gimmick, but this time it’s been replaced by a ritual hanging of Alice, which is very well done, and even more seamless than the beheading. Aside from this finale piece, he kept the theatre to a minimum, with daughter and main dancer/actor Calico used to a much lesser extent than on previous tours. Indeed after the intro and entrance, where she appeared dressed as Alice, only for Alice himself to “kill” her, she didn’t feature until Welcome To My Nightmare.

Alice’s band personnel has changed yet again, lacking enigmatic Slave To The System front-man Damon Johnson on guitar, who left to focus on his country band Whiskey Falls, replaced by LA guitarist Jason Hook. The rest of the band remained unchanged: Eric Singer, Chuck Garric and Keri Kelli, and as always despite Singer’s tedious drum solo, they were outstanding.

Alice’s shows are always outstanding, let’s be honest. He’s one of the last true rock ‘n’ roll showmen and once the new album is done we can hopefully look forward to a brand new, full length, show.

“ theatre to a minimum ”

Motörhead Setlist: Dr. Rock / Stay Clean / Be My Baby / Killers / Metropolis / Over The Top / One Night Stand / Rosalie / In The Name of Tragedy > Drums > In The Name of Tragedy / Jus’ Coz You Got The Power / Going To Brazil > Killed By Death // Whorehouse Blues / Ace of Spades / Overkill

Alice Cooper Setlist: It’s Hot Tonight > No More Mr. Nice Guy / Under My Wheels / I’m Eighteen / Is It My Body / Woman of Mass Distraction / Dirty Diamonds / Muscle of Love / Feed My Frankenstein / Halo of Flies > Drums > Jam / Welcome To My Nightmare / Cold Ethyl / Only Women Bleed > Steven > Dead Babies > The Ballad of Dwight Frye / I Love The Dead / School’s Out // Billion Dollar Babies / Poison / Elected

Written by Andy Lye
More: Gigs, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Alice Cooper, Motörhead