Thinking of Alice Cooper always puts me in mind of Zodiac and his cohorts. The first time I saw Alice live (The Nightmare Returns, Wembley Arena ’86?), Zod was supposed to be supporting. Brother and I built them up to our two fellow gig-goers as something stupendous, and one of these lads was horrified when Dr And The Medics took to the stage, the good Doctor explaining that ‘Mark’ (aka Zodiac, like Alice is ‘Vince’) had fallen off stage the night before so they were standing in. Weirdly, over 20 years later, the last time I saw Alice live (a couple of Hallowe’ens ago at the Roundhouse), Zodiac did turn up.
As I said at the time ‘four men walk to the front of the stage, hands on hearts as Matt Monro warbling Born Free blares from the sound system. Two are young, thin, long-haired; the other two are fat and old. I hadn't seen Zodiac Mindwarp & The Love Reaction since the Marquee was in Charing Cross Road but here they were, back with a vengeance and half of them larger than ever (shurley life?). The two new boys drummer The Cat aka The Sexiest Man In The World and bassist Head Boy (?) were good but it was grizzled veterans the silly Zod himself and geetarist Cobalt Stargazer (soon to revealed as Co-bald Stargazer ) who inevitably stole the show. They kicked off with Live Dangerously But Not Pretty, but the next two numbers (High Priest Of Love and Backseat Education) really let the good times roll. Top stuff - funny, moving, ridiculous. They did the one that got 'em in the charts, on TOTP, and into my heart : Prime Mover.’
Zodiac and Alice co-wrote Feed My Frankenstein (which both outfits recorded in their own way) too.
Which leads us to the fact that, after rejuvenating my adrenalin levels with Alice’s Constrictor, I pulled Zodiac’s second album from the shelves, and put it onto the cranked up sound system. Wow! I thought it didn’t quite recapture the power, speed and grandeur of their debut (Tattooed Beat Messiah) it’s been so long since I listened to this stuff, that I was delighted to be completely blown away.
Elvis Died For You – “Whether you’re black or white, young or old, country redneck or freak….Elvis Presley will still be the King Of Rock ’N’ Roll’ says the opening, presumably sampled from some interview from ’77, and we’re off with the Love Reaction storming through a perverse tribute to Elvis. Mention of Roberto Duran, F1-11 fighters and lines like ‘Poetry howls like Ginsberg’ never fail to excite.
Tomorrow Belongs To The Love Reaction – it should have done. Anthemic celebration, with menacing spoken word section. 2 out of 2.
Feed My Frankenstein – there you go!
Trash Madonna – must we fling this filth at our pop kids? Disgraceful pornography with a good beat – ‘Bend over, Windsor’ growled Zod at the Old Trout Psychedelic Dancehall. Them were the days.
Airline Highway – it’s not all sleaze and cartoon pulp imagery, as the band lay into corrupt TV evangelists.
Chainsaw – the kind of woman only Zodiac could create.
President Of The United States Of Love – fantastic! If this doesn’t have you punching the air (and thinking of Bill Clinton), you’re dead.
Dr Jekyll And Me – a walk on the dark side (but still tongue in cheek)
Hoodlum Thunder – apart from Prime Mover, possibly the greatest song ever from these buzzards, and this is serious, I think. A seething rage against the atomic bomb and those who would use it. If Oppenheimer did say ‘Thank God it wasn’t a dud’ when The Bomb hit Hiroshima, which God was he thanking?
Meanstreak – the gloriously slow comedown – Zod’s own Sympathy For The Devil.
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