Double whammy of greatness...

Playlist

Soft Machine - Triple Echo

The Bad Plus - It's Hard

Corb Lund - Things That Can't Be Undone

Scriabin - Piano Sonatas 2, 3, 6, 8 & 10

John Cale - Artificial Intelligence

Alice Cooper - Raise the Dead

Alice Cooper - Theatre of Death

Alice Cooper - Mar y Sol 1972

Up early on a cold morning...

To the gym with Soft Machine soundtracking...

Back home for breakfast, and an attempted hair cut...

My trusty almost 20 year old clippers gave up the ghost...

New ones ordered...

Off to that Glasgow for tonight's performance by The Tubes and Alice Cooper, including the four remaining members of the original band, Glen Buxton having died in 1997, just before his 50th birthday...

The rest are now pushing 70...

Parked near the 13,000 capacity Hydro - last time we saw The Coop in Glasgow was 6 years ago at the 3,000 seater Armadillo....

Bananrama were playing there tonight...

It seems Alice Cooper has never been more popular, concert-wise, in the UK...

It is one superb show though - 90 minutes of pure entertainment...

A train to the town centre...

I took a look in Missing, noting an Orrin Evans CD for £3 - he will shortly replace Ethan Iverson in The Bad Plus...

To Fopp and, fittingly, a concert from April 1972 by the original Alice Cooper Group (the OG as Alice calls them) snapped up for twelve of your English pounds...

Over the road in the BHF shop, a different Orrin Evans disc found for 99p...

Yowzah...

Deciding not to take the subway to Mixed Up for a trawl through their £1 discs, I walked along to the Tron and Mono...

Nice skies...

...but nothing enticed and a meet back at Missing with the Exec Producer - along with the purchase of the previously seen Evans disc - was arranged...

These sights noted on the way back...

Back onto the train...

 ...and to the car to drop off purchases...

A good pizza each at Dal Pizzaiolo on Argyle Street...

My pizza was very close to the camera...

A walk back to the venue and in at around 6:20...

The Tubes were due on at 7...

Having your dinner in a box at the venue is hardly rock'n'roll but it seems that's what happens these days...

Right on time, on came the Tubes to sprint through a 45 minute set, rather than their usual two hours...

They started with their usual encores of "She's A Beauty"...

..and "TV is King"

...followed by "Mr Hate" and "Amnesia"

...the classic "What Do You Want From Life"...

...and two more from "Remote Control", the UK hit "Prime Time", which I'd not seen them play since 1979, and the ballad "Love's A Mystery" with an extended coda, including guitar solo from Roger Steen, while Fee Waybill became...

...Quay Lewd...

For "White Punks on Dope" and set closer, "Talk To Ya Later", not usually performed by Mr Lewd...

...and they were gone...

At 8, an interminable set from The Mission, fronted by the obnoxious Wayne Hussey...

Then the stage was set for the main event (which, contrary to what Mr Hussey opined, was not The Mission - idiot)...

A blistering start to the night comprised "Brutal Planet", "Under My Wheels"...

..."Lost in America" (thanks to chum Grant Henderson for this pic taken from his vantage point down on the floor)...

...a surprising "Pain", the hit single "Department of Youth"...

...and the seldom heard these days "The World Needs Guts" (from the 1986 comeback "Constrictor") and "Woman of Mass Distraction"...

By this time, my phone had died and my camera had been accidentally dropped down the back of the seat in front, only to be retrieved at the end of the night...

The set continued with 1989 hit "Poison" followed by a brilliantly orchestrated "Halo of Flies" from "Killer" and the 12 foot monster singing the final choruses of "Feed My Frankenstein"...

Then, into the dark section, with "Cold Ethyl" and "Only Women Bleed", featuring Alice's wife Sheryl and some top notch manic nurse dancing and stabbing...

"Paranoiac Personality" from the latest LP led into the inevitable straight-jacketed "Ballad of Dwight Fry" and "Killer", during which, Alice, once again, rather convincingly tonight I might add, lost his head to the guillotine...

As his severed head was displayed to the crowd and his lifeless body was carted away, the band played "I Love the Dead" and then, instead of just Alice being resurrected, out came Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway and Neal Smith for a mini set comprising "Eighteen", "Billion Dollar Babies", "No More Mr Nice Guy" and "Hello Hooray/Muscle of Love"...

...before the rest of the "young" band returned for a four guitarist, two bassist, two drummer finale of "School's Out/Another Brick in the Wall"...

(Thanks again to Grant for these two pics)

The originals lingered on stage to take the applause of the sell out crowd and Alice dedicated the night to Glen Buxton...

What - A  - Show...

Out and into the smoky tunnel over the motorway...

...to the car and an hour's drive home, soundtracked, inevitably, by the Coop...

Home and new discs ripped and added to the iPod, with the '72 gig sending me into the land of nod...

An excellent day...

Highlight of the Day : Alice Cooper and The Tubes...