If you're going to see the show and don't want to have the element of surprise spoiled, then look away now...
The stage was set up behind a giant curtain with a huge Alice Skull and illustrations of various methods of death - tonight there were to be four killings of Alice...
The show started with "School's Out" as the curtain fell to the ground to reveal the classic Alice line up of two guitars, bass and drums with huge "a" "l" "i" "c" and "e" letters suspended on the set...
His biggest hit was followed in quick succession by two more teen anthems (from a 61 year old!)
"Department of Youth"...
and "I'm Eighteen" - featuring a crutch made from human bones...
Then, straight into (Alice never talks to his audience until the band intros in the encore) "Brutal Planet"'s "Wicked Young Man"...
...which featured the bloody impaling of a stooge on Alice's microphone stand...
Of course he had to be punished for that and so, into the straight jacket for "The Ballad of Dwight Fry"...
..and then, just five songs in, out came the guillotine and it was off with his head...
...but they can't kill Alice tonight and so he reappeared in hell for a maracas wielding rendition of "Go to Hell"...
...and the classic tongue in cheek rocker, "Guilty"...
Then it was "Welcome to My Nightmare"...
...as Alice was attacked by a group of zombies...
...including the first appearance of his daughter Calico as "Cold Ethyl", whom of course he had to treat rather badly and then serenade with his 1989 chart topper "Poison"...
Calico then reappeared as the poisonous nurse to kill Alice a second time, using a giant syringe to extract his lifeblood...
Singing "Welcome to My Nightmare"'s seldom heard "The Awakening", Alice came back to life in a mental asylum, the Renfield Nelson Asylum, named after his long serving assistant Brian Nelson, who died suddenly last year...
Alice hit the bottle to the title track from "From the Inside"...
...then, he was once again removed from the stage, this time by the asylum orderlies, only to reappear in a wheel chair...
As he sang "Nurse Rozetta", the titular nurse taunted him and sent sparks from her nether regions with some kind of metal codpiece type thing to which she applied a hand-held circular saw (I kid you not)...
Alice regained the ability to walk and sang two classics from the "Love it to Death" album to the wayward nurse, "Is It My Body" and "Be My Lover", while she proceeded to strip behind a screen...
With one of her stockings over his head, Alice made his way behind the screen and strangled her with the other...
And so, time for the ballad, "Only Women Bleed", sung to the lifeless girl...
For this latest misdemeanor, Alice had to be punished again and out rolled the gallows as his head was put through the noose to the strains of "I Never Cry"...
The nurse came back to life and kicked away the stand holding him up, leaving him dangling by the neck...
As Alice's lifeless body was wheeled offstage after this third killing, the band rocked out to an instrumental version of "The Black Widow"...
But he was back again, this time standing on top of a rather high set of stairs to sing "Vengeance is Mine" from his latest LP, "Along Came a Spider"...
"Devil's Food" followed, with rarely sung extra verses not featured on the original 1975 recording as Alice urged us to repent our evil ways...
But he tempted us during "Dirty Diamonds" by lobbing necklace after necklace of diamonds into the audience...
...and distributing dollar bills to the front rows from the end of his sword to the classic "Billion Dollar Babies"...
Of course, he just couldn't help himself and ended the song by decapitating said baby...
...and displaying the severed head on the end of his sword...
Time for one last punishment then and, as "Killer" rang out around the hall, an Iron Maiden machine was brought onto the stage and he was locked inside...
The mad nurse returned, took a run at the machine and launched the spikes through the villain's body, sending another waterfall of blood into the front row...
The entire audience, your correspondent included, sang along to "I Love the Dead" as, once again, Alice's lifeless body was taken from the stage...
...only for him to return for the quick-fire finale of hit singles "No More Mr. Nice Guy" and "Under My Wheels", while sporting a T shirt full of bloody holes...
The evening had gone by in no time but there was time for just one more song as the band returned to the stage for a reprise of "School's Out", featuring Alice tripping the light fantastic in shiny silver top hat, tails and cane...
What a showman, what a show...
Setlist:
School's Out
Department of Youth
Eighteen
Wicked Young Man
Ballad of Dwight Fry
Go To Hell
Guilty
Welcome To My Nightmare
Cold Ethyl
Poison
The Awakening
From The Inside
Nurse Rozetta
Is It My Body
Be My Lover
Only Women Bleed
I Never Cry
The Black Widow
Vengeance Is Mine
Devil's Food
Dirty Diamonds
Billion Dollar Babies
Killer
I Love The Dead
No More Mr. Nice Guy
Under My Wheels
Schools Out
