AO Arena, Manchester, 18th August 2026
I got the train into Manchester, made my way to the AO Arena, and arrived just in time to catch The Jesus and Mary Chain – which was lucky, because apparently I had completely misunderstood the bill. For some reason, I had convinced myself The Damned were opening. They were not. That was the open-air shows… Oops.
Instead, I got my first ever taste of The Jesus and Mary Chain, a Scottish rock band I genuinely hadn’t listened to before the gig. And honestly, I was pretty impressed. They were a solid, moody introduction to the evening, bringing plenty of post-punk atmosphere to the arena. There was just one slight issue: they had absolutely zero stage presence.
Granted, we weren’t particularly close to the stage, although we had an absolutely brilliant view, so perhaps that didn’t help. Still, watching a band perform without much movement or interaction does make you wonder whether you’re watching a gig or a particularly loud rehearsal. Then again, The Jesus and Mary Chain are in their sixties, so perhaps expecting them to be bouncing around the stage like a band half their age is asking a bit much. They sounded good, and ultimately that’s what I was there for. One star secured.
Then came the Hollywood Vampires… I missed their Manchester show in 2018, which until very recently I had been telling myself wasn’t that long ago. Turns out it was nearly eight years ago. So I’ve been waiting a surprisingly long time to finally see them.
The whole appeal of Hollywood Vampires is, obviously, the ridiculous amount of star power crammed onto one stage. Alice Cooper. Joe Perry. Johnny Depp. Tommy Henriksen. Chris Wyse. Glen Sobel. It is, quite literally, a supergroup. Even if you’re not completely sold on the band’s sound, there’s something undeniably entertaining about being in an arena watching two people (namely Cooper and Perry) who have collectively been responsible for an absolutely obscene amount of rock ‘n’ roll history.
For me, Alice Cooper was always going to be the main event. I absolutely love Alice, and I’m fairly sure I wasn’t the only person there primarily because of him. There was also a certain demographic of middle-aged women in the audience who may or may not have been there primarily for Johnny Depp. But who am I to speculate?
The Vampires opened with I Want My Now, and immediately brought a bit more energy to the arena than we’d been getting from the support act. To be fair, they weren’t exactly running around setting the place on fire, but after The Jesus and Mary Chain had spent their set looking like they’d rather be anywhere else, literally doing the bare minimum suddenly felt quite energetic. Contrast is a fine thing indeed.
I was particularly pleased when they played Alice Cooper’s I’m Eighteen, before going into Dead Drunk Friends. That was probably my favourite little combination of the night, and exactly the sort of thing I was hoping to hear. There is something very satisfying about watching Alice Cooper perform songs that have been part of rock history for decades while standing in an arena full of people who clearly know every word.
Johnny Depp’s cover of Heroes was actually rather nice, too. I will say, though, that for a man who has spent quite a significant portion of his career being watched by millions of people, he is an astonishingly boring musician to watch. I don’t doubt that he can play, and clearly plenty of people were there specifically to see him, but as a performer he didn’t exactly command the stage. Alice, meanwhile, could probably walk onto a stage in complete silence and still make it feel like something was happening.
And honestly, I think a big part of why I enjoyed the night so much was who I was there with. I went with my dad and my boyfriend Tom, and we had an absolute blast. Sometimes that’s really all you need from a gig. I wasn’t there expecting Hollywood Vampires to completely reinvent rock music. I was there to watch Alice Cooper, hear some classic songs, see a ridiculous supergroup in the flesh and have a great night out in Town.
I also think you have to accept a certain amount of rock star just collecting the cheque and going home energy when you go to see a band like Hollywood Vampires. That’s fair enough. None of them actually have to be on that stage. They’ve all had enormously successful careers elsewhere, and there is something quite funny about the fact that Hollywood Vampires feels slightly like a very expensive rock ‘n’ roll side project that somehow ended up playing arenas.
But Alice Cooper, particularly, doesn’t seem to be treating it like that. There is still a genuine love of performing there, and watching him on stage is exactly what you’d expect from someone who has spent decades turning himself into one of rock’s most recognisable characters. Whether he’s singing, talking to the crowd or waving around a pair of absolutely magnificent sparkly maracas, he knows exactly what he’s doing.
And yes… The sparkly maracas deserve their own mention.
So, would I recommend seeing Hollywood Vampires? Absolutely. Even if you’re not their biggest fan musically, the sheer ridiculousness of the lineup makes them worth seeing. You’re unlikely to get many opportunities to watch Alice Cooper, Joe Perry and Johnny Depp sharing a stage, and frankly, that’s the sort of thing you might as well take advantage of while you can. One star for The Jesus and Mary Chain. One star for excellent company. And one star for Alice Cooper’s iconic sparkly maracas.
Three, humble, stars. And honestly, I had a brilliant night.
★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
