Some people seem so bewildered at the idea of seeing an artist multiple times, as if you would get sick of it. As if! Okay, so you may hear many of the same songs, but with someone like Alice, it never gets boring because he's a master of entertainment and knows exactly what makes a great show. And, to be honest, he's so utterly badass that he could get up on stage and sing Twinkle Twinkle and I'd still think it was the greatest thing in the world.
As it happens, I have never seen Alice in my own country. Isn't that weird? Every single time has been in the UK. He doesn't come to Ireland very often (once in a blue moon) and when he does, something always seems to get in the way. Therefore I've made it my business over the last couple of years to travel the short distance overseas to see him, and it's meant that I've had the time of my life and made some fantastic friends from all over the world. I've also met the man himself on two of those occasions. Anyway, I'm rambling now, so on with the story!
Just like last year's trip, I had a 4am start (nobody but Alice could motivate me to drag myself out of bed at such an ungodly hour). My uncle and his wife were up at that time so had very kindly offered to drop me to the airport. My flight to Stansted was at 6.25, which was followed by a Stansted Express journey to Liverpool Street and a further tube journey to Wembley Park station. I arrived at the venue near enough to 10am, having been quite surprised that it was so easy to find, and was shocked to see that none of the usual suspects were there! By 'usual suspects' I mean the same people who are always at the front of the queue for every single Alice Cooper show in the UK (and quite a few elsewhere). I thought I was hallucinating! But sure enough, myself and three others formed the start of the queue. Eventually people I recognised started to turn up, and it wasn't long before I was chatting away to good friends whom I hadn't seen in a year, as well as some I had been in contact with online but was now meeting face to face for the first time. A great moment!
Queueing all day long can be an extremely draining experience, especially if the weather is as cold as it was yesterday, but it would be twice as tedious without the friendship and banter that goes with it. We picked up our tickets smoothly enough, which was a huge relief after the nightmare that was Alexandra Palace last year (to cut a long story short, we queued for nine and a half hours only to be shoved to the end of the queue after the box office decided to open at the same time as the actual doors). No such disasters at Wembley Arena, although there was a mad scramble for the front when we were eventually let in. We were also made to sit on the floor for several minutes, for some bizarre reason... venue protocol?
The first support act was Duff McKagan's Loaded, who were pretty good. Despite not being a fan of Guns N' Roses, I've always admired Duff, and I liked what songs I had heard from Loaded before the gig. That seemed to speed by, then Ugly Kid Joe came on. They were quite impressive too, though my enjoyment of it was kind of impaired by the fact that I was feeling rather queasy by this time, as the lack of sleep decided to catch up with me. However, by the time Alice was due to come on, the adrenaline had kicked in and I felt a lot better.
What can I say? Excellent show! I was a bit alarmed by the number of complaints from fans about the setlist during the tour, and I must admit I was a little disappointed myself to see only two songs from Welcome 2 My Nightmare (the latest album, for those who don't know) and six covers. However, there had been a few tweaks to the setlist during the shows leading up to London, the six covers were chopped down to four and Caffeine was added in to make it three new songs instead of two, so in the end I couldn't have been happier with the way things went. From my point of view, it was brilliant to hear Caffeine and The Congregation live for the first time, particularly the latter as it's one of my favourite songs from the album. For a change there was no Only Women Bleed, and Cold Ethyl was also missing. Ballad of Dwight Fry was back having been dropped for the last tour, so it was great to hear it again. Two of the big highlights were House Of Fire and He's Back, two 80s gems resurrected by popular demand from the fans.
On a personal note, it was a good night for me as I managed to catch another billion dollar bill from Alice's sword (a special orange Halloween one again, yay!) and I also got pointed at again during Poison, which never fails to make you go weak at the knees. I was so happy! There's nothing quite like staring directly into your hero's eyes while he sings right at you - unless of course you count hugging him. But that's another story for another day!
As usual, it was over far too quickly. To use that age-old cliché, time flies when you're having fun. Or, as my version goes, time flies when you're watching Alice Cooper. At least this time I didn't have to say goodbye to everyone straight away, which is always depressing. After the show I stayed with my friend Penny in Cheltenham. Another friend, Stephen, drove us back there, with Alice playing in the car of course. This morning I got up bright and early after a decent night's sleep, and Penny dropped me off at Bristol Airport to catch my flight home, before she and Stephen headed off to Nottingham for the next Alice show. Oh how I'd love to have stayed!
This is me, Stephen Coleman, Steven Crayn and Steve Lewis (that's a lot of Steve's!) after the show.
Alice's handprints, just days old, to commemorate the fact that he is the only international artist to have played at Wembley in each one of the past five decades. Go Alice!
So that's the end of my Alice adventures for another while. I always hate having to say goodbye to people! Back to reality now, and trying to work on five assignments at once plus my photography presentation this Thursday... yikes! Still, at least next week is Reading Week, and before that I'm off to Manchester with some family members this coming weekend for a football match (United v Arsenal at Old Trafford). Can't wait!
