Alice Cooper to headline Cropredy for only UK summer show

American rock icon Alice Cooper will headline the opening day of Fairport's Cropredy Convention on Thursday 8 August 2013. It is expected to be Cooper's only UK public appearance during the year.

Alice Cooper's legendary stagecraft and showmanship will mean a uniquely theatrical rock extravaganza for 20,000 fans at the three-day Oxfordshire music festival.

The event has been staged annually since 1980 by folkrock pioneers Fairport Convention. Band member and festival co-organiser Dave Pegg says: "We've been hoping to get Alice Cooper to Cropredy for years and at last the work calendars have coincided. Alice is one of rock music's great originals and his live shows are pure entertainment with their great combination of rock, theatricality and breathtaking staging. But at the end of the day it's the music that counts at Cropredy and Alice has produced some of the most accomplished and exciting rock of the past four decades."

"We are sure our audience will be blown away by Alice Cooper," Mr Pegg continues. "Rock acts always go down well with the Cropredy crowd - just ask Status Quo, for example."

With numerous platinum discs, sold-out tours and dozens of awards, Rock N Roll Hall of Famer Cooper's unique body of work extends over forty years and more than two dozen albums. He is best known for bringing horror imagery to rock music on a cinematic scale - however, the bizarre and dark theatrical themes are always underpinned by finely-honed guitar-driven rock'n'roll with a heavy metal edge.

Fairport's Cropredy Convention takes place on Thursday 8, Friday 9 and Saturday 10 August. Tickets will go on sale on 1 February 2013 from Fairport's online box office at www.fairportconvention.com

Cropredy tickets for all three days are priced at £105; for Friday and Saturday £95; and for Saturday only £70.

The full festival line-up will be announced on 1 February 2013