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Godfather of Metal Returns

Still able to shock: Veteran Alice Cooper headlines this nostalgia-fest with plenty of Hammer-style horror

The Monsters of Rock festival dates from a time before Rage Against The Machine and Slipknot, to a period when the likes of Def Leppard and the Scorpions bestrode the stage in unashamed Lycra with shaggy perms.

The revival of this package tour of fearsomely traditional guitar-wielding demonstrates that nothing ever truly goes out of fashion - and if support acts such as Thunder and Dogs D'Amour don't pack much in the way of theatrical pizzazz, then there is always the reliable headliner, Alice Cooper.

While the notion of an aggressively male rock star with a girl's name utilising horror props may seem innovative to fans of Marilyn Manson, Cooper - formerly Vincent Furnier - patented the image back when Richard Nixon was in power.

Although, these days, Cooper is more happily to be found enjoying a round of golf, older fans and shockrock nostalgists can take comfort in the fact that his stage show still features plenty of Hammer-style mock guillotine executions and, in a sop to contemporary music, public humiliation of Britney Spears.

Tonight, Sheffield Arena, Broughton Lane, Sheffield, 6.45pm, £25. Tel: 0114 256 5656