ALICE Cooper will play South Wales for the third time in two years this autumn.

The enduring rocker played Newport Centre first in the run of three on the back of his last but one album, Brutal Planet.

He brought the same show round again six months later to Cardiff International Arena where even more people enjoyed the decapitations and infanticide.

This time he is back as part of a Monsters of Rock (from the same people that held the famous Donnington Race track gigs which stopped ten years ago) tour also featuring lost-rockers Thunder.

But while Brutal Planet was a surprisingly good record for the ancient one, albeit with over use of Marilyn Manson riffs and cheesy production, his latest album Dragontown has to be his worst ever.

A concept album, never a good start in Cooper's stable, Dragontown depicts a hell-like place inhabited by all of Alice's favourite dead rock stars.

But despite the cringe-worthy songs about John Lennon, Elvis and the like, it is unlikely the dire album will detract too much from the Alice Cooper Show, packed as it is with classic hits like Schools Out and Billion Dollar Babies, and the theatricals which are worth the price of admission in itself.

* Alice Cooper plays Cardiff International Arena on Monday, November 25. Dial 029 2022 4488 for tickets.