PART 3: The 'Missing' Years
1980 saw Alice searching for a new character and musical style following his first brush with rehab. With the dawn of the new decade he seemed to have lost touch with his audience and while concert attendances were still good, album sales were falling fast.
For his next releases, Alice changed musical style - he tapped into the current fad of post-punk/new wave music!
He also changed his image from the gothic horror of the 70's, to what was (at the time) described as the 'widow twanky' look, a reference to the British theatre pantomime dames and their pancake makeup and chopstick hairdos
The classic Alice was gone. He even appeared on album covers in normal clothes with short hair, although actually it was just tied back in a poni-tail
In interviews and on stage he was still a performer and the entertainment was as good as ever, but to the average rock fan on the street, he looked like he had fallen to the traditional rock 'n' roll evils of drink and drugs.
This did not mean the early eighties albums were bad. All had their moments, and are hailed by some people as being among his best. But with his relationship with Warner Brothers almost non-existant, Alice was clearly adrift, looking for a new direction to take
The period 1980-1983, is also a time when Alice kept a pretty low profile outside of the shows. He fell of the wagon briefly and returned to the alcohol after a sip of Sheryl`s wine at dinner, and (although it wasn't admitted until 30 years later) he also discovered cocaine...
By his own admission, Alice has no memory of the recording of his next four albums - 'Flush The Fashion', 'Special Forces', 'Zipper Catches Skin' and 'DaDa'
Thankfully, Alice cleaned up for good around 1984 and that he has been "clean" ever since, but the period 1980 - 1984 was very much a low point in his history