Greetings to you, my legions of devoted admirers!1 The usual apologies for the delay in the appearance of No. 5, but there have been the usual production problems. Quite a lot to get through this issue, so eyes down and away we go...
First, I regret to inform you all that your beloved ACA will be going through certain changes in the future, the nature of which I'm not to sure on. The will involve the cost which now goes up to £1.10 due to a rise in printing costs and other things. It is expected that there will be postage increases later in the year and hopefully the price will not go up by too much then. Although this may cause a strain on what maybe your already beleagured finances, I hope you'll bear with ACA at least for the forseeable future, 'cos I need your support, otherwise there could be no ACA. So, this means that the cost od the fanzine is £1.40 to include 30p postage and packing. As Always, cash, cheque or postal orders are accepted, although can I ask you to ensure that all cheques and PO's are filled in correctly. Some of you aren't sure as to how to write out cheques! They should be made out to 'Andy Michaels' and NOT 'Alice Coopers' Fanzine' or even Alice Cooper'!! Don't forget to sign and date them. PO's should be left blank and uncrossed if possible. Of course, you can always send along the money in cash if you want...
Next: many of you will obviously know by now that Alice has left Warner Brothers and that his next lp will be a 'follow up' to 'Nightmare' (funny, I thought 'Goes To Hell' was the follow up) and as you have heard, Joe Perry of Aerosmith has co-written several songs with Alice and Dick Wagner. Writing was postponed so that Alice could start work on a major feature film, which was shot recently in Spain, France and America, and it is rumoured that Alice made a brief stop-over in London on his way back to America. There are no hard facts on the film, but it is believed it is a 'werewolf' film, (oh dear, typecasting!). Many of you have also enquired about the possibility of a tour of the UK in the very near future. Unfortunatly, I have no information about this and can only recommend that you keep your eyes on the music press for details. This brings me on to the subject of Fan Clubs. Some of you have sent me sums of money asking to join the Alice fan club. I have had to return this money and can I repeat that I AM NOT AN OFFICIAL OR UNOFFICIAL FAN CLUB OR NEWS SERVICE. One chap even sent me money to reserve seats for him on the tour (if there is one) and another wanted to know whether the UK will be the starting point!! As always, keep the letters and enquiries coming in, but YOU WILL NOT GET A REPLY UNLESS YOU SEND AN SAE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED...
You will be interested to know that Alice has been working with a band from Arizona called 'Gentlemen After Dark'. Being a fan of theirs, Alice has just produced their first single. buy it if you can...
...And now the grand results of the poll. Yup, I'm a bastard right, for giving you all headaches and sleepless nights while you all made your agonising choices, HA HA HA!! Wasn't I evil? If only I could print the agonising letters I recieved describing in vivid details the awful, painful choices they had to make to constitute a poll, hee hee hee. The results made interesting reading:
Top Ten Alice Cooper tracks ('I Never Wrote Those Songs')
Top Five Albums:
Well? Whaddya think? For statistic freaks, 'Halo Of Flies' was miles ahead of the runner-up, capturing 20% of the vote. Both polls show a fondness for mainly 1971-3 Cooper in your tastes, although it was heartening to see 'From The Inside' make a strong showing in the lp poll. It was also a pissoff that nothing post 1980 made either chart although stuff like 'Clones', 'Who Do You Think We Are?' and 'Pass The Gun Around' made fairly strong showings, but where was 'Inmates' and 'For Britain Only'?? Are you lot deaf? Just kidding! Intrestingly, even 'Shoe Salesman', 'Beautiful Flyaway' and 'Return Of The Spiders' polled a few votes!
As far as the lp's are concerned, 'Billion Dollar Babies' lead over 'Nightmare' and 'Killer' was very narrow. As you see, a few lp's tied for a position, although only 'Steven' made it from 'Nightmare'. 'Special Forces' and 'Muscle Of Love' made strong running but could never match the winners. 'Lace And Whiskey' polled ZERO votes!!