Alice Cooper 28 October, Plymouth. 30 October, Swindon

So here we are in December and I have seven shows to review. I prefer to do that right away, but things got so hectic when I got home, that I am sitting here trying to recall what happened over a month ago. Almost no shows the whole year and then it's like everyone decided to tour the same month!

It was time to take a full two weeks of holiday in between several shows, it's been a long time since I had a real holiday.
I arrived in Plymouth the day before the show, it was safer as it's a long journey of almost twelve hours and I didn't want to risk getting stuck somewhere on the day of a show. In the morning of the day I strolled past the venue at about 9am and no one was around, so I went into town to run a few errands. As show time approached the usual suspects did so too. That's the main reason why I do this, the U.K. Fans are a cool bunch, we always have fun and then top it with a show at night.

Sorry about the lack of photos there are some really funny ones of all of us, but I can't share them here as they were taken by professional photographers. And before you grumble, remember I also make a living from image rights.

There were no glitches that day and we ended up at our usual places. Great mood and the wait went by in a breeze. Brett had brought some balloons and was throwing them to the crowd which made things really fun. Made for funny photos too (mentioned above) as they were published in the local papers.

The opening act was Michael Monroe and I think everyone was really delighted by his energetic show, opening acts can be really boring, but not so this time. Time passed so fast that the whole evening was gone in a blink.
Alice's show was great, but you could see he was really tired from jet lag. He kept looking at his prompter. But even tired he gives everything and I bet not many even noticed.

The next day I made my way to Swindon with Penny and Steve. A bit of stress as they had VIP and early entry so they didn't care about arriving early. I tried to tell myself it would not be a problem but that and some problems for JY who was told there were no tickets to collect made for a bit of a nervous breakdown once I finally got there. What really got me was the remark from the desk lady that we didn't deserve to be in the front as we only got there late. We all got stuck in traffic for a couple of hours driving up from Plymouth, plus I wasn't able to decide when I arrived, I was just a passenger. And how about travelling from abroad just for this mini tour? Anyway I felt really awful for a while then. Not helped by a few other glitches that were totally out of our control. Humans can be very odd at times.

I don't think I would ever find a show bad, but there were times in the past, where I wasn't in the right mood. So luckily this cloud lifted very quickly and I enjoyed myself. The show is mostly the same as these past years, but with subtle changes and some set list changes. Most of my favourite numbers are gone now so I hope for a new set list next year. “Go To Hell” remains and “Under My Wheels” I'll never tire of and “Wicked Young Man”.

Sheryl's role is getting more and more fleshed out and she really takes the show then. I still love that role so much and "Dwight Fry" also remains one of my big favourites. I also love it when people ask me if it's Calico playing the nurse and I tell them it's her mum, it's worth seeing their shocked faces. They're a pretty cool family.

After these two shows I stayed one more night at Penny's place and even had a great time in London on Halloween day even though our hopes of a special show that day had vanished. Then I made my way to Dartmoor and spent a week just wandering around, sketching and writing.

Continued in the next post...