Hollywood Vampires Turn Scarborough Into One Hell Of A Rock ’N’ Roll Party

By Graeme Whitworth

There are supergroups, and then there are bands that simply walk onto a stage and remind you why rock ’n’ roll still matters. At Scarborough Open Air Theatre, Hollywood Vampires delivered exactly that, bringing together Alice Cooper, Joe Perry, Johnny Depp and a seriously accomplished backing band for an evening packed with attitude, classic songs, deep cuts, emotion and some properly impressive musicianship.

From the moment Alice Cooper appeared, the reaction from the packed crowd was enormous. Yet there was no mistaking the biggest roar when Johnny Depp joined the stage. Still recovering from a broken ankle, Depp was never going to be charging around like a traditional frontman, but that hardly mattered. With a guitar in his hands, he looked completely at home.

The Vampires wasted no time getting down to business, opening with ‘I Want My Now’. The combination of Perry, Depp and Tommy Henriksen immediately created a wall of guitar that set the tone for the evening. This was not about elaborate production or endless pyrotechnics. It was about musicians standing together and letting the songs do the talking.

And what songs they had. ‘Raise the Dead’ saw Cooper take control, his unmistakable voice cutting through the night as the huge lips-and-fangs backdrop appeared behind the band. Cooper remains an extraordinary performer. There is a theatrical edge to everything he does, but here he seemed less interested in being the centre of attention and more intent on allowing the entire band to shine.

The set was effectively a rock ’n’ roll history lesson, moving between Hollywood Vampires material, Alice Cooper classics, Aerosmith favourites and a string of carefully chosen covers.

‘I’m Eighteen’ sounded as timeless as ever, before the band headed into the world of The Doors with ‘Five to One’ and ‘Break on Through (to the Other Side)’. Covers can be dangerous territory, particularly when tackling songs that are regarded as sacred by their original fanbases, but Hollywood Vampires attacked them with confidence and plenty of respect.

One of the evening’s real highlights came with ‘My Dead Drunk Friends’. Dark, bluesy and slightly sinister, the track allowed the band to demonstrate just how much more there is to Hollywood Vampires than simply putting famous names together on one stage. Burleigh “Buck” Johnson added some fantastic keyboard work, while Chris Wyse’s bass and Glen Sobel’s drums provided the foundation for a performance that simply oozed character.

Then it was Joe Perry’s turn to step forward. His rendition of Johnny Thunders’ ‘You Can’t Put Your Arms Around a Memory’ was one of those moments where the entire theatre seemed to become quieter. Perry’s guitar playing was sublime, but it was his weathered, blues-soaked vocal that really pulled the song apart and rebuilt it in his own image.

There is an authenticity to Perry that cannot be manufactured. Every note looked and sounded like it had lived through a lifetime of rock ’n’ roll. The Who’s ‘Baba O’Riley’ followed, with Cooper paying tribute to the late John Entwistle, before ‘Who’s Laughing Now’ brought the heaviness back. Wyse’s bass sounded huge, while Perry’s guitar work added another layer of blues-infused menace.

Then came the moment many had been waiting for. Johnny Depp took centre stage for ‘People Who Died’, and the response was immediate. Whatever anyone may think about Depp away from music, on this stage he looked like a musician who genuinely wanted to be there. His guitar playing was confident, his vocals worked perfectly within the band and, despite the obvious limitations caused by his injury, he brought his own understated charisma to the performance.

AC/DC’s ‘The Jack’ kept the party moving before ‘As Bad As I Am’ demonstrated the rawer side of the Vampires’ own material. The chemistry between Cooper and Depp was particularly evident during David Bowie’s ‘Heroes’. Depp took the lead vocal, with Cooper and Perry adding harmonies that gave the performance a surprisingly emotional edge.

Then the evening took a genuinely poignant turn. Depp spoke about the loss of Jeff Beck, describing him as one of the band’s heroes. He then brought out Beck’s white Stratocaster and raised it towards the sky before handing it to Joe Perry. What followed was a beautiful tribute to one of the greatest guitarists ever to pick up the instrument. As images of Beck appeared on the screen, Perry played with a mixture of restraint and fire. It was not simply another guitar solo; it was a moment of genuine respect and affection. In an evening full of rock ’n’ roll excess, this was the moment that hit hardest.

Perry then returned to Aerosmith territory with ‘Bright Light Fright’, delivering a performance packed with attitude, before Depp returned to the microphone for Killing Joke’s ‘The Death and Resurrection Show’. It was dark, hypnotic and completely unexpected.

Then came ‘Walk This Way’. Cooper and Johnson shared vocals while Perry attacked his own classic with the kind of energy that reminded everyone exactly why Aerosmith became one of the biggest rock bands on the planet. The main set closed with ‘The Train Kept A-Rollin’’, another nod to the roots of rock ’n’ roll and a fitting way to bring the main event to a close.

Of course, there was no chance Scarborough was getting away without an encore. Alice returned to the stage and launched into ‘School’s Out’, transforming the theatre into one enormous singalong. The song eventually collided with Pink Floyd’s ‘Another Brick in the Wall’, creating the kind of finale that left the crowd screaming for more.

Hollywood Vampires are not trying to reinvent rock music. They don’t need to. What they do is celebrate it. This was a set built around the songs, the musicians and the sheer joy of playing them. Cooper remains the consummate showman, Perry continues to prove that his guitar playing can still stop you in your tracks, Henriksen, Wyse, Sobel and Johnson supplied a formidable musical engine, while Depp showed that his place on a stage with these musicians is about far more than celebrity.

Scarborough got a night of classic rock, blues, punk, Americana, theatre and outright attitude. Hollywood Vampires didn’t just turn up and play the hits. They opened the rock ’n’ roll vault, threw the doors wide open and invited everyone inside. And judging by the reaction, nobody wanted to leave.