Hollywood Vampires live at Utilita Arena Birmingham (20.8.2026) with The Jesus and Mary Chain supporting.
The Hollywood Vampires are a bit of an unusual one, for me at least. It’s Alice Cooper and special friends celebrating dead rock legends with their own music, Alice Cooper’s music and fitting covers for the said deceased legends. The idea seems to have some longevity to it. I saw them 2018 and 2023 in Birmingham and here we are three years later. Me and Plymouth Dave.
The fan base appears to be largely Alice Cooper fans with some heavy rock interest and no doubt some lured by Johnny Depp on rhythm guitar and some vocals.
Johnny has been feature of the band since it started in 2012, as has Aerosmith’s Joe Perry. There are six in the live band tonight, some from Alice Cooper’s usual band including guitarist Tommy Henrikson who gets more of a name check.
Support band tonight, The Jesus and Mary Chain (JMC), were a particular draw for me. More polished circumstances and performances these days – no storming off stage in a sea of feedback after 25 minutes.
I didn’t see JMC back in the beginning, only catching up with them in 2022 in the John Peel tent at Glastonbury and then in April 2024 at the Roundhouse in London. (link to blog).
The chance of JMC saying much is remote and in a support slot even less: they proceed, letting their music do the talking. A very good sound, the fuzzy tones remarkably clear, with the visuals limited to various shades of darkness.
April Skies and Some Candy Talking were the high spots for me. The selection included three songs with Simone Marie Butler guesting on vocals, one of which the more gentle Just Like Honey, well slightly more gentle.
A great wall of sound. Quite an unusual choice of support band for tonight, I thought. Reasonably well received without any over enthusiasm from the all seated arena crowd. Although not instantly noticeable, the entire upper tier is blacked out with that canvas stuff, such is the flexibility of these venues that can calm the effect of any over ambitiousness on the ticket sales front.
There is a good range of songs being covered – The Who’s Baba O’Riley one of the best. I was pleasantly surprised by the inclusion of a Killing Joke song, The Death and Resurrection Show, with Johnny Depp on vocals. Depp also leads on Bowie’s Heroes which proves one of the most popular numbers.
Raise The Dead and My Dead Drunk Friends are the two signature Vampires’ tunes, accompanied by backdrops of grave stones and images of lost rockers.
Alice Cooper commands the performance, prowling with his cane and top hat out on the walkway. The cane is lobbed into the crowd when he’s done with it and I bumped into the guy who caught it on the WM Metro next morning.
Walk This Way was the Joe Perry moment, preceded by AC/DC’s Highway To Hell. These went down a treat.
School’s Out was the last of the main set, morphing into Another Brick in the Wall. Classic old stuff. A lot of water under a lot of bridges since I saw Alice Cooper performing School’s Out on Top Of The Tops.
The second of two encores was High Ho Silver Lining, Jeff Beck being another dead friend remembered. I couldn’t kick my legs in the air these days but everyone was on their feet for these old maestros of rock’n’roll..and Johnny Depp.
Gigs with Ivan 