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Tales from the Pit Lives

Alice Cooper
ExCel Arena, London

TONIGHT could have been a disaster. Aside from being less than sold out — a consequence of Cooper's over-exposure in the UK these past few years — the ExCel Arena, a temporary alfresco courtyard in the car park of the Motor Show, is an unusual choice of venue, overshot by planes landing at London City Airport and with strong wind turbulence cooling the evening air.

But even at the grand old age of 60, few artists can disengage the listener from their physical environment the way Alice Cooper does. One of the last great entertainers, Alice is still in great physical shape, and although the violent theatrics of the anti-hero that inspired Marilyn Manson et al no longer carry the same headline-making resonance they did during the 1970s, with performances like this he still needs to be on top form.

Resisting the temptation to debut anything from the new serial killer-themed album Along Came A Spider, Alice plays it safe, setting the night's tone by segueing Lace And Whiskey's opener It's Hot Tonight into No More Mr Nice Guy, then setting off on a dizzying trail of hits and album tracks that dates all the way back to 1971. A smattering of latter day tunes such as Woman Of Mass Distraction shows that Alice can still mix witty wordplay with garage-rock simplicity.

However, songs alone haven't sustained Alice's astonishing career, and the audience roars its approval as he impales a baby with a stake, is wrapped in a straightjacket and then hung from a noose, returning from the grave in white top hat and tails to sing School's Out, still one of the greatest, most timeless rock anthems ever penned.

After encores of Billion Dollar Babies, Poison and Elected, Alice dumps us back in East London once more, having triumphed with consummate ease. (8)