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-   -   The Alice Cooper Thread (https://www.cult-labs.com/forums/music/11713-alice-cooper-thread.html)

Susan Foreman 5th May 2019 05:49 AM

Alice played his first major concert of 2019 on Saturday (May 4th) when he headlined the Domination Festival in Mexico

However, looking at the setlist, it would appear that this was the final show of the 'Paranormal Evening With...' tour rather than the first one of the new 'Black Eyes Is Back' tour
  • Brutal Planet
  • No More Mr. Nice Guy
  • Under My Wheels
  • Billion Dollar Babies
  • Be My Lover
  • Lost in America
  • Serious
  • Fallen in Love
  • Woman of Mass Distraction
  • Guitar Solo
  • Poison
  • Halo of Flies
  • Feed My Frankenstein
  • Cold Ethyl
  • Only Women Bleed
  • Paranoiac Personality
  • Ballad of Dwight Fry
  • Killer
  • I Love the Dead
  • I'm Eighteen
  • School's Out (w/Another Brick In the Wall)

The American Hollywood Vampires tour starts on Friday (May 10th) and continues until May 18th when there is a short break until July 4th when the 'Ol' Black Eyes Is Back' tour begins in earnest with a promised new setlist and stage show

Susan Foreman 6th May 2019 08:14 AM

The Spiders at the VIP club in Arizona circa 1966. At this time, the band were still playing covers and a typical show would include 'Lil' Red Rooster', 'Love that Dirty Water', ' Hey Mona!', 'In The Midnight Hour', 'Louie Louie', 'Route 66', 'Stormy Monday', '19th Nervous Breakdown', 'I'm a Man', 'Smokestack Lightning', 'As Tears Go By' and 'Love Potion Number 9'


Susan Foreman 8th May 2019 12:17 PM

AAA World has an interview wih Alice about cars!


"Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Alice Cooper, considered “The Godfather of Shock Rock,” is world famous for his many hits, including “School’s Out” and “No More Mr. Nice Guy.” The 71-year-old singer still tours for almost 200 days annually, with performances that are part vaudeville, part Broadway and 100 percent musical thunder. In keeping with his macabre onstage persona, he slides into a guillotine for the highlight of the concert. While a shocking maneuver, it’s done with a sly wink at the audience not to take it too seriously. Offstage, Cooper is a reflective family man with many interests, including golf, classic cars and his foundation, Solid Rock, that helps teens in his hometown of Phoenix, Arizona, to explore and develop their artistic talents.

AAA World: How did you first get interested in cars?

Alice Cooper: I’m originally from Detroit [Michigan], so it’s in my DNA. I’d always sit in art class designing cars. In my teens, I was at that perfect age, with all the Beach Boys songs about cars and driving. A car was your declaration of independence that also reflected who you were. You had to have something that was flashy and cool.

AAAW: What was your first car?

Cooper: It was a 1966 Ford Fairlane GT 390, yellow with a black stripe. The band [the core of what came to be known as the Alice Cooper band started playing music together in high school] was starting to make some money while I was in high school, so my share went into a drawer. After two years, I had enough to buy [the car] new. By this time, my family had moved to Phoenix because of my asthma, so my friends and I would drive out into the desert and cut loose.

AAAW: You mentioned cars being in your DNA?

Cooper: My dad sold used cars on Woodward Avenue in Detroit. Unfortunately for him, he was an honest used car salesman. He would point out if the odometer had been turned back or if the car had been in an accident, so he made no money at it. When that didn’t work out he ended up selling new Plymouths, so we’d get a Plymouth Fury every year, watching as the tail fins grew larger and larger. By 1958 it was a battleship.

AAAW: What’s a car that you pined for in your youth that you now own?

Cooper: The 1963 Studebaker Avanti. People hated how the car looked, but I liked it because it’s got this asymmetrical body and was just the weirdest car. When it came out I was 15 and thought it was the coolest thing I’d ever seen in my life. According to an FBI agent that I later met, the one I own was being driven by a Soviet spy when that agent arrested him, so I’ll have to hold on to that one.

AAAW: On another subject, you’re involved with a program encouraging teens with the arts. How did the Solid Rock Teen Center get started?

Cooper: While visiting a neighborhood ministry program in a gangland part of [Phoenix], I saw two 16-year-old kids doing a drug deal on the street. I thought, ‘How does that kid not know he might be the best guitar player in Arizona, while the other kid might be the best drummer?’ I thought we could run a program, just for teenagers, where they would come in and learn any instrument for free. Gang kids or the richest kid in Paradise Valley, what do they have in common? Music. We’ve expanded from music performance to art and dance. We tell kids, ‘Come in and discover your talent and let us help you nurture it.’ We get 100 kids a day here, from all walks of life, who come because they are going to get something out of it that could change their life. Our first in-house competition was won by Jordin Sparks. When she went on to win American Idol in 2007, she wore her Solid Rock bracelet the whole time.

AAAW: You have a rigorous touring schedule. What are some tips for staying sane on the road?

Cooper: Travel with people you like to spend time with. For the band, I pick musicians I like. They all get along, and they’re professionals. I play golf every morning; 9 holes if there’s a concert or 18 if it’s an off-night. My wife, Sheryl, to whom I’ve been married for 43 years, is a dancer in the show and travels with us, so I bring ‘home’ with me.

AAAW: What’s an item you always travel with?

Cooper: It sounds crazy, but I always bring kung fu videotapes. I try to find obscure films like Five Golden Shaolins vs. The Army of Darkness. There are thousands of them out there. The dubbing is really bad, but the fight scenes are great, and they get me charged up for the show. Before I go on stage, I watch an hour of these.

AAAW: You’re on the road for more than half the year. Where do you get the energy?

Cooper: In 9th grade, my friend Dennis Dunaway [a co-founder of the band] talked me into going out for cross-country. I didn’t know I was a distance runner until then, and I ended up being a four-year letterman. That endurance still helps me. I also quit drinking 38 years ago and quit anything having to do with drugs. I never smoked cigarettes.

Once you get in front of an audience, the adrenaline kicks in. It doesn’t matter if you have a migraine headache or the flu or a toothache. When the curtain goes up and the audience is there, all of that takes a back seat. You do the show, and the adrenaline is making you feel pretty good. Of course, when the show is over, that’s a different story.

I remember back when I was drinking, I was using a sword that was owned by Errol Flynn—I still use it in the show—and I’m waving it around and decide to stick it into the stage, but instead, I stuck it right through my leg. It was spurting blood, and the audience thought it was a trick that was part of the show—but the band knew it wasn’t. I pulled the sword out, and there’s little puddles of blood all over the stage and, honestly, no pain, nothing, until after the show, when I just collapsed. I poured whiskey on it because I figured that’s what James Bond would do. The next day, I could barely walk, but then the curtain goes up again, and I’m out there like nothing happened. I’m flying, no problems at all. I still get that adrenaline burst because there are 10 or 15 thousand people out there who want Alice Cooper, and I’m more than happy to give it to them. It’s nothing but fun.

AAAW: You’ve spent a career giving people nightmares. What scares you?

Cooper: A few years ago, I was playing in Romania with my other group, The Hollywood Vampires, that includes Johnny Depp and [Aerosmith guitarist] Joe Perry. [Movie director] Tim Burton was with us. We had a day off, so they put on a special dinner for us at Dracula’s Castle. A guy dressed up like Vlad the Impaler told us all the scary stories of the old days. It was pretty crazy. It was definitely a place you wouldn’t want to spend the night."

Susan Foreman 10th May 2019 05:52 AM

L.A Weekly has a new feature on the Vampires

"The Return Of the Hollywood Vampires


Ah, the Hollywood Vampires. That most notorious of drinking gangs that lurked in the dark corners of the Rainbow loft on Sunset, as well as in various London holes, in the 1970s. Alice Cooper, still in his days of wild abandon, was the president, ruling over a court of jesters that included Monkee Micky Dolenz, Harry Nilsson, Keith Moon and Ringo Starr, with regular cameos by the likes of Marc Bolan, Keith Emerson, John Belushi, John Lennon and Bernie Taupin.

It was quite the scene and, with the benefit of rose-tinted nostalgia goggles, it’s all part of the historical rock & roll glamor of the Sunset Strip. The biggest musicians in the world, getting together to drink to excess and regale each other with tales of excess. Who wouldn’t want to be in that room, just to observe?

It’s likely that the reality was less impressive though. The “haze” was that they had to outdrink each other, and anybody who’s ever been in a room with similar games taking place knows that it rarely ends well, dignity in place. The Hollywood Vampires, the drinking club, are a relic of a bygone age. Moon and Nilsson, as well as some of the guest players, are sadly gone, in many cases because of that excess.

Some, but not all. The president himself cleaned up his act a long time ago and, in 2015, formed a band called the Hollywood Vampires with friends Joe Perry of Aerosmith and actor Johnny Depp. As with the drinking club, it has its core members and then a number of rotating guest stars. The current drummer is Glen Sobel from Cooper’s band while journeyman Chris Wyse is playing bass, but former players have included Duff McKagan (Guns N’ Roses), Brad Whitford (Aerosmith), Matt Sorum (Gn’R, The Cult) and Robert DeLeo (Stone Temple Pilots).

So the theme, one of rock & roll’s elite getting together to have a great time in a dark room, is one that the Hollywood Vampires band shares with the Hollywood Vampires club. The difference is the stimulant because, this time, the music is enough. That’s what is floating their collective boat. Still, it’s a link not lost on Cooper.

“Most of those guys were on the first album, although not Micky,” Cooper says, over the phone. “I asked him. Mind you, Micky, Bernie Taupin, Ringo and myself are the only ones still alive. Ringo is difficult to nail down — he tours as much as I do. I’d love to have gotten Micky on it though.”

The self-titled debut album came out in 2015 and featured guest appearances from (no less than) Sir Paul McCartney, Robby Krieger, Dave Grohl, Christopher Lee, Slash, Brian Johnson (AC/DC), Joe Walsh, Perry Farrell and, somehow appropriately, Zac Starkey. That the current Who drummer and son of Ringo has guested with this Hollywood Vampires following in the footsteps, albeit in a healthier way, of both his dad and Moon, feels all kinds of right.

That first album included 11 covers and 3 original tracks. Those new songs pointed to the dark themes explored by the group while also paying tribute to fallen comrades — if “The Last Vampire” wasn’t clear enough, “My Dead Drunk Friends” certainly was. The new album is called Rise, and the balance has shifted — this time there are just three covers and a full 13 new songs.

Mind you, the choice of covers reveals that they’re still wallowing in the same morbid glamor. Jim Carroll’s “People Who Died,” sung with a knowing croon by Depp, feels perfectly in keeping, as does Johnny Thunder’s near perfect “You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory,” given a raw, deadpan vocal treatment by Perry, and Bowie’s “Heroes,” again sung by Depp.

“Johnny Chose ‘People Who Died’ by Jim Carroll because he knew him, so I said he should sing it and he does a great job,” says Cooper. “He said to me, ‘I don’t sing,’ but I said, ‘What do you mean — you did Sweeney Todd.’ That’s basically an opera, and he did a great job. That song has a cool punk vibe that Johnny can do well. Johnny Thunders’ ‘Can’t Put Your Arm Around A Memory’ needs a deadpan kind of approach, and Joe does that well.”

As for the original tracks, Cooper says that the influences of the other guys played a greater part, as opposed to trying to make the songs “Alice-like.” That shows, from opening song “I Want My Now” (which clocks in at a whopping 7:13), with it’s croaky swing. Elsewhere, “The Boogieman Surprise” sounds precisely like Cooper fronting Aerosmith, while “Who’s Laughing Now” is classic Coop. Meanwhile, there's a guest appearance by Jeff Beck as well as "king of sleaze" movie director John Waters on "Welcome To Bushwackers."

In fact, the more you listen to the album the more it becomes clear that, weirdly, Depp and Perry are bringing out the best in their frontman. Gone is the '80s and '90s polish — a lot of this is reminiscent of old school Alice Cooper Band.

“Johnny and Joe wrote together, while I was out with Glen Sobel who also plays in my band,” Cooper says. “Then we’d bring it together. It really feels like a real band now. Everyone is busy doing their own thing but then we come together and it’s very natural. It was fun to sing somebody else’s angst. Johnny’s had a rough year, so a lot of his lyrics have been about that. Jeff Beck is a hero of mine so having him on is a treat for me.”

Still, Cooper has a solo career, Perry is still busy with Aerosmith, and Depp is doing what he does. How does Cooper make the balance work?

“You know, it’s very easy because it’s very different,” he says. “With the Alice Cooper show, I play a role, a character. That’s what I’ve always done. Here, it’s a band and I’m one of them. We call ourselves a bar band — that’s what it is and it’s the same for all of us. Our guitarist is Johnny Depp, but we don’t think of him as Johnny Depp the actor. Music was his first love, so to us he’s just our guitarist. It’s nice to be back in a band again.”"

Susan Foreman 11th May 2019 07:07 PM

The Hollywood Vampires have just started their short US tour, with a date at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas

As expected, the set list was a mixture of covers and new songs:
  • I Want My Now
  • Raise the Dead
  • As Bad As I Am
  • Five to One / Break on Through - (The Doors cover)
  • The Jack - (AC/DC cover)
  • Who's Laughin' Now
  • The Boogieman Surprise
  • You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory - (Johnny Thunders cover) [Joe Perry vocals]
  • My Dead Drunk Friends
  • Baba O'Riley - (The Who cover)
  • Heroes - (David Bowie cover) [Johnny Depp vocals]
  • Git' From 'Round Me
  • I'm Eighteen - (Alice Cooper cover)
  • The Train Kept A-Rollin' - (Tiny Bradshaw cover)
  • People Who Died - (The Jim Carroll Band cover) [Johhny Depp vocals]
  • School's Out / Another Brick In The Wall - (Alice Cooper / Pink Floyd cover)

    Encore:
  • We Gotta Rise


Susan Foreman 13th May 2019 07:11 AM

Second night of the Vampires tour. The Greek in Los Angeles - May 11th

'I'm Eighteen' with Marilyn Manson

'Train Kept A Rollin'' with Steven Tyler

Susan Foreman 13th May 2019 07:41 PM

Alice with the legendary Burt Bacharach. Date unknown, but it's possibly circa March 1974


Demdike@Cult Labs 13th May 2019 10:00 PM

Taken in Las Vegas i understand. From a book of Bacharach music called Anthology.

Susan Foreman 14th May 2019 11:09 AM

One of the new Vampire songs, 'We Gotta Rise', filmed at the Greek Theatre in LA

People are saying it has an uncanny similarity to the Fat Les song 'Vindaloo'!


Susan Foreman 16th May 2019 05:49 PM

Live version of the new Vampires single - 'The Boogieman Surprise'



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