Cooper Gig Scrapped On ‘religious Grounds’

ALICE COOPER has been forced to cancel an upcoming concert in Finland after the venue’s owners objected to the controversial rock show on “religious grounds.”

The singer was scheduled to play the Tampere Areena, in Tampere, Finland on 11 December (09) but management officials subsequently admitted the booking conflicted with their “Christian-based policies”.

Tampere Areena boss Harri Wiherkoski announced the cancellation on Friday (15Aug09) and put it down to an objection from other clients who use the venue.

Gig promoter Kalle Keskinen, who helped organised the show, admits he was shocked by the reaction, telling Finland’s YLE news, “(Several religious groups) and others use Tampere Areena for their events, so the venue’s management did not want Alice Cooper appearing in the same hall. The contract which we received from Tampere Areena specifies that no artists may perform there who ‘incite evil and the power of darkness’. We never imagined that a rock veteran who has performed in Finland in four separate decades without any problems and who has spoken in public of his own religious convictions would not be allowed to perform at Tampere Areena in 2009.”

The promoters now hope to move the gig to the city of Espoo, but are “awaiting (Cooper’s) approval of the new arrangements”.

Cooper - real name Vincent Furnier - has courted controversy throughout his career for the macabre themes used in his music and shows, as well as his gruesome onstage theatrics which have included antic beheadings, stabbings and stranglings.

Cooper last appeared in Finland in November 2007, when he played shows in Helsinki, Oulu and Ostrobothnia.