Concert review: Alice Cooper at Birmingham NIA

Alice Cooper

Birmingham NIA

Concert review by Ian Harvey

Ghouls, zombies, demons and insane cheerleaders - and that was just the audience.

When Halloween is approaching and it's half term - so, ahem, school's out - there's only one place to be . . . at an Alice Cooper concert.

With the nights darker than ever and the creepiest day of the year closing in, Alice brought his Halloween Night Of Fear show to the NIA, and plenty of fans responded by arriving in ghouslish fancy dress, with the best of them paraded on the stage before the concert began.

Click on the image to the right for the gig photo gallery

The show started with an eminently creepy introduction tape featuring Vincent Price, Alice appearing at the top of a staircase to kick off the show with The Black Widow, setting the tone for what was to come.

With only one song – I'll Bite Your Face Off - from his latest release, Welcome 2 My Nightmare, he concentrated on giving fans a greatest hits set interspersed with a few album favourites and proved himself once again to be a master showman with incredible energy - and that after more than 40 years in the business.

New guitarist Orianthi, who has previously played alongside Michael Jackson, impressed on songs including I'm Eighteen, Billion Dollar Babies, No More Mr Nice Guy, Poison and on her guitar solo which led into the classic ballad Only Women Bleed.

Feed My Frankenstein saw a giant Frankenstein's monster chase Alice away, and when the singer impaled a cheeky "press photographer" who had invaded the stage he was, of course, punished by having his head guillotined - only to return to lead the Birmingham choir through a magnificent School's Out and the flag-waving encore of Elected. Just superb.

Earlier the New York Dolls entertained with an hour-long set mixing the sleazy vibe of the Rolling Stones with the punk energy of the Ramones.

Concert photography by Ian Harvey/RocktasticPix