Review & Photography by Ritchie Birnie for MPM
Mr furnier once again visits Scotland’s capital with his merry (and extremely talented) band on the Too Close for Comfort tour and proves exactly why he is one of the best entertainers in the world.
Tonight is a full-circle moment for me. 39 years ago I saw the man for the first time in this very same venue. As our beloved Glasgow Apollo had shut down the previous year we had to travel to our posher friends in the the east and were introduced to “Salt’n’Sauce” for the first (and last) time.
I was unable to get tickets to the Special Forces tour but managed to get front row tickets for the Nightmare Returns tour in 1986 and the memory of being a 19 year old leaving the venue covered in fake blood has never left me.
39 years later I am back here again after seeing the man in many venues, many cities, many countries and with his band and Hollywood Vampires and I am still as excited as I was way back then.
The man is the ultimate showman and brings it year after year, show after show and he just keeps going. So much so there are six more songs in the set tonight than there was all those years ago.
Now, talking of sets the list tonight is top notch. If you have been to his shows you can guarantee the hits will be there. 18, No More Mr Nice Guy, under my Wheels, Poison and School’s out are always included and always cause a huge pop from the crowd but for me it is always the deeper cuts that are added, dug up like Burke and Hare in a graveyard.
My all time favourite live track by anyone has been resurrected tonight after an exclusion over recent years and “Ballad of Dwight Fry” hits like it did that night 39 years ago. It is just outstanding but lets go back to the beginning of the show.
It kicks off with “Lock Me Up” from Raise your Fist and Yell and slides into “Welcome to the Show” from the last album Road( please note the recent album was not out at the time of this show). As soon as I heard that track I knew it had to be played live and it was outstanding on stage.
We had a triple round of Classics in “No More Mr Nice Guy”, “18” and “Under my Wheels”…are you not entertained? I was sat next to a Canadian living in Edinburgh who had never seen the Coop before and it was amazing to watch his reaction as the show played through. It took me back once again.
We then went on a journey between 70s classics and 80s bangers and both my craving for the old and hope for the deep cuts were satiated. I do have to state my one complaint though. Alice is a showman, him and theatrics are basically conjoined twins.
There is not one without the other and even if we did get the smattering of the old photographer killing and the faithful Frankenstein monster the show was mostly on screen. If you have witnessed Iron Maiden’s recent Run for your Lives tour you know that was all screens too and it may be me, it may be the fact I am old, cranky and grumpy but I want a castle, I want a derelict wasteland, I want people in outfits and I want more of the lovely and seriously talented Sheryl Cooper.
The stage show is the backbone of a Cooper live set and can we not agree we look at screens far too much as it is. I realise it is easier, probably cheaper but that was part of the reason that 19 year old kid was awe struck and stuck with you through thick and thin.
Rant over and I can take nothing else away from the show. The songs were amazing, the band amazing and so many memories floating in and out of my head as the show progressed.
We went from one classic to another, “Cold Ethyl”, “Welcome to my Nightmare”, “Go to Hell” this is a set for the ages. Throw in the “Black Widow Jam”, “Killer” and the best mash up, main set ender in “Schools Out/ Another Brick in the Wall” and every endorphin is pumping round my body.
The only thing that brings me down is the bands acceptance that the legend that is Ozzy has passed away and even then the chants of “Ozzy” pick up and bounce through this sold out theatre to keep the pain at bay as we all come together in celebration rather than grief.
I now expect an Ozzy track to be included into the Hollywood Vampire set as they pay homage to another legend that has passed away.
