MUSIC

(Colston Hall, Bristol, Wed 26 Oct)

Considering that this was billed as Alice's Halloween Night of Fear, one might be forgiven for anticipating rather more in the way of theatrics – especially after his grand entrance in a spider outfit for 'The Black Widow'. Sure, he got guillotined at the end, fired up an Eddie-style Frankenstein's monster and even whipped his snake out, missus, but where was our old favourite the Naughty Nurse? Maybe they couldn't fit the full arena show into the Colston Hall – this was the smallest venue on the UK tour, after all – but at least the audience got into the Halloween spirit by dressing up as ghouls, zombies and the like, as though they were entering a fancy dress contest. Which, in fact, they were, with prizes handed out to an impressive Rob Zombie and his ladyfriends on stage before the show.

All of which means attention was focused on Alice's songs rather more than usual. That's no bad thing, as his songwriting skills are so often overshadowed by the gruesome panto. This is the guy who wrote the much-covered, cleverly ambiguous 'Only Women Bleed', after all. He front-loads most of the 70s hits – 'I'm Eighteen', 'No More Mr Nice Guy', 'Billion Dollar Babies' – that famously inspired the young John Lydon, adding the truly wonderful 'Under My Wheels'; that heartfelt paean to necrophilia, 'Cold Ethyl'; and the rarely played 'Muscle of Love'. The actionably Stonesy 'I'll Bite Your Face Off', delivered with a Jagger-esque cock-of-the-walk swagger, represents new album 'Welcome 2 My Nightmare', while 'Brutal Planet' and 'Wicked Young Man' remind us that his recent, heavier material has lost none of its lyrical playfulness. That said, the atypical 'Clones (We're All)' from 1980's 'Flush the Fashion' sounds like a bizarre early 80s new wave time capsule. There's a book – or possibly a very boring magazine article – to be written on why it is that music from the 80s now sounds way more dated than stuff from the 70s or 60s.

'School's Out' (now incorporating 'Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)') inevitably closes the show before Alice returns to deliver 'Elected'. Waving a Union Jack and demanding "Why not me?" he declares, tongue-in-cheek, that he knows we've all got problems and he doesn't care about any of them. No thanks, Alice – we've already got one of those. (Robin Askew)

Copyright Robin Askew 2011