The Hollywood Vampires + The Jesus and Mary Chain @ The O2, London 12th August 2026
Around ten years ago, when I first heard that Alice Cooper and Joe Perry were forming a band with Johnny Depp, it stirred very little interest in me. These were a bunch of multi-millionaires messing around because they could, right? The name interested me because of the 1970s drinking club featuring John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Keith Moon, Harry Nilsson and Micky Dolenz, amongst others. The name was apt, as Alice Cooper was one of the last men standing from that particular club, and that was only because he’s been sober since 1983. As for Johnny Depp – can he even play? Then four years ago I saw Johnny Depp play with Jeff Beck at the Royal Albert Hall, and yes, he can play. So I paid a bit more attention to The Hollywood Vampires, which has led me here to The O2 tonight.
The night’s first surprise is that The Jesus and Mary Chain are the support act. Forty years ago that would have been a controversial choice. In many ways it still is. Rock and metal audiences can be extremely conservative. I remember a few years ago when Biffy Clyro headlined Sunday at Download; many people left early because Biffy “weren’t metal enough”. As it is, many people stay in the bars drinking £9 pints rather than see the Mary Chain.
More fool them, because tonight the Mary Chain are on fire. There’s still something very dark, dangerous and subversive about the band, even after forty years. That’s possibly what the Vampires like about them. They still carry with them the feeling that absolutely anything could happen. The slicing, visceral fuzz guitars feel violent. They sound like a substantially more dangerous and distorted Velvet Underground.
The band cherry-pick from their back catalogue while also playing material from their most recent album, 2024’s Glasgow Eyes. Indeed, they open with Jamcod from that very album. Some Candy Talking is served up relatively early in the set. It’s certainly lost none of its power. Tonight’s gig isn’t sold out, incidentally. Level 4 is closed off and two blocks on the ground floor are covered over. Times are hard, and gig tickets are low on the list of priorities for many people.
Cracking Up has the air of a dirtier Joy Division. For Sometimes Always and Just Like Honey, the band are joined by Simone Butler on co-lead vocals. Closer Reverence has a gloriously sustained and distorted guitar intro, and a cataclysmic drum-led ending with feedback. Of note is the repeated line “I wanna die like JFK”. Be careful what you wish for, Jim.
The Mary Chain had been playing on a relatively thin strip at the front of the stage. As the stage is prepared for The Hollywood Vampires, I’m surprised at how big it actually is. Before the band comes on there’s an introductory film that takes us through the gates of the Vampires’ mansion, to the accompaniment of Bela Lugosi’s Dead by Bauhaus. I’d long since become accustomed to the fact that the Vampires play a lot of covers, so I am pleased to see Joe Perry at the front of the stage playing the intro to I Want My Now, one of their own songs.
Indeed, the first three songs are Vampires’ originals, with the opener quickly followed by Raise the Dead and the very apt My Dead Drunk Friends. It’s forty years since I first saw Alice Cooper. He appears completely unchanged. I wish I could say the same about me! He must have come to an arrangement with somebody somewhere.
The first Alice Cooper song of the night is I’m Eighteen, and it’s absolutely awesome. There’s a walkway into the audience, and Alice owns it as he strides down it, crutch in hand. It looks much more like a weapon than a walking aid. Joe Perry plays the guitar intro and swaps solos with Johnny Depp. As I said earlier, the boy can play. One cover I wasn’t expecting was The Velvet Underground’s Venus in Furs. The bass player uses an upright bass whilst Johnny Depp is on lead vocals, doing his best Lou Reed impersonation, which, to be fair, is very good.
There’s a bit of a theme of loss going through the set, starting with My Dead Drunk Friends and continuing with Jim Carroll’s People Who Died. Carroll himself passed away in 2009. Johnny is again on lead vocals, and the song is accompanied by a slideshow of dead rock stars. The theme continues with You Can’t Put Your Arms Around a Memory, which is dedicated to its composer, the late Johnny Thunders. This time Joe Perry is on vocals, and Alice is on rhythm guitar.
Before accusations of morbidity start flying towards the band, there’s red dry ice at the front of the stage, the bass player starts tapping and soloing behind his head, inflatable teeth appear above the band, and they crash into Who’s Laughing Now, another of their original songs. One thing I should point out is that the Vampires’ songs hold their own amongst the covers, most of which are rock classics. Aerosmith’s Livin’ on the Edge may not be quite so much of a classic, but it does have Alice Cooper on vocals and Joe Perry on lead guitar, so it isn’t really all that bad, is it?
As far as rock classics go, they don’t get much better than The Who’s Baba O’Riley. It starts off with just acoustic guitar and is dedicated to John Entwistle before the whole band comes crashing in. Tommy Henriksen plays lead guitar, and Matt Sorum plays a drum solo that Keith Moon would have been proud of. The Vampires don’t ape the original record, but they absolutely do it justice.
After another Aerosmith cover, Bright Light Fright, with Joe Perry on lead vocals, there’s a tribute to the late, lamented Jeff Beck. This starts with a cover of Link Wray’s Rumble, which then segues into Beck’s Bolero, written for Beck by Jimmy Page, who also played rhythm guitar on the original record. This time Joe and Johnny are on cool dual lead guitars. Again, there’s a slideshow in tribute to Beck. There’s a cover of The Doors’ Roadhouse Blues, during which Alice ad-libs about dead rock stars. The Death and Resurrection Show by Killing Joke is another cover that I wasn’t expecting, and it’s another cracking version too.
We seem to be heading towards the end of the set now with David Bowie’s Heroes, and then AC/DC’s Highway to Hell, which is dedicated to Bon Scott and Malcolm Young. In many ways, the core of AC/DC’s sound was Malcolm Young’s rhythm guitar, so this is more than apt. After a masterful version of Aerosmith’s Walk This Way, what else can the set end with but Alice’s School’s Out? Even this isn’t entirely straightforward, though, as it segues into Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2.
The band leave the stage, but not for very long. When they do return, there’s a familiar-looking figure sauntering onstage with them. It’s Ronnie Wood! They pile into 1960s blues boom staple Train Kept A-Rollin’, featuring a solo from Ronnie. Next up it’s Brown Sugar. Ronnie definitely knows this one! After Mr Wood leaves the stage, there’s one more song: Jeff Beck’s Hi Ho Silver Lining. This is perhaps the evening’s only misstep. Jeff Beck detested this song. On the other hand, it’s one of his best-known, and the crowd know it and sing along. So it’s a double-edged sword.
This has been a really interesting show. It could be interpreted as a tribute to musicians who have fallen by the wayside. On the other hand, it could be interpreted as the kind of set that might be played by bar bands across the world any night of the week. Maybe that’s what The Hollywood Vampires are: a shit-hot bar band. If so, they’re the second-best bar band in the world, because everybody knows The Rolling Stones are the best.
WORDS: MARK KELLY PHOTOS: CRIS WATKINS
