When Alice Cooper (real name Vincent Furnier) burst onto the rock scene in the late '60s, all hell broke loose, or so thought most conservatives anyway. The shock-rocker's debut album, Pretties For You, was released in 1969 and by the mid-'70s Alice Cooper was one of the biggest names in the world of rock'n'roll. Albums such as School's Out (1972), Billion Dollar Babies (1973), and Welcome To My Nightmare (1975), are now regarded as classics, and each title track became a hit in its own right. Throw in other hits such as How You Gonna See Me Now?, You and Me, Poison, and the gorgeously downbeat Only Women Bleed, and you have some serious street cred and a respectable career. It was the clever blend of B-grade horror and hard rock music that attracted the kids and wound up the adults. And, of course, the more you wind up the adults, the more the kids want to be in on it - you gotta love the simplicity of it all. Alice Cooper is still recording new material, and whilst there will always be a fan base (and countless imitators - hello, Marilyn Manson?), it's probably fair to say that Alice’s golden period is probably well and truly over.

The main feature in this two disc set, Prime Cuts, was made in 1991, and is a documentary style presentation with many well known hits interspersed with snippets from Vincent himself (who still refers to Alice Cooper in the third person). It includes comments and observations bordering on worship, from fellow band members, rock friends such as Ozzy Osbourne and Slash (without the hat no less), and various other industry types. The assorted video clips and live performances vary in quality (see below) and few, if any, are full song presentations. I think serious fans will be a little disappointed by this.

The second disc, Extras, is even more interesting and includes more interview footage than music. For the casual fan, it is quite easy viewing. It covers Alice Cooper's entire career up to and including the Brutal Planet Tour. The quality of the footage varies greatly, but includes some interview footage from as recently as 2001. The last segment of film is a live performance of Brutal Planet, and is the only song that is genuinely good quality. A full length DVD release of the Brutal Planet tour would be a better treat for fans.

The content is interesting enough, even to this half-arsed Alice Cooper fan, and it's obvious that there is a definite distinction between Alice Cooper and Vincent Furnier. Vincent (I wonder if he minds if I call him Vince?) seems to be a fairly nice chap who set out to be a star, and knew how he was going to achieve the dream - by shocking people into noticing. They say there's no such thing as bad publicity and I think Vince would agree. He even recounts, with footage, a certain concert and a certain incident with a chicken (no, it's not what you're thinking), and remembers the press that it attracted. He also discusses his manipulation of the press, the wearing of make-up, the boa constrictor, and his enthusiasm for theatrics in rock, especially his own horror-styled antics. It is not exactly a tell-all expose, and no doubt fans will have seen or heard it all, but it is still an interesting look at the career of a genuine entertainer. Vince does talk about the ups and downs of his career, his alcohol addiction and subsequent rehab, but never reverts to preaching.

For fans, this is an interesting look at the man's career with considerable input from Vince himself. It is not a full-length concert, nor a collection of videos, but a loosely edited documentary. Let the nightmare begin.

Trivia: Vince's Dad is a religious minister, his favourite hobby/sport is golf, and on the track Ballad Of Dwight Fry, the explosion in the song is the sound of an Alka-Seltzer being dropped into water and the recording of it slowed down.

Hmm. It's probable that only serious fans could forgive the video and audio quality of the majority of this release. For the rest of us, it can be a bit of a challenge. Both features are presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, and are 16x9 enhanced. I suspect the original aspect ratios are probably 1.33:1, and that the footage has been matted, given that some of it is sourced from television. The quality range is astounding, from very poor through to acceptable, improving when you get to the more recent footage. There is a great deal of colour variation, and at times I had to check my telly hadn't spat the dummy and gone black and white. There is some serious chroma and low-level noise, cross-colouration, and colour bleeding. There is even evidence of severe overmodulation and microphony, plus there are bands of discolouration during some of the earlier performances. This older, more problematic footage contains a lot of comets as the camera pans, and this is accompanied by much glaring, which makes the comets more noticeable.

The overall image is soft, and clarity and detail at times are quite deplorable. As with the colour issues, this becomes better as the feature approaches the end, where the source material is not as old. There is also constant evidence of grain and many film artefacts.

Disc one has a layer change at 16:24 (early huh?) which is only mildly noticeable.

The audio quality also varies markedly. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is very thin sounding, and is front heavy. The subwoofer is called on very infrequently, and the surround speakers merely fill in the sound, just. The Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo mix sounds no better, perhaps even a little worse as every instrument fights for space with the vocals.

Some of the early live performances feature sound that's especially thin to the point of being unlistenable. There is some distortion as the primitive recording equipment struggles to cope with the volume of the music. These are aggressive performances, but the aggressive sound is not really captured.

Audio synchronisation is a noticeable problem in a lot of the interview footage with Vince on disc one. Some of the sound is also quite muddy, and while the interviews are generally easy to understand, the lyrics to many of the songs are not, and there are no subtitles. There is also some background hiss in the video clips, more noticeable in the 5.1 mix.

It must be remembered that most, if not all, of these problems can be put down to the inferior quality of the source material. Some of it is approaching 30 years of age, and while not all recordings from the '70s sound as bad as some of these, many do. Much of the footage recorded was never meant to be played on the equipment available in 2002, and without that forethought, we are left with footage of dubious quality.

The Extras disc contains a further 79 minutes of footage, and is generally of better quality than the feature on disc one, especially the final performance. There is also a Photo Gallery which is self-navigating, lasting 2:24 with accompanying music. Coopergame is a snakes and ladders game with electronic dice rolling. As you land on certain squares you get a snippet from the extras disc. When you land on 100 you get to see the whole video, or you can skip all that and watch the whole thing by selecting Title 2 using your remote control.

There is also a Jukebox that allows you to select songs from the feature, but remember, most are not full-length songs.

Overall, this is not bad value for fans. If, like me, you have but a passing interest in Vince (and/or Alice), there is still enough to keep you listening, but the general lack of audio and video quality makes it a bit more of a chore. Alice is still the master of shock rock, even if Vince comes across as a nice guy. One of rock’s more endurable entertainers, let’s hope that Alice Cooper will always have the desire to be the theatrical genius that he created many, many years ago.