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The odd thing about Super Duper Alice Cooper is that Michael Bruce never even gets a mention (if memory serves correctly). |
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I was very disappointed the first time I watched it (on Blu-Ray), but a second watch (on Amazon Prime) was slightly better but the film, released in 2014, ends very abruptly in 1986 and a passing mention of 'The Nightmare Returns' tour It's certainly one of the lesser releases from Banger Films (who also released such great documentaries as 'Metal: A Headbangers Journey', 'Flight 666', 'Beyond The Lighted Stage', 'Time Machine' and 'Satan Lives') |
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Feed my Frankensock (Sock Puppet Parody) Halloween Special! |
Looks like there might be a new album coming soon(ish) Now that the US leg of the tour has ended, I'm hearing rumours that the whole have relocated to Nashville where they are finishing the recording of a new album which is potentially to be called 'Road' Apparently they started recording the album in various hotel rooms (?) while they were on tour By my reckoning, this will be the first record that has been recorded by the touring band since 'Along Came A Spider' back in 2008! |
A handful of new US dates have been announced for the start of 2022 28th January - Cincinnati, OH, ICON Music Center 29th January - Toledo, OH, Stranahan Theater 31st January - Wabash, IN, Honeywell Center 3rd February - Louisville, KY, Palace Theatre 4th February - Cherokee, NC, Harrah's Cherokee Event Center 5th February - Savannah, GA, Johnny Mercer Theatre 7th February - Clearwater, FL, Ruth Eckerd Hall 8th February - Orlando, FL, Hard Rock Hotel Orlando |
This years Christmas Pudding is due to take place on December 4th at the Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix, Arizona Music guests confirmed (but subject to change) are Alice Cooper and the touring band (Glen Sobel, Chuck Garric, Tommy Henriksen, and Ryan Roxie [although Nita won't be there as she is out on tour with her own concerts]), Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine, Ed Roland from Collective Soul and Mark McGrath from Sugar Ray |
Alice copper touring with cult, I’m tempted to go. |
'Jester' performing 'School's Out' on the American version of 'The Masked Singer' The panel were not sure of who it was behind the mask, and guesses ranged from Alice Cooper, Roger Daltrey, Sammy Hagar, Ozzy Osbourne, Elon Musk, Dee Snider and Joe Elliott If you haven't guessed who it really is... SPOILER: |
September 27th, 1971 - 50 years ago today, the 'Killer' album is released After opening 1971 with the release of the 5* album 'Love it to Death', the year ended with the release of 'Killer' - another bona fide classic. The songwriting on offer here is absolutely brilliant from beginning to finish. Anyone who had originally thought of Alice Cooper (the man and the band) as nothing more than a disgusting, underground group that performed unlistenable and sloppy rock songs had their world turned upside down when the album was released! 'Killer' opens with two solid hard rock songs which inform the listener of the journey they are going to take. Both 'Under My Wheels' and 'Be My Lover' are excellent tracks that are not only drenched with catchiness, but also feature some excellent guitar work from Michael Bruce. That is followed by the mindboggling progressive rock assault of 'Halo of Flies'. At more that eight minutes in length, this song on its own has enough ideas to fill up an entire album and even the big prog rock acts of the time did not come close to matching it for ideas. 'Desperado, the 'b' side of the 'Under My Wheels' single, is also a great, dramatic song that is a tribute to a good friend and companion of the and - Jim Morrison from The Doors The second side of the album opens with 'You Drive Me Nervous', another solid hard rock song with some excellent schizophrenic guitar work. The weakest song on the album, 'Yeah Yeah Yeah' is still a 4.5* song. This was the 'b' side of the 'Be Ly Lover' single. Back to the classics, and what is there to be said about the song 'Dead Babies'? Controversial in its day, even though it's an anti-child abuse song. It begins rather lightly - almost like a creepy ballad. The tone created is similar to one of the good, early Argento giallo films! The ominous and creepy start leads to the sound effect of a baby crying...and then Alice sings the chorus: "Dead babies can take care of themselves!". The lyrics are weird and the hooks are also incredibly strong. 'Dead Babies' segues into the albums title cut. 'Killer' features some guitar licks that are both entertaining and creative with Alice delivering a furious vocal performance. The ghoul screams in the middle of the song are are absolutely shiver-inducing and the end of the song features a death march that sounds like something that might belong in a Tim Burton movie. It is still used during the execution sequence of the Alice Cooper live show Initial pressings of the album came with a 1972 calendar featuring a picture of Alice in the gallows |
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1 Attachment(s) In todays Daily Mail Adrian Thrills recommends the best festive gifts. Quote:
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December 27th, 1971 - 50 years ago today, the Alice Cooper Band played a concert at the Pittsburgh Civic Arena Setlist / Count 1. Be My Lover - 0:00 2. You Drive Me Nervous - 4:48 3. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah - 7:17 4. I’m Eighteen - 11:55 5. Halo Of Flies - 17:31 6. Is It My Body / My Very Own - 27:19 7. Dead Babies - 34:26 8. Killer - 39:58 9. Long Way To Go - 44:44 |
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New interview at Classic Rock "Catching up with Alice Cooper: return of the road rats With his twenty-first studio album, Detroit Stories, Alice Cooper came up with a stone-cold classic. Now he's looking forward to making up for lost time and taking the show on the road A month into a US tour, we find a newly trim Alice Cooper just minutes away from his nightly beheading in Tupelo, Mississippi. The septuagenarian shock-rock legend spent the majority of the pandemic’s second year promoting Detroit Stories, his extraordinary return-to-form album, while enthusiastically limbering up for a return to the road that really couldn’t come soon enough. Might Detroit Stories have been a different record were it not for lockdown? I don’t think so. We were trying to get all of the aspects of Detroit music in there and still not lose hard rock. Even when we did songs like $1000 High Heeled Shoes, which I wrote as a Motown song, I made sure the guitars and the beat were there. I kept it in the Alice Cooper range even though we certainly did season it towards different things. After over eighteen months off the road, how was finally hitting the stage again after such an extensive lay-off? We were so excited about getting back together and hearing it again, getting on stage, getting the levels and all that stuff. It’s a complicated show but it came back surprisingly quickly. Yours is a long show. Is it a a big ask physically after a year and a half of home comforts and home cooking? Yeah [laughs]. When I left the tour I weighed a hundred and seventy pounds, which is normal, but I wanted to lose fifteen pounds. Then I got covid in December, had it for a month, and lost fifteen pounds like that. It’s the hardest way to lose it, though. I wouldn’t suggest it. I was just a wreck after about a week. Now I’ve had all three shots and we get tested every night before the show. In this new world of infectious disease is it difficult to exercise any degree of social distancing while on the road, because, as the main cog in the Alice Cooper touring machine, you have to remain fit? And I’m not one to sit in my hotel room. I play golf every morning with [Ryan] Roxie, our guitar player and Chuck [Garric, bass]. We know we’ve been tested and it’s just the three of us, then we go back to the hotel until the show, which is the high point of the day. In the live arena you inhabit the character of Alice, a character that’s a long way away from your relatively mild-mannered off-stage persona, which must be a cathartic experience. Do you find that when you don’t have that release it affects your mood? That fragments of Alice start to infect your regular personality? No, I can turn Alice on and off at will. I used to be a lot different, when I drank and took drugs I didn’t know where I began and Alice ended. So I was living in that chaos for quite a while. When I got sober I could separate the two; I could be talking about a movie when the curtain goes up, and in the time I turn from left to right I become Alice. It’s a different posture, brain, look, everything. When the curtain comes back down and the audience isn’t there any more, I’ll go right back into talking about the movie as myself. I can turn the character on and off. That’s something I had to learn to do. The new show is bookended by Feed My Frankenstein and Teenage Frankenstein. Do you feel something of an affinity for the doctor? We’ve always associated ourself with being the monster. We were never part of the flow, so I made sure that we made Frankenstein our mascot. Frankenstein could always dispose of his creature in a pit of molten sulphur or a burning mill, but you have to face yours in the shaving mirror every day. [Laughs] The Feed My Frankenstein monster character is sewn together bits and pieces from all over the place, and introduces what the show is going to be. It’s going to encompass different pieces from different albums, all sewn together like the monster. Then at the end, when the nine-foot creature comes out for Teenage Frankenstein, it’s a nice capper. Did teenage years running on your high school track team shape the man you became, and is running still a large part of what keeps you in shape today? It’s funny you ask about that, because for four months before we tour I run two to three miles a night, and I go right back to my cross country and track workouts. So by the time I get on stage I’m in very good shape. I’m almost seventy-four, and have been very lucky not to have any physical problems, and during the show I feel great. What does 2022 hold for Alice Cooper? Well, you know us, we’re road rats, so now things are opening up again… We had to cancel a hundred and eighty shows across seventeen countries, so we’ve a lot of catching up to do. You’re almost like Bob Dylan now, on that never-ending tour. I read this article about Dylan recently, and when they asked him when he was going to retire he said: “Put the money aside, I write songs and I sing songs for the audience. That’s what I do and everything else is secondary to that.” And I think the same way. I did a thing recently with Smokey Robinson, and we said if the promoters only knew we would do this for free [laughs]. There’s such a big difference between having to tour and wanting to tour. I don’t have to tour at all, I just love it." |
Retro interview from Revolver magazine. This was originally published in 2010 - a long time before this thread started! "Rob Zombie Interviews Alice Cooper: "Enjoy the Bloody, Dirty Stage. Next." Rock superbeasts talk Groucho Marx, why grunge was "boring," and the joys of "offending everybody" For a couple of menacing-looking shock-rock icons, Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie like to laugh. A lot. Over the course of their hour-long conversation, which they did for this article before touring together, the self-proclaimed "Gruesome Twosome"—a name they used for their jaunt together earlier this year—share guffaws at the expense of Cooper's friend, comedian Groucho Marx, Zombie's grade-school PTA, and indie rockers Vampire Weekend. Their sense of humor is just one of many common traits shared by Cooper—the 62-year-old face-painted ghoul responsible for hard rockers like "I'm Eighteen" and whose onstage antics include being beheaded by his bandmates with a guillotine—and Zombie—the dreadlocked 45-year-old who fronted industro-metallers White Zombie, forged his own solo career, and directed movies like The Devil's Rejects. But of course it goes deeper. "Rob Zombie somehow, I don't know how, but is probably a long-lost younger brother of mine," Cooper says. "I've never met anybody that had the same sense of humor, had the same reference points as me—it's way too similar." "And I've realized that, from this photo we took once in a photo booth, we have the same nose, too," Zombie says with a chortle. Their brotherhood is something they've recognized for at least the past 14 years. After Cooper made a surprise appearance at a White Zombie gig in '95, the pair collaborated on the Grammy-nominated "Hands of Death (Burn Baby Burn)," a track for the 1996 X-Files soundtrack Songs in the Key of X, which, incidentally, was Zombie's first solo song. A year later Zombie provided guest vocals on a couple of songs on Cooper's 1997 live album, A Fistful of Alice. The duo would perform together again on Cooper's "School's Out" for Spike TV's 2007 Scream Awards. And most recently, the friends presented the Best Underground Band award to the Dillinger Escape Plan at the 2010 Revolver Golden Gods, before hitting the road for their Gruesome Twosome tour. Since then, Zombie has revamped his band to include new drummer Joey Jordison of Slipknot and the Murderdolls, coheadlined the 2010 Mayhem Fest, and rereleased this year's Hellbilly Deluxe 2. Meanwhile, Cooper wrote some new songs with Zombie's bassist, Piggy D., and has begun work on what he has called a "shriekquel" to his first albums. He's even getting some help from the original Alice Cooper group's bassist Dennis Dunaway and drummer Neal Smith, as well as producer Bob Ezrin, who worked on Cooper's '70s hits. In the meantime, he just released a live DVD, Theatre of Death, filmed last year at London's Hammersmith Apollo. Cooper and Zombie most recently teamed up for the Halloween Hootenanny tour, with Murderdolls as support, this October. By all accounts, their friendship was meant to be. But don't take our word for it. ROB ZOMBIE I remember I did a giant painting of you once in third grade for the art show, and it was a big face of you, and I had written in dripping blood letters, "I love the dead." And the PTA took it down out of the art show. ALICE COOPER I am so proud of that. ZOMBIE I was so disappointed. I went there that night all ready to win my blue ribbon, and my piece had been removed from the show. COOPER I guarantee you at some point one of the teachers said, "psychiatric help." ZOMBIE "Help? This child is beyond help…" It's funny. As a kid, growing up, I loved you. It's funny when you have a total disconnect as a kid or as a person, but you sense something like, There's something about that guy I know I have a common thread with. COOPER Yeah. ZOMBIE And then, strange enough, as time goes on, and if you meet them and work with them you go, Wow, how did I know that when I was 8? There's something about that guy. Even when I go back and I see pictures of you in your track-team uniform and the team picture and I have the matching picture that goes with it and just these weird, bizarre connections. One thing we both have is we have this love of entertainment. Like old Hollywood and the razzle-dazzle—that it's show business. And that's not a bad word. COOPER That used to be a dirty word. If you said "showbiz" back in the '70s, people used to go, "Oh, man. This is rock and roll. This isn't showbiz." Yeah, it is. ZOMBIE Whereas all the legends totally get it, though. COOPER Groucho [Marx] used to say, "You're Vaudeville," and I've always looked at that as a great compliment. Fred Astaire came to the show during the Welcome to My Nightmare tour, and there's our four dancers and they're doing tap-dancing skeletons in top hats. And at the end of the show, he goes, "Hey, you kids are great." [Zombie laughs] Our dancers were floored. Because that was Fred Astaire. Now, I guarantee you that 90 percent of your audience have no idea who Fred Astaire is. ZOMBIE And they don't care… What's so weird, though, is that I loved all that stuff as a kid, but it wasn't current to me. It was already 40 years old. But somehow it still seems… I guess because Groucho, he was sort of doing the college circuit in his later years, and something about it was still hip to kids or something. But now it's just all gone. You've told me this story, and I've repeated it enough times—obviously saying it's your story—but I've probably messed it up. You gotta just repeat for everyone to hear the story about you going to Groucho's house and him thinking that you were Charles Manson. [Laughs] COOPER Oh yeah, yeah. And this is after he'd known me for years. I mean, it was one of those things—I think he was slipping in and out of a few realities there. And he told me to come over to pick up this giant bed—this big round bed that was in his house. It'd been there since the '40s. He gave us a tour of the house and he saw this big, round bed and he said, "Hey, you want the bed?" And I went, "Sure." And he says, "OK. Well, I hope you have more luck on it than I did." [Zombie laughs] And so, myself and two or three friends came over to move the bed. And he looks through the door and he sees these four guys. And he panics. He thinks we're, like, the Charles Manson gang, whatever, somehow come back to life. Finally he opens the door and he's got a robe on and he's got Mickey Mouse ears on and a cigar. And he goes, "Oh, for a second there, I thought you were, you know…" But moving this bed out of his house was a scene out of [1935 Marx Brothers film] A Night at the Opera, because he's directing us. [Zombie laughs] And we're trying to roll this bed out of the house. And he's going, "A little bit left, a little bit left." And you would hit the wall, and a picture would fall off the wall. "No, no, no. Right. I mean right." I wish I had a video of that. Because it was a scene out of a Marx Brothers movie. I think he was intentionally directing us in and out of the walls. ZOMBIE [Laughs] That's so funny. COOPER And at the end, it was just one of those… He was so bizarre. But if you would have known this guy, you would have loved him. He was like your crazy uncle. ZOMBIE It's funny. I really do think that this "show-business" thing is just affecting bands, too. Not to talk about the good old days or something, but I think that they get confused that they can just wander onstage in their street clothes, do nothing, and somehow that's entertaining. And it's not. And I think they'll look at certain bands that have done that, whether it's Nirvana or Metallica, but that was, that in itself was their shtick at the time. Their shtick was, "We don't have a shtick," even though they did. COOPER Nirvana made that their show. To me, it was interesting how odd Kurt Cobain handled it. Sometimes he'd show up in a dress. And just make it nonplus, like, Eh. So what? He must have had a very strange sense of humor, I think. I never met him, but I think that he had a very warped sense of humor. Or it might have been the drugs talking. ZOMBIE I think in a weird way I feel like rock music still never recovered from it. It was almost like the glam bands took it so far in one direction and then the grunge took it so far in the other direction that it never really came back down. This is my theory: The grunge rock, except for the few bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam—there's always bands that break out way beyond the genre that they're from, and they become something so much more, like the Beatles or the Stones and the British invasion—but I feel, for the average kid, grunge music became so boring because you had the stars, the Eddie Vedders and the Kurt Cobains and the Chris Cornells, but then it got down to just four boring guys staring at their feet with no show at all. And I think that that's when kids started thinking, Oh, that's rock music? It's this totally boring thing of guys that look like they're not even cool enough to be the road crew anymore. COOPER Right. ZOMBIE And then rap music comes along, and everybody's, like, a superstar. Even if they're flat broke, they're wearing fur coats and diamond rings. And now, I feel like rock music is something you think of as just…boring. [Laughs halfheartedly] COOPER Well, recently, my biggest pet peeve is that it seems that all the bands… I pick up magazines and they go, "Greatest Band of All Time," and it's like Arcade Fire. Or it's Vampire Weekend. And I'm going, Boy, I can't wait to see these guys. This is going to be great. Vampire Weekend? That's gonna be really fun to watch. And there's these four guys up there, and they've got, like, Gap shirts on, and two of them are playing Farfisa [organs], and I'm waiting for something to happen, and I go, That was it? I go, What? ZOMBIE Yeah, I'm expecting something. COOPER If you're gonna be called Vampire Weekend and you're wearing Gap shirts, at least have blood all over the shirts. So that at some point, you were a vampire. That would be funny. It's just so bland. It's almost like, "We're afraid to offend anybody." ZOMBIE The whole point was I wanted to offend everybody. [Laughs] I kind of got into it because I hated everybody and I wanted to prove something. COOPER The very first time I saw you guys, White Zombie, it was very funny. Everybody was covered in dust. [Zombie laughs] And it was sort of like, every time anybody moved, it would be, like, a cloud of dust. It was like Pig-Pen, from Charlie Brown. And I said, "That is such a great idea, because every time you move onstage, you're leaving a cloud of dust somewhere." It looked like somebody had just drug you guys all up from the grave. ZOMBIE Yeah, we loved playing festival shows, too, because we loved the idea that once we left the stage, it was just a destroyed mess. Like, "Enjoy the bloody, dirty stage. Next." COOPER You know, that happened to us. And we don't even realize how much crap we leave on the stage. There's money with blood on it. And there's confetti and pieces of balloons, and body parts and things lying on the stage. And we open for the Stones. And, you know, the Stones get onstage and they're looking around the stage like, What happened up here? It's so normal to us, that anyone going on after us has to look around and go, "What just happened?" ZOMBIE A couple years ago, I saw you do this and I was like, I've gotta try that: I got a huge feather pillow, and we're doing a one-off in a club, so we busted open the pillow in front of the fan—unbelievable. You couldn't even breathe. And we still have feathers in all of our gear. This was, like, four years ago. It's so funny. [Laughs] COOPER We did a show back in 1969, honestly 1969, in this theater in Minnesota with Frank Zappa. We finished the show with two pillows. Two pillows would fill Madison Square Garden. This was a thousand-seat theater. We had no idea how many feathers that was. The audience was covered in feathers. And I've had people tell me to this day—[singer] Engelbert Humperdinck will be in the middle of a song and you'll see a feather come down from the rafters. And everybody goes, Oh, that was from 1969, Alice Cooper show. [Laughs] So they linger and you can't get them off of your amps. They stick and they stay forever. ZOMBIE [Laughs] They're still stuck inside all of our monitors and everything. COOPER Yeah, it's a mess. We only did it two or three times. But once you do it, you leave your mark. People will never forget that. So pick the times when you're gonna do that. ZOMBIE We'll do it the last night of our tour together. We'll both do it. [Laughs] COOPER Absolutely. [Laughs] That would be great. Have both bands in a pillow fight. ZOMBIE That would be good. And then we get the $70,000 cleanup charge afterwards." |
This looks like it will be a great three day event Alice has been announced as a headliner at the Barcelona Rockfest on July 1st |
Alice with Meat Loaf (1947 - 2022) in the film 'Roadie' (1980) |
"'Metal Department' have announced the release of 'Alice Cooper And The Tome Of Madness' as a 12" vinyl single. This is taken from the Alice Cooper slot machine game which appeared a couple of months back and features Alice narrating an 18 minute horror story featured in the game The record comes in two forms - a plain black vinyl version and a limited edition (500) yellow vinyl version both in a deluxe gatefold sleeve with artwork from the game. Both versions are available for €24.99. https://www.metaldepartment.com/wp-c...ed-300x150.jpg https://www.metaldepartment.com/wp-c...ed-300x150.jpg There is also a very limited edition release (100) which contains an autographed top hat, black ‘Alice Cooper And The Tome Of Madness’ t-shirt and a colour poster with the artwork from the game. It measures 70 cm x 50 cm (approx. 27″ x 20″). This one will cost you €249,99. However, it doesn't appear that this version contains the record, so you will have to get that separately! The slot machine game is apparently available on a couple of gambling sites, but you have to sign up to them to play" |
Alice has just started the latest US leg of the 'Detroit Stories / Ol Black Eyes Is Back' tour As far as I am aware, there are no changes in the line-up of the current touring band - Alice (vocals), Nita Strauss (guitar), Ryan Roxie (guitar), Tommy Henriksen (guitar), Chuck Garric (bass), Glen Sobel (drums) and Sheryl Cooper (dancer) The setlist for the opening show at The Andrew J. Brady Icon Music Center in Cincinnati, Ohio on January 28th was also unchanged from last year:
which leads me to suppose that the stage show is the same as well, although (as we have seen with previous tours), there could be changes made in the coming weeks |
New article at Classic Rock "Alice Cooper releases spooky spoken word record, says he’s working on two new albums Alice Cooper is currently working on his 29th and 30th studio albums simultaneously, and has just released a new spoken word record Where most 73-year-olds might start looking to ease up a little on their work commitments, legendary shock rocker Alice Cooper is still beavering away, with no sign of him hanging up the whip and cane any time soon. Of course, we're incredibly thankful for his persistence, even more so now after learning that he's working on not one, but two new albums – his 29th and 30th, simultaneously. Moreover, the artist formerly known as Vincent Furnier has just released a spoken word record, entitled Alice Cooper and the Tome of Madness, which finds him reading a 16-minute horror tale. The project was issued via rock and metal licensing company Metal Department, and arrives on a 12" vinyl disc. The release is a companion effort to the licensee's 2021 online slots game that shares the same name. The …Tome of Madness record is available on black or yellow vinyl in a limited edition of 500 copies each, and can be ordered from the Metal Department site. As for his upcoming two releases, Cooper recently spoke on Eddie Trunk’s Sirius XM radio show Trunk Nation to share details on his current recording plans, as well as revealing what fans can expect from his two new offerings. “I’m working on two albums right now,” he began. "One is… totally written, and we’ll be doing bed tracks for that one pretty soon. The other one is just a touch in the future, but that’s being written right now too. “They’re two entirely different kinds of albums, but they’re Alice Cooper, pure rock’n’roll albums,” he continued. "“The two albums will really be hard rock albums.” The two albums follows 2021's Detroit Stories, released in February. His next release is scheduled to arrive sometime this year. If that wasn't enough to keep Cooper busy, he's also heading off on a joint headline tour with The Cult later this year, as well as performing at a selection of festivals, including the Monsters of Rock cruise." |
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The Daily Star celebrates Alice's birthday "Alice Cooper's life - 'death pact' with wife, chicken head 'biting' and secret career Rock star Alice Cooper has turned 74, and his wild life has included celebrity drinking clubs, Hollywood supergroups, and the notorious 'chicken-head-biting' incident on stage Alice Cooper is one of the most famous rock stars of all time, but sometimes his life away from the stage has been as dramatic as his shock-inspired concerts. Branded The Godfather of Shock Rock, Cooper was known for dazzling fans with terrifying props at his music concerts, from electric chairs and guillotines to reptiles and even baby dolls. Of course, there was also that one infamous gig incident with a chicken that has become etched into rock history - although not all of the gory details were true. To celebrate the musician's 74th birthday, Daily Star has dug into the wild life of Alice Cooper Alcohol battle Like many of his fellow rock stars, the School's Out singer struggled with alcohol abuse back in the day, and his booze battle peaked in the 1970s and early 80s. He opened up about his alcohol addiction in his audiobook - Who I Really Am: Diary of a Vampire - where he explained he tried "many cures, lots of different doctors, lots of different methods, nothing worked." Cooper, who was born Vincent Damon Furnier, confessed he used to cry before playing his shows as he knew how much he would need to drink in order to finish the gig. He said: "It just kept getting worse. I loved doing the show, I hated doing the show. I loved my life, but I hated my life. I could be so much better than this. The singer went on: "I was drinking more and more. I would get to the show, I would look at my costume lying out, I would remember crying, looking at it, knowing what I had to do in order to get that show done." He found it a "nightmare" having to get into costume, but he "felt great" once he was singing on stage. However, he managed to overcome his alcohol problems in the mid 1980s, and he's since become something of a mentor for other rock stars with addiction issues. In 2008, he even won the Stevie Ray Vaughan Award at a MusiCares MAP Fund charity concert in LA. 'Death pact' with wife Cooper has been happily married to his wife Sheryl Goddard for 43 years - after they tied the knot in March 1976. Dancer and choreographer Sheryl was even part of the Alice Cooper show from 1975 and 1982. In 2009, he appeared to reveal he had a death pact with Cheryl when he told the Mirror: "We’ve made a pact – there is no way of surviving without each other." The smitten singer went on: "I couldn’t live without her. We always said there will never be a time when one of us will be mourning the other. Whenever it does happen, we are going to go together. "I’ve been married 43 years to the greatest girl in the world. We have never cheated on each other." However, he later clarified that he didn't have a literal "death pact" with his wife. Cooper said: "We love life so much. What I was meaning was that because we're almost always together, at home and on the road, that if something did happen to either of us, we'd most likely be together at the time." Hollywood Band Alice Cooper is also part of a star-studded supergroup called Hollywood Vampires - and its members include Hollywood hunk Johnny Depp. Formed in 2012, the band's name came from a celebrity drinking club of the same name formed by Cooper in the 1970s - which he shared with the likes of Beatles legends Ringo Starr and Keith Moon. The band have released two studio albums so far and played at glam events like the Grammy Awards. Secret restaurant career Fans might be forgiven for not knowing that the rock star is an avid restauranteur. He opened his Phoenix-based eatery, called Alicecooper'stown, in 1998. It used to serve free meals to children in need every Christmas, and featured walls lined with rock and sports memorabilia. Sadly, it closed down in October 2017. However, the singer does have a line of hot sauce which is available to buy online. Notorious chicken incident Alice Cooper's infamous chicken incident spread like wildfire in the tabloid press, but it's become something of an urban myth as it seems not all the details are actually true. As the story went, Alice Cooper and his band were playing on stage at the 1969 Toronto Rock 'n' Roll Revival festival when a member of the audience lobbed a chicken onto the stage. Newspapers splashed the gory version of the story which alleged that Cooper bit off the head of the chicken and drank its blood during the gig. However, the rocker has confirmed multiple times that it's not true. Telling the tale himself, Alice said: "Somebody threw a chicken on stage. This was in Toronto and I’m from Detroit. I’ve never been on a farm in my life and I said, ‘It’s a chicken, it’s got wings, it’ll fly.’ "So I threw it back to the audience, I thought it was gonna fly away. It went right at the audience and they tore it to pieces and threw the parts back on stage. "The next thing I knew, it was ‘Alice Cooper bites the head off a chicken and drinks the blood.’ That’s what the papers said the next day. I got a call from Frank Zappa and he says, ‘Did you do that?’ I said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘Don’t tell anybody that. They love it.'"" |
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The cover of the Velvet Underground song 'Rock And Roll' has been dropped, and two new additions have taken it's place - 'Be My Lover' and 'Is It My Body'. At one show, 'Lost In America' was played instead of 'Is It My Body' Alice is just about to play a couple of shows as part of the Monsters Of Rock cruise, and it will be interesting to see what kind of set list these throw up! |
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Dropped from the show were 'He's Back (The Man Behind The Mask') / 'Steven' / 'Dead Babies' / 'I Love the Dead' / 'Escape' 'Is It My Body' and 'Be My Lover' were moved to just after the 'Black Widow' jam, and 'Lost in America' was re-introduced back into the set (after 'Be My Lover'). Also, as a final encore, a cover of the Rolling Stones song 'Brown Sugar' was played after 'School's Out' Obviously, the 'Nightmare Castle' stage set could not be used on the boat, so the cruise, so the band appeared in front of the spider eyes backdrop |
New article in Variety "How Alice Cooper Inspired Harley Quinn’s ‘Suicide Squad’ Look Transforming Margot Robbie into Harley Quinn for “The Suicide Squad” often took two people, with makeup artist Heba Thorisdottir leading the way by channeling a rock star. Thorisdottir is nominated for a Make-up Artists & Hair Stylists Guild Award for best contemporary makeup in a feature-length motion picture. In Warner Bros.’ summer release, Harley Quinn and the prisoners of Belle Reve set out on a mission to destroy Jotunheim, a Nazi-era prison and laboratory in South America. Director James Gunn gave Thorisdottir complete creative control on the looks with one stipulation: “As long as they were dirty and gritty. His direction was that he wanted everyone to look destroyed by the end of the film,” she says. Her starting point was taking Harley’s traditional red and black palette “too far, and then go another 10 levels” for a movie that was bloodier than the 2016 original. For a makeup artist, detail was key: Cuts, bruises, dirt and lipstick all had a purpose. Thorisdottir turned to an iconic rock star for Harley’s inspiration. “I decided she would be Alice Cooper!” says the makeup department head. “Sexy, at times shocking and always a badass! And so, the black-lip idea was born. And from there I started experimenting with the red shadow on the eyes as inspired by Alice Cooper, and everything fell into place organically from there.” Thorisdottir was also inspired by Judianna Makovsky’s costume designs, which referenced the comic book characters and Har- ley’s red costume. “My first thought was where do I find red eye shadow that stays on well and can withstand being in the water for days on end? After searching high and low, and swatching what seemed like hundreds of eye shadows, I landed on these beautiful red shadows from Suqqu as well as Viseart.” Thorisdottir used the Suqqu and Viseart eye shadows for layering and depth. Viseart was quite matte and was used as a base and in the lines under Robbie’s eyes. Suqqu had a bit more sheen to it, so it was used to add highlight or reflection to get depth into her eyes. She finished it off with the ultimate rock ’n’ roll makeup — black eyeliner from Nars. In choosing a foundation for the character, a crème base was the way to go since it created the most realistic look and kept Robbie’s skin from looking clownish. The key was staying true to the rebel criminal Harley, but also adding a wow factor, she explains: “This is the first time we are seeing her in her hero look, knowing all the chaos she was about to endure. I wanted her to look stunning and ready to battle.” The biggest challenge? Shooting in Georgia and Panama meant environmental factors such as heat needed to be considered. Says Thorisdottir, “I felt more like a scientist than a makeup artist, mixing new formulas of the same colors to withstand, water, dirt, birds clawing at her, explosions and slime.”" |
An excerpt from an Interview with Vinnie Moore of UFO https://vwmusicrocks.com/an-intervie...-moore-of-ufo/ Guitarist Vinnie Moore explains why he parted ways with Alice Cooper in 1991 "...Take me through the events which led to you joining Alice Cooper’s band. I was in the studio recording Meltdown and got a call asking about playing on Hey Stoopid, which Alice was recording at the time. They were having a bunch of guest guitarists play on it. They already had Slash, Joe Satriani, and Steve Vai, as well as others. It was an honor to be asked to be a part of that. I went up to Bearsville Studios, in upstate New York, to record the two tracks I was on, “Dirty Dreams,” and “Hurricane Years.” I played rhythms and leads, and it was all done in half a day. We all went for dinner, and then, I drove home. Weeks after that, I heard that they wanted to have me play on the tour. Your only studio effort with Alice was the two tracks on Hey Stoopid, in 1991. What do you recall regarding the sessions? I remember my amp shutting off while recording, but luckily it was just a blown fuse. When I met Alice, he and Stef Burns were playing a game that they had invented on a ping pong table called “Scud Ball.” It involved plastic cups on the table and trying to get the ball to land in them. “Scud” came from the Scud Missile. So, one of my first conversations with Alice was regarding the rules of Scud ball. It was very cool to work with Peter Collins, who was producing, as well as Paul Northfield, who ended up mixing two of my records long after. Ultimately, why didn’t you stick around with Alice Cooper as the 90s progressed? I had recorded Meltdown, and we had planned a big tour for that, which I hadn’t really done with the earlier records. When the thing with Alice happened, it changed things a little. It all looked like a perfect plan because I would be out there on the road all over the USA with Cooper when my record was coming out. But then, Alice’s tour plans changed, and they decided to go to Europe instead of doing the US. My record label told me, “There is no point in putting out my record if you’re going to be away in Europe for six months.” They planned to delay the release. I had finished with Meltdown in January, and the label was scheduled to release the album in October, which I was already not very happy about. If I stayed with Alice, it would have been held back for another half year. I just couldn’t do that. Also, opening for Rush became a possibility, and that was something I really wanted to do. You picked up your solo career right where you left off once you left Alice Cooper. How do you feel your time with Alice Cooper affected you as a solo artist? I was an Alice fan when I was a kid, it was awesome to play those songs with him, and the tour was a lot of fun. It didn’t have an influence on me musically though..." |
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1 Attachment(s) Alice with Groucho. Date unknown Imagine sitting at this table! Imagine the stories you would hear!! |
2 Attachment(s) Today is 'World Book Day' My niece told me she was going to school as Alice In Wonderland Apparently what I imagined was wrong! |
Alice is due to appear at the Olympic Stadium in Athens, Greece on July 6th as special guest for The Scorpions |
You know you have 'made it' when you get a festival named after you! Coopstock "Peace. Love. Rock & Roll Fundraiser. Join Alice Cooper for CoopStock 2 – Grooves and Divots, sponsored by the Norelli Family Foundation, on Saturday, April 30th at Las Sendas Golf Club from 6 to 11 p.m.! Alice will be joined by fan-favorite Larry the Cable Guy, Rob Halford of Judas Priest, Ed Roland of Collective Soul, Scott Stapp the voice of CREED, Mike Mills founding member of R.E.M., Danny Seraphine of Chicago, the comedy and music of Gary Mule Deer, SIXWIRE, Adrian Young of No Doubt, Chuck Garric of the Alice Cooper Band and more for a groovy night under the stars. Joining the line-up will be Jazz teen artist and YouTube sensation, Yohan Kim of South Korea, and our crazy-talented teens as they dance and share their music along with our incredible silent and live auction, food trucks and more, all to benefit Alice Cooper’s Solid Rock Teen Centers in Mesa and Phoenix! VIP 1 $400: Includes reserved seating at a table, dinner, 4 drinks, water bottles, valet parking, executive bathrooms and bars in your section. Early entry at 5:00 pm. Groovy CoopStock Sports Chair $200: Includes reserved seating with a limited edition commemorative Alice Cooper chair (with drink holders) up on the driving range, water bottles, valet parking, executive bathrooms and bars in your section. Festival Seating $99: Bring your own lawn chair/blanket and pick your seat out on the golf course—there are no bad seats! Gourmet food trucks and bars available. Sealed water bottles allowed. No coolers. No weapons. Masks optional." |
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Seriously though it sounds a terrific night. |
1 Attachment(s) Apparently there is a new Wallace and Grommit thing coming in 2024 I wonder if this is a clue to how it is going to go! |
New interview at The Aquarian "The Uncensored Alice Cooper Rock legend talks cancel culture, an artist’s mission statement, bizarre pre-show rituals, becoming Alice, and all his favorite stuff. Alice Cooper has been at this shock-rock thing for over half a century, and he has lost nothing off his fastball. I once described The Coop’s aura as the godfather of a “spiteful, sloppy, defiant, obscene, deafening burlesque freak show that cared less for anything healthy and decent than anyone or anything imaginable,” and that unhinged cocktail continues to serve as a glaring beacon for fringe kids from six to 60. At this point in his unlikely success story, Alice has become something of a reliable measuring device to see how much the majesty of performance art can challenge the vague parameters of popular music. Ok, maybe that’s too much pressure to put on him, but he can take it, just ask him. I did. Below is my fifth (or is it sixth?) discussion with Alice, a fun exercise I first experienced in 2009. Unfortunately, due to circumstances hard to fathom now (did anyone say a once-in-a-century pandemic), we have not spoken since 2018. What? That is way too long. There is a nourishing quality to speaking with Cooper that is not available in most rock star chats. When he starts to muse on whatever subject I toss at him, it is still hard to believe that this person/character that first rocked my world at 11 years old, is speaking with me. But there is also comfort in knowing that there is no pretense in Alice Cooper; except, y’know, the character thing. He shoots from the hip about alcoholism, God, vaudeville, horror films, as well as regrets, family, love, and life as easy as he might offer insights into his golf game or the weather. He is back on the road with a kick-ass band and his sword and his guillotine and his snake and his songs about necrophilia, spiders, madhouses, thumbing his nose at teachers, damning false preachers, and hammering those parts of our daily construct that need to be taken down a peg or two. And thank goodness for all of that, and for another few minutes getting inside the mind of Alice Cooper, who does not disappoint… again. Happy belated birthday. Oh, thank you. 74 never looked so good. I have always seen you as a cultural barometer – both on the fringe and in the mainstream. Considering the high tensions in our culture with political correctness and “safe zones” on college campuses and the general tone that no one anywhere should be “offended,” where does Alice come down on this? You know, it’s very unusual right now. I think that we’ve kind of forgotten freedom of speech. I mean, if you don’t agree with what is proper now, then you are absolutely blackballed. You’re not allowed to have an opinion anymore. I saw a movie the other day and it was called, No Safe Place, where they were talking to college students and some were saying, “If he doesn’t agree with what we believe, then he can’t speak at our school.” And that’s missing the point! You have this freedom of speech to affect other speech. You can choose to not show up, or don’t listen to him, and if you disagree, then you can let him know by booing. But he does have that freedom, that’s an American freedom. All of a sudden, we have this faction yelling “No!” Total intolerance to the point where if he doesn’t believe what we believe, he doesn’t get to speak, and I’m going, “What?” At this rate, there won’t be any comedy after a while. In the seventies – and I’ve never had anybody disagree with this, by the way – when Mel Brooks was making movies, everybody was insulted. He didn’t leave anybody out, and as a result, everybody was laughing. We were less racial then than we are now, because now we pinpoint every single word that we say as possibly offensive. It doesn’t matter what you say. You can say, “It’s a nice day,” and it’s an issue. “Oh yeah, it’s a nice day for you, maybe, but not for me! I’m offended!” What has happened to us? We’ve become so politically correct that we’re almost robots. I believe in being politically correct, but at the same time, I think we’ve taken it to an extreme now, to the point where we’re bending so far over that you can’t really say anything. Everybody’s afraid to talk. Now that you mentioned Mel Brooks’ films, there has been, for me, and you helped me get there in my youth, as did George Carlin, Richard Prior, or All in the Family or Laugh-In, this idea that art never need apologize. Art is the way to puncture through social barriers, especially in music, because you do see, even now, in any kind of pop music, performers get away with pushing the envelope more than comedians or filmmakers. So, do you think what you do as a musical artist has more of an impact in this sense? I think it used to be that way, but, again, I think artists now are afraid to say anything. Honestly, we’re getting to a point now where everybody’s terrified that if you say one thing that sounds a little bit wrong, it hits the papers, and you are blackballed or you are a pariah. So, I think that you’re getting to a point now where it’s getting dangerously close to 1984 or THX-1138 or Fahrenheit 451, where we’re terrified to say anything. I mean, that’s just not America. I think a lot of people forget what stuff was thrown at you in the seventies. It’s great that these days you’re performing year after year as a tribute to the fact that you survived all that. But there was a time, and I remember because I was there, where people were genuinely threatened, society at large, was threatened by you, as it was previously with Elvis. I specifically love the Alice character because you encapsulated all the great deviant art forms, rock music, horror, satire, the drag scene, surrealism, you made this vessel that was almost, I want to say, Teflon. You somehow were able to survive all that. How? You know, I think it’s just because I don’t think I ever meant to hurt anybody. I always kind of saw the absurdity in everything. The same way, I see the absurdity in what’s going on now in our society – there’s an absurdity to it. It’s funny. And most people I talk to are actually making fun of this whole thing. You know, again, I truly believe nobody should be bullied. I never did that in my songs or my shows. I just said, “Wouldn’t it be funny if…” or “Wouldn’t it be scary if…” or “Wouldn’t it be dramatic if…” As an artist, you’re supposed to challenge the person looking at your art. If not, then it’s just Hallmark cards. I mean, what artist hasn’t challenged the system? Warhol, Dali, even, at the time, Shakespeare challenged the system. He was getting banned all over the place. Artists are supposed to act as a weird balance in society. And yeah, when we do, the audience wants us to speak out and be off center, because we’re the only ones that will. The audience will tell you, “I wish I would have said that!” We’re allowed to say it because we’re artists! We’re no different than anybody else. Except that we are. We are artists. And I, in my case, if I think about it, as you say, everybody was very wary of Elvis Presley, and then The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, all the time society was going, “Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! I don’t know if I could buy into this.” Like you said, All in the Family, and then later, The Simpsons, Family Guy, all the stuff that challenges norms poke fun at it. And yet there was a lot of truths going on in there. This is what we tried to do. Yeah, the one thing I always loved about the Alice Cooper group and your later work as a solo artist, is you were extremely self-aware of what you were doing. The revolution was built in. I recently read something you posted on Twitter on the anniversary of Billion Dollar Babies (the Alice Cooper band’s 1973 mega hit album) and how its title and theme came from everyone in the group looking at each other and saying, “This is crazy. We somehow made it and now we’re the biggest band in America!” This was the kind of irony that was always built into Alice Cooper. You understood the humor from the very beginning of what you were doing. Well, yeah, if you can substitute that for ego [Laughs]. When we would go on stage, and I still do this with my band, I say, “When you go on stage, I want you to be ridiculously egotistical and over the top!” Because the audience wants you to be that for them. They want you to be from some other place. They want you to be an Avenger. Because you’re on stage with a guitar and an amp and you’re singing these songs out here and they’re not. They’re listening to it. But I also remind them that when you get off stage, leave all that on stage. So, when they meet you, and they talk to you, they understand the fact that… “Oh, yeah, well, this is him.” But on stage, Alice is this other thing, you know, he speaks for us, and he makes fun of us, and he brings up things that we’re afraid to say, but Alice said it. None of this makes the artists any smarter, it just makes us… artists. We have a different kind of license. That reminds me, do you have a pre-show ritual? Do you have something that you’ve done from the very beginning, when you were in the band, even as far back as the sixties, all the way through your solo career? Because I know you’re a sports guy. I could see you having something that’s, I don’t want to say idiosyncratic, but is there something you always do before you go on stage? Well, you know, it’s changed because a lot of situations have changed. The early days, there was no dressing room. [Laughs] You were back behind the stage, just getting ready, and you showed up in your costume and just went on stage! And then it got a little bit more progressive, where, all of a sudden, now that you’ve made it a little bit, you have a dressing room. So then, it was like, “Well, there’s actually food back here!” And now there’s this this whole thing with your rider, you know? Nowadays I have definite idiosyncrasies. When I first get to the venue, I watch nothing but Kung Fu movies. Really bad ones, though. I’m talking about ones made in 1973 and then there’s other ones that are just total fantasy ones that are so insane. I’ll sit and watch them until I’m numb. Then, and only then, do I start getting ready – at half an hour, exactly, one half hour before show time. That’s when I start putting the makeup on. Then I start getting dressed, the whole thing. And as soon as I get dressed, I throw knives. Wait… what? I am an expert knife thrower. In fact, I am in the Knife Throwing Hall of Fame. That’s fantastic. I did not know this tidbit. Oh, yeah. The guys that run the Knife Throwing Hall of Fame watched me throw and they put me in there right away. Because I could put 20 knives within a twelve-inch area, easily, with no problem – and that’s kind of fun. Here’s the great thing… I put different photos of people in magazines up on the throwing board – especially if it’s a full picture of anybody, it doesn’t matter who it is, they get up on the throwing board. People walk in they go, “Wow, why do you hate this person so much?” And I have to tell them, “Oh, no, no, no, it’s an honor to be on my throwing board.” So, there might be Tom Cruise one night, and then the next night, it might be Betty White, you know, it doesn’t really matter. It’s just who’s ever got the best full-legs picture in a magazine is gonna get up there. That should be its own Instagram post: The Alice Cooper Knife Board. I’m telling you, it’s now become like a total pre-show idiosyncrasy, and when I’m done with the knives, then I can get ready to go on. I wait for about ten minutes before I finally go on, go into the bathroom, and pray. That’s very essential for me. And at that point, I walk on stage, but I’m still not Alice yet. As soon as I hit the stage and I make the appearance, then I become Alice. You can feel that change? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Its visceral. It’s this absolute difference in my posture. There’s a difference in my attitude. There’s a difference in just everything. I take on the Alice Cooper character the same way if I were playing in any Broadway play, you know, you’re this guy off stage, but the people want to see Alice Cooper. So, okay, I’m the only one that knows how to play that guy, so I will assume all of the Alice Cooper characters, and he will be Alice for two hours and then as soon as I walk off stage, I leave him on stage. I know you have to get going, so I have a couple of more for you. Okay. Shoot. Favorite TV show of all time? I know you’re a TV buff, if I had to press you, your favorite TV show is… I love Dexter if you’re talking about, you know, Netflix or anything like that. Regular network TV? Wow, I haven’t really been watching a lot of network TV at all, but probably Ghost Adventures. I watch it because I always believe know your enemy, so I watch it and kind of take notes [Laughs]. But at the same time I know all those guys, and I tell them, “Guys, be careful, I don’t think you’re dealing with ghosts at all, I think you’re dealing with demons.” At the same time then if I want to watch something really entertaining, I love Killing Eve. Also, I started watching Reacher, which is really good, actually, because I read all the books and they’re keeping it accurate to the book. They even finally got a guy that actually looks like Reacher. In the book he’s 260 pounds and 6’7. Tom Cruise didn’t quite fit that bill. Last one, I know you’re a car guy. Is there a favorite car you’re driving right now? What is Alice Cooper’s car of choice to tool around on a Sunday afternoon? Right now, I am driving a DB11 Aston Martin that when you open the door there’s a little plaque on the bottom, that says, “Built in England for Mr. James Bond.” No shit. It’s the same kind of deal that they were using in the movie Spectre, remember the move Spectre? Sure. I think this is one of the cars that they were using in Spectre. So, the license plate is Spectre 3. That is the perfect ending to our latest chat. I could talk all night, but instead I thank you, as always, for a little time. Always great to talk to you because you’re creative with this whole thing. It’s always fun. It’s certainly a lot more fun than answering the normal questions [Laughs]. I really appreciate that. You’re my hero. You keep it up. All right, man. I will. " |
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The tickets were too expensive for me! |
Interesting... Alice Cooper promises to 'do something a little different' at upcoming UK tour / Planet Rock "Planet Rock’s resident shock rocker Alice Cooper has promised to ‘do something a little different’ at his upcoming UK tour dates. Alice embarks on a six-date UK arena tour in May and June with co-headliners The Cult, and they call in at Swansea, London, Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham and Leeds. Speaking on his Nights with Alice Cooper show on Planet Rock, Alice told his beloved UK fans that he’s going to mix things up at each respective tour date. After playing The Cult’s 1989 anthem ‘Fire Woman’, Alice said: “That was The Cult who I’ll be on the road with in the UK. I’m gonna see many of you Planet Rock listeners at those shows, I’m sure I am. “We always have fun in London and everywhere in the UK. We’re gonna do something a little different (on the UK tour). Every night we’re gonna be doing different songs – at least two or three different songs. “If you see the show in Birmingham, the next night you’ll see two or three different songs in the show.” Once again, Alice Cooper's 2022 shows will boast his trademark macabre theatrics including snakes, guillotines, monsters and gore, alongside seminal songs like ‘Under My Wheels,’ ‘I’m Eighteen,’ ‘Schools Out,’ ‘Poison,’ ‘Billion Dollar Babies,’ and ‘No More Mr Nice Guy.’ " |
Are you going to see him, Susan? |
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