Alice Cooper will play the ‘Welcome To Rockville’ festival in Daytona Beach FL in May 20th next year. Tickets are available now. Also on the bill the same day are Pantera, Godsmack, Sepultura, Kreator and a host of others.

Also announced is yet another Alice Cooper book, but this one is actually official! It’s an ‘official pictorial autobiography’ entitled ‘Starring Alice Cooper’ and is expected to be available in the second half of next year with exact details revealed in the new year. The book will be released in three versions including a limited edition signed hardback in slip case. You can see images at AC.com.

And if you’re looking for that last minute Xmas present for the fan who needs everything… how about limited edition Alice Cooper’s Christmas Pudding socks! Yes, Solid Rock are selling Alice Cooper Christmas themed socks (2 pairs) in a nice gift box, plus a special edition of The Rock’s own magazine. Good luck getting it to the UK by Xmas day though!!

Alice Cooper will be joining Def Leppard and Motley Crue for US shows in August 2023. Pre-sale tickets go on sale December 15th via AC.com using code “COOPER23”. The dates are as follows:

August 5th – Syracuse, NY – JMA Wireless Dome
August 8th – Columbus, OH – Ohio Stadium
August 11th – Fargo, ND – Fargodome
August 13th – Omaha, NE – Charles Schwab Field Omaha
August 16th – Tulsa, OK – H.A. Chapman Stadium
August 18th – El Paso, TX – Sun Bowl

AZCentral has a full report from the Xmas Pudding show last weekend with photos.

Phoenix New Times, a free Phoenix entertainment magazine, features Alice on the cover this month and a article celebrating 20 years of Christmas Pudding shows. You can read the full article here.

Spanish magazine ‘This Is Rock’ also has Alice on the cover and can be purchased here. The article seems to be based on Martin Popoff’s recent Cooper books.

Chuck Garric is interviewed by LaughingMonkeyMusic in a new video on YouTube.

Kane Roberts has been chatting to Guitar World about his return to the band after over 30 years.

Ryan Roxie is auctioning a signed kids toy car(!) for the ‘Save The Children’ charity on Ebay in Germany. Certainly an odd collectable to have and no bids so far!

The Hollywood Vampires have announced three more shows for next year. They are:

June 17th – Pinkpop, Landgraaf, NL
June 18th – Graspop, Dessel, BE
July 16th – Slavkov Open 2023, Slavkov, CZ

Catfight Coffee have released a special edition Alice Cooper ‘Burundi AA Coffee’ in special packaging with exclusive T-Shirt. Says Catfight: “When we heard ‘Caffeine’ from Alice on the ‘Welcome 2 my Nightmare’ we knew we had to do a coffee that would live up to the song. This coffee is certified by the Specialty Coffee Association and ranks in the top 20% traded on the market. It’s a single-origin Burundi AA roasted to a Medium/Dark profile. The champagne of coffees!” You can order now here.

The Arizona Department of Transport ran a “name-a-snowplow” competition to name some of their 200 snowplows and after 4,700 names and 7,000 votes one of the names selected is ‘Alice Scooper.’ The Alice Scooper snowplow will be stationed in Flagstaff, AZ and can be seen around the local area over the winter. Alice posted a short video on Twitter.

Today was the official launch of Tommy Henriksen’s ‘Crossbone Skully‘ project and this evening Tommy was ‘In The Trenches‘ with Ryan Roxie spilling the beans on the concept behind the record/film/comic and it’s special guests which include fellow Vampires Alice Cooper, Johnny Depp and Joe Perry, along with appearances by Sheryl Cooper, Nikki Sixx, Chris Wyse and many more! The first single ‘Evil World Machine‘ is available now on all good streaming service so go check it out!

The Arizona Desert Sun has a report from last weekends ‘Rock The Plaza’ event which featured Alice along with Orianthi, Teddy Zig Zag, Eric Singer, Paul Rodgers, and Josh Homme amongst others. The event raised $200,00 for ‘Save The Plaza’.

Neal Smith is reissuing the first two Killsmith albums ‘Sexual Savior’ and ‘Killsmith Two’ and will be appearing on Talk Shop Live on November 23rd during which signed copies of both CDs will be available.

The current issue of UK horror magazine ‘The Darkside’ has a Alice on the cover and a feature inside. You can order a copy here.

If you are into baseball cards there’s a new one to search out. You can find it in random packs of ‘Topps 2022 Allen & Ginter‘ cards in the US and features art of Alice about the throw a baseball.

Youtube houses a wealth of rare material but one new video worth highlighting is 13 minutes of silent super8 footage filmed at the Toronto show on December 14th 1973, What makes this footage so special is this was the show the band were forced to play without the legendary ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ stage show, which didn’t arrive at the venue on time due to adverse weather conditions. As mentioned in Bob Greene’s ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ book, the band had to scramble around to decorated the stage with Xmas decorations and change the show at the last minute, which makes this footage truly unique, especially as it includes Greene himself, as Santa, being beaten up at the end of the show! Definitely worth a look.

Dave Libbert, Alice Cooper tour manager in the 70s is featured in two new interviews promoting his recent book ‘Rock And Roll Warrior’. The first is live tonight at 10PM PST on KFI-AM. This is apparently NOT archived so you can only hear it live. The second is an interview with All Music Live which you can check out on YouTube.

The Hollywood Vampires have been announced as playing the Marostica Summer Festival in Marostica, IT on July 2nd. Tickets go on sale tomorrow.
They have also been confirmed as playing the Rock Legends Festival at Dolina Charlotty, Słupsk, Poland on July 22nd.

Alice turned up at the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame awards at the weekend to finally induct British legends Judas Priest into the hall. You can see fan footage now on YouTube. An edited version of the show will be televised at a later date.

Tommy Henriksen is following Beasto Blanco in publishing his own comic book. ‘Crossbone Skully: Thing #1’ will be available exclusively st the San Francisco Fan Expo 2022 which takes place between November 25th and 27th, and Tommy will be there to sign copies. Attendees will also be able to enter a competition to win one of Tommy’s guitars. The comic is based on Tommy’s forthcoming concept album of the same name and the first single from the album will be launched to coincide with the comics release. Chuck Garric and Calico Cooper will also be at the Fan Expo signing copies of their ‘Beasto Blanco: Spacewave Conquest’ comic. For Tommy’s full Expo schedule see here.
Crossbone Skully also have a track entitled ‘Evil World Machine‘ included on the soundtrack to new horror movie ‘The Retaliators’. The film is available in the US now via Amazon Prime. Presumably a European release will follow shortly.

The Hollywood Vampires have added five more European shows for next year. HollywoodVampires.com pre-sales begin Wednesday 2nd November at 10am GMT (Use code: HV2023) with general sale the following day. The dates are:

June 8th – Romexpo, Bucharest, Romania
June 10th – Life Park, Istanbul, Turkey
July 15th – Hanns-Martin Schleyer-Halle, Stuttgart, Germany
July 18th – Papp Laszlo Sports Arena, Budapest, Hungary
July 20th – Olympic Fields, Zvolenska Slatina, Slovakia

Nita Strauss has released a new track from her forthcoming second solo album. It’s called ‘The Wolf You Feed‘ and feature’s Arch Enemy vocalist Alissa White-Gluz. You can check out the amazing video below!

The Hollywood Vampires UK shows have been announced. There are six shows which will feature support sets from Seather and The Tubes (except Scarborough). Pre-sale tickets go on sale tomorrow with general on sale Friday. The dates are as follows:

July 5th Scarborough Open Air Theater
July 7th Swansea Arena
July 8th Manchester AO Arena
July 9th London 02
July 11th Birmingham Utilita Arena
July 12th Glasgow OVO Hydro

Solid Rock will be hosting the ‘First Annual Alice Cooper’s Christmas Putting’ on December 4th at the Mountain Shadows Resort in Paradise Valley, AZ. You can find all the info here.

With the tour on a short break it’s been rather quiet the last week or so, but to keep up to date here’s a few things that have happened.

‘Live From The Astroturf’ is out, although there seem to have been a few delays on the CD pack from some sources. It’s doing pretty well as well with chart positions around the world including being the #1 in the UK Music Video chart for two weeks, #5 in the US Classic Rock Radio chart, and appearing at the #1 spot in both the US Billboard chart and the German Album Chart shortly after release.

On October 3rd Alice, Sheryl and the band took advantage of their day off and went to check out Nita Strauss with Demi Lovato in Denver. then the following night Nita made an appearance during ‘School’s Out’ at the Cooper show in Loveland, CO.

Speaking of Nita there’s a new interview with her from Rock 92.9 which you can check out here.

This years Christmas Pudding Show has been announced. It will take place on December 3rd at the Celebrity Theater in Phoenix with Sammy Hagar, Rob Zombie and the Gin Blossoms among the guests.

Alice is set to briefly show up during a new documentary movie about country legend Johnny Cash. Entitled ‘Johnny Cash: The Redemption of an American Icon,’ the film will be in US theaters between December 5th and 7th.

Today sees the official EarMusic release of the ‘Alice Cooper, Live From The Astroturf’ movie and associated vinyl/CD. To mark the event there is a new official video for ‘Under My wheels’ which you can see below.
The Dallas Morning News has a new article telling the story of the album

Blue Coupe’s postponed show in Hamilton, Canada has now been rescheduled for October 28th and tickets are available now.

The Hollywood Vampires have added a Paris show to their June 2023 tour at The Zénith Paris – La Villette on June 25th. Tickets go on sale on October 6th at 10AM local time.

Just when you thought you had enough vinyl versions of ‘Detroit Stories’ EarMusic are releasing a double album picture disc version on October 21st, as well as a six LP box set on November 25th, which adds picture disc double vinyl versions of ‘Paranormal’ and the ‘A Paranormal Evening In Paris’ live album.

Alice Cooper will be taking part in ‘Rock The Plaza‘, a benefit show to save the historic Plaza Theatre in Palm Springs which will take place on November 11th. The show will also feature ex-Alice guitarist Orianthi, Paul Rodgers (Free, Josh Homme (Queens Of The Stone Age), Matt Sorum (Hollywood Vampires) and others. As a benefit show the tickets for this aren’t cheap, starting from $175, but are available now.

WIVB4 have a report and quotes from the recent Buffalo University appearance by Alice and Shep Gordon. Unfortunately they don’t want anyone outside the US to see it so you’ll need a VPN or proxy to check it out.

Metal Rules review the first night of the current tour with some cool photos.

Louder Sound have a new article exploring the period around ‘From The Inside’ and Alice’s alcohol problems in the late 70s.

You can now see the second SiriusXM advert, ‘Scoop’, via YouTube, and if you missed it the first ad can be seen here.

The show is back on the road with Kane Roberts replacing Nita Strauss at the first show in Bethlehem, PA a couple of nights ago. The setlist remains basically the same with Kane slotting into Nita’s role, including his own solo spot before ‘Roses On White Lace’. He’s maybe a little rusty after so many years away from the stage but with a few more shows under his belt I’m sure it will all come back. There’s plenty of clips up on YouTube for you to check it out yourself.

The Hollywood Vampires have added another show to their European tour in 2023, They will be playing at the Summerside Festival in Grenchen, Switzerland on June 23rd. Tickets are on sale now.

Alice and Shep Gordon will be appearing at the University of Buffalo, in Buffalo, NY on September 13th prior to the show at Shea’s Performing Arts Center. Shep is a UB alumnus. The interview will take place at the north campus Drama Theatre in the Center for the Arts at 1PM under the title “Alice and Shep: A Friendship Forged in Rock ‘n Roll.”

Ryan Roxie’s ‘In The Trenches’ podcast last night was hosted by Roxie and guest host Kane Roberts as they chatted to the amazing Alissa White-Gluz of Arch Enemy, during which they chatted about playing live again, staying healthy on the road and lots of other stuff. Well worth checking out.

In a new interview Nita Strauss chats about stepping back from the Alice Cooper band and the possibilities of her return over at Metal Injection.

Alice Cooper is featured in two new advertisements for Sirius-XM radio in the US. The first features Alice, Alanis Morissette and others having dinner while talking about the stations channels (watch here), while the second, which doesn’t seem to have been posted yet, features Alice raving about Sirius podcasts.

Nita Strauss has released a new single from her forthcoming second solo album.
It’s called ‘Summer Storm’ and you can check it out on YouTube now. There’s also a new interview with Nita on LouderSounds where she talks about leaving Alice Cooper’s band (and potentially returning), and what it’s like playing for Demi Lovato.

Just when you thought there were enough Alice Cooper books on the way (there’s at least three others on the way) another one is announced! ‘Alice Cooper Confidential’ is a "new book chronicling the misadventures of America’s sweet heart, Alice Cooper" and is written by Jeffrey Morgan who did the biography for the ‘Life and Crimes’ box set. It’s a ‘hard cover coffee table size book’ with an introduction by Dennis Dunaway and is due to be released on September 15th. You can pre-order it now on AmazonUK with AmazonUS presumably adding pre-sale links soon.

Two new shows have been announced this week. The first is a additional Hollywood Vampires show on June 10th 2023 at Life Park in Istanbul, Turkey, while the second is an additional Alice Cooper show on October 28th in Tulsa, OK. Tickets for the Tulsa show go on sale Friday. There are still gaps in the schedules for both bands so expect more shows to be announced.

LouderSounds have a new article with Alice talking about his famous friends. I think most of it could be taken from old articles and simply put together to make a new article but still work a look.

Somewhat bizarrely Alice Cooper has been announced as "special guest" to punk/metal band The Misfits for a show at the Dos Equis Pavillion in Dallas TX on October 29th. The Distillers will open the show, Tickets go on sale next Friday August 12th at 10AM local time.

Since it was announced he was returning to the band Kane Roberts been doing various interviews talking about how it all came about and his previous tours of duty with Alice. He was talking to Eddie Trunk, VWMusic, and earlier today he made a return appearance on new bandmate Ryan Roxie’s ‘In The Trenches‘ podcast.

Dennis Dunaway is featured in a new book entitled "Titans of Bass: The Tactics, Habits and Routines from over 130 of the World’s Best" by KJ Jenson. The book is available from AmazonUK and AmazonUS now despite a reported publishing date of October 1st.

Dennis was also on the ‘Bob Cowan Morning Show’ last week from Ontario, Canada which you can check out here.

Bob Gruen, famous for his classic photos of the original Alice Cooper band, has an exhibition of his work called ‘Legendary Moments’ taking place at the D’Stassi Art Gallery in London between now and August 19th. You can get more info here.

Beasto Blanco will be livestreaming their performance at Reggies Rock Club on July 26th and tickets to watch it are available now from Zuma Live. The band have just returned from Germany after playing three arena shows with German band Böhse Onkelz.

Blue Coupe were forced to postpone the last couple of shows in Hamilton and Ottawa on their current road trip after Dennis Dunaway, Joe Bouchard, Tish and Snooky all tested positive for Covid and couldn’t continue to travel. Hopefully all will be fit again quickly. The shows should be rescheduled shortly. The Toronto Star has a feature on the band which you can read here.
In related news Joe and Albert Bouchard have booked a short UK tour for next month as ‘The Bouchard Brothers’ including shows opening for Angel. Sadly no Dennis Dunaway for these shows but it should still be a fun night and you can get al the dates and info at JoeBouchard.com.

Dynamite Comics have a new Alice Cooper graphic novel on the way which seems to be titled "Alice Cooper vs The Prince Of Darkness’. Written by Rodney Barnes with art by Edu Menna the book doesn’t seem to have a release date yet but watch for it towards the end of the year.

You may remeber a while back the ‘Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame’ in Cleveland held a exhibition of Music related pinball machines called “Part of the Machine”, which featured the Alice Cooper pinball machine and the original Electric Chair. The exhibition now seems to be on the move and can be seen at the Artisan Gallery on the Brewery Arts Center campus in Carson City, NV. Also on display are machines themed on Kiss, the Rolling Stones, Metallica and Guns N’ Roses among others.

Alice Cooper has announced that Constrictor/Raise Your Fist and Yell guitarist Kane Roberts will return to the band for the next batch of shows beginning in September. Kane played a big part in Alice’s comeback in 1986, co-writing two albums and guesting on a third. He comes in to replace Nita Strauss who announced she is moving on a few days ago. Welcome back Kane! Here’s the full announcement:

“I’m looking forward to welcoming back Kane Roberts for our shows in September and October. We’ve been friends all this time, and he’s always been one of my favorite guitarists. He’s bringing more muscle to the Detroit Muscle Tour. We’ve always had a swinging door policy where players can come and go, so it’s very exciting to get back on stage with Kane. The fans are in for a real treat at these shows. It’s gonna be a blast. Kane Roberts, Ryan Roxie, and Tommy Henriksen on guitars? Hell yeah!”

Kane also posted:

“ALICE CALLED! Honored! I’ll be humbly rejoining a rare list of amazing guitarists, from Glen Buxton, Michael Bruce and Dennis Dunaway to the current BADASS line up and of course, one of my true favorites – Nita Strauss. What a KILLER BAND and CREW to be touring with this FALL! No choice but to RTFO!”

In other news Alice will be appearing at the Comicpalooza event in Houston, TX this weekend to sign autographs, photo’s etc. Ticket’s and passes are available now.

I suppose we all knew this day would come eventually, but earlier today Alice Cooper guitarist Nita Strauss announced she has played her last show as a member of the Alice Cooper band. Nita has come a long way since she joined the band eight years ago with a solo career that is only heading up, and she has become a much loved member of the band. She will be sorely missed. We wish her success in whatever she plans for the future.

Here’s Nita’s post in full:

After this absolutely incredible run in Europe, it is bittersweet for me to let you guys know that I will not be joining the Alice Cooper band for the upcoming fall tour.
I will also regretfully have to cancel the festival dates my solo band had planned for the rest of the year.
I AM NOT PREGNANT!!! There is no drama whatsoever and my touring year is still VERY full- in fact, I’m on a flight straight into the next adventure as I post this, and I’ll be on stage again much sooner than you think! But that’s news for another day.

The past eight years together has been the experience of a lifetime, and I could not be more grateful to Alice and Sheryl Cooper, Shep Gordon, the amazing band, crew and fans for welcoming me to all of your nightmare.
I don’t know what the future will hold after this, but I am forever thankful

The Hollywood Vampires have added an extra show to their 2023 European dates. They’ll be playing Burg Clam in Sperken, Austria on July 1st and tickets should be on sale now.

Alice was in Greece again this week and held a press conference with the Scorpions on July 4th which you can watch on YouTube.

Rockpages.gr have posted a review with photos and video of the Desmond Child Athens show which included a guest appearance from Alice. Check it out here.

A few weeks ago I advised you to watch out for a livestream from the Hellfest festival, but it didn’t happen (instead Graspop was streamed live). Well, I wasn’t completely wrong. The festival was apparently shown live on ARTE TV in France and you can now watch the full Alice Cooper set via their site here. and it’s a good one!

Ed Masley of Arizona Central has two new Alice Cooper related articles published this week. The first feature is covers Dennis and Vince’s high school years and the formation of the band, while the second article looks at the 50th anniversary of ‘School’s Out’ album. Both are well worth checking out.

Actor Steve Carell was on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon show this week and Fallon brought up the subject of how much Carell looks like Alice. Carell then recounted his only meeting with Alice. You can see the clip here around two minutes in.

Alice Cooper made an appearance at Desmond Child’s show in Athens, Greece last night, and you can watch him and Kip Winger performing ‘Poison’ and ‘Bed Of Nails’ now thanks to YouTube.
Athens Voice also has a new interview with Alice (try this for a rather dubious Google translation).

While the hoped for livestream from Hellfest didn’t happen, the show at the Graspop festival a few days before WAS livestreamed and you can watch it now on YouTube.

Beasto Blanco (with Chuck Garric and Calico Cooper) will be playing as support to German Band ‘Bohse Onkelsz’ for three shows in July. This means their previously announced show at Rascals in Moline, IL has had to be moved a couple of days forward to July 25th. Refunds are available of you can’t make the new date. All other previously announced shows are unaffected and go ahead as planned. The German shows are:

July 20th – Jahrunderhalle-Frankfurt, DE
July 22nd – Waldstadion -Frankfurt, DE
July 23rd – Waldstadion-Frankfurt, DE

There’s a new FunkoPop Alice Cooper figure due in November, this time based on ‘Welcome To My Nightmare’ Alice with top hat and tails. It’s available to pre-order now.

And finally here is the full press announcement from earMusic for their version ‘Live From The Astorturf, Alice Cooper’ with details about of the different packages available.

The Hollywood Vampires have announced six shows for June 2023 in Europe and tickets will go on sale on June 27th. Expect more shows to follow. The current dates are as follows:

June 20th 2023 – Rudolf Weber Arena, Oberhausen, Germany
June 21st 2023 – Rockhal, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg
June 24th 2023 – Olympiahalle, Munich, Germany
June 27th 2023 – Stadtpark, Hamburg, Germany
June 28th 2023 – Citadel Music Festival, Zitadelle Spandau, Berlin, Germany
June 30th 2023 – Summer in the City, Zitadelle Mainz, Mainz, Germany

There’s more details about the new EarMusic edition of ‘Live From The Astroturf, Alice Cooper’ up on AmazonUK. It’s due to be released on September 30th and available to pre-order now on AmazonUK and AmazonUS. The track listing is as follows:

1. The Eighth Wonder Of The World
2. Caught In A Dream (MB Vocals)
3. Be My Lover (Alice + Ryan Roxie Join)
4. Whatever He’s Doing It’s Illegal (Banter)
5. I’m Eighteen
6. We Haven’t Done This One In About, What, 40 Years? (Banter)
7. Is It My Body
8. Threatened For A Month (Banter)
9. No More Mr
10. I Guess Things Are Getting Better For You (Banter)
11. Under My Wheels
12. It’s A Dangerous Place To Be (Banter)
13. School’s Out (Chuck Garric Harmonica)
14. More Fun Than It’s Supposed To Be (Banter)
15. Elected (Encore!)
16. School’s Not Over Until You Vote (Outro)
17. Desperado (Soundcheck)
18. (Instrumental Bonus-Track – Theme From The Documentary Film ‘“live From The Astroturf, Alice Cooper’)

LA Weekly has a new interview with Alice talking about ‘No Cover’.

The Reelz channel show ‘The Story of the Songs’ which aired last weekend in the States has turned up on demand from Channel 5 in the UK, so if you are in the UK you can watch it online here.

There’s yet another Alice Cooper biographical book on the way. This one is from journalist and long time Alice supporter Gary Graff and is called ‘Alice Cooper at 75’. It’s not due until next February 21st but pre-orders are up on the publishers site now. It’s going to be a 208 page deluxe book in a slip case and will include various extras. You can get all the details so far released here.

Dennis Dunaway will be the subject of a new 2 part podcast from ‘Rock The Nations’ coming soon. They’ve posted a preview which you can listen to here. Presumably the full podcast will follow shortly.

Justine Hawkins of The Darkness, who opened for Alice several times back in the mid-2000s and The Hollywood Vampires more recently, has posted an episode of his video podcast all about Alice Cooper. You can watch it here.

Alice Cooper will play the Töreboda Festival, Töreboda in Sweden on July 9th, stepping in as a replacement for Billy Idol. Sounds like a great deal for anyone already with tickets!

It looks like the Hellfest show on June 24th *may* be livestreamed. The festival certainly has a history of streaming shows live and Arte Concert have already begun streaming shows from this years festival. An official YouTube link did appear but has since gone, but keep an eye on Arte Concert where they are listing upcoming streams from the festival.

Rolling Stone have posted a new video interview with Alice which you can check out here.

Blue Coupe have added a show at Overflow Beer in Ottawa, Canada on July 20th with support from ‘The Uninvited Guests’. Tickets are on sale now.

The latest episode of ‘No Cover’ features a surprise appearance from Nita Strauss to give advice to one of the acts. If you haven’t been following the show it’s well worth it. Check out the latest episode here. They are now open to submissions for season two of the show so it looks like it’s been a success so far.

The video for ‘I Never Want To See Me Again‘ by TBelly, and featuring Dennis Dunaway on bass, has been selected for competition in the ‘London Video Festival’.

Don’t forget the Reelz channel Alice Cooper ‘Story of the Songs’ is due to air this Sunday at 10PM ET. It looks like it includes a lot of familiar faces including a rare appearance by Prakash John! Could be good!

With the UK dates now behind us there have been quite a few show reviews to mention, some of which have some really great photos. Check out:

• TheUpcoming
• MetalTalk
• The Guardian
• Rockflesh
• Maximum Volume
• Metal Planet
• Moshville Times
• Buzzmag
• Louder Than Words
• The Arts Desk
• Antihero Magazine
• DevilgateMusic.

WalesOnline meanwhile catches Alice out on the golf course, while the Daily Mail is more interested in reporting that Alice was seen out shopping in Swansea…

An additional US show show has been announced for October 7th at the Taamava’ Resort & Casino in Highland, CA. Tickets are on sale now.

‘Trash’ co-writer/producer Desmond Child is planning a special show on June 27th at the ‘Odeon of Herodes Atticus’ in the Acropolis, Athens, Greece, and among the promised guests is Alice Cooper, who will perform ‘Poison’ and ‘Bed of Nails’, and Kip Winger. Tickets are on sale now.

Alice shows up in the new issue of ‘Fireworks‘ magazine in the UK which should be on newsstands now.

Blue Coupe have added a show at the Biltmore Theatre in Oshawa, Ontario for July 28th. Tickets are on sale now. Dennis was also a guest on the ‘Bill Kelly Show’ talking about the 50th Anniversary of ‘School’s Out this month and you can listen to that here.

Martin Popoff has two new Alice Cooper books on the way via Wymer Publishing. The first, entitled ‘Easy Action: The Original Alice Cooper Band’, obviously concentrates of the band years, while ‘Feed My Frankenstein: Alice Cooper, the Solo Years’ covers the years since 1975. Both books are due September 9th and available to pre-order now. How these books relate or repeat Martins previous Alice Cooper book ‘Welcome To My Nightmare. Fifty Years Of Alice Cooper’ isn’t clear, as it kinda sounds like he’s split the previous book in half to make two books.Time will tell how they differ. In the meantime you can currently get that first book direct from Wymer for just £12.50 which is a pretty good deal.

Steve and Karen Hunter have released a new track called ‘Sweet Love Of Mine’ which you can check out here. Steve was recently interviewed by American Blues Scene which you can read here.

And thanks to eagle-eyed Johnart69 for letting me know Alice Cooper is mentioned in the first issue of ‘Batman: Fortress‘ which is out now. While on a school bus the Joker sings ‘School’s Out forever!’ and is rather distressed when the kids on the bus don’t get the reference! "Really? No Alice Cooper fans? What are they teaching you kids these days?" We’ve all wondered that on occasion!

Back from the UK tour for a bit. It’s a sadly shortened setlist for these shows due to The Cult being co-headliners, so only around 75 minutes or so a night. Chuck missed the opening show in Swansea so Hollywood Vampire bassist Chris Wyse stepped in at short notice to help out. Chuck was back in London though, and Chris joined in on ‘School’s Out’ as well. The show is as expected, with the ‘Nightmare Castle’ set again. ‘Shut Up And Rock’ has been added to the list as well.
If you’re going to any of the UK shows yet to happen try and get there early enough to catch Creeper. We were all very impressed by their entertaining and energetic performances, just a shame their stage time is so short.

Other news to catch up on:

There’s been a couple of show reviews so far from Swansea by The Guardian and Metal Planet.

As mentioned previously the ‘Live From The Astroturf’ movie will finally be seeing a general release on August 26th on CD, DVD, Blu-Ray and four more coloured vinyl – just when you thought they had run out of colours! This time it’s "Curacoa" (whatever colour that is) in Europe, Glow In The Dark (US/Germany), Apricot (Worldwide) and Gold (another Good Records Dallas exclusive with a print and trading card). Each vinyl comes with a DVD while the CD comes with the Blue-Ray. All versions have the bonus of an instrumental ‘Desperado’ recorded during rehearsals which wasn’t in the previous releases.

Good Records are also holding an album launch party on August 27th with a screening of the film and chat with various people behind the project (but not any of the band it seems unless it’s a surprise) followed by local band The Mumbles performing ‘Love It To Death’ in it’s entirety. The evening will close with other Dallas musicians playing a selection of Cooper classics. Tickets are available here.

Ryan Roxie is again offering his "All Excess Pass’ which offers various merchandise and access to a private instagram channel with special backstage videos and message, live guitar lessons and all sorts of other bonuses. Get all the info here. You can also check out a new Roxie interview from Boomerocity.

Super7 are releasing a new Alice Cooper "ReAction" figure which comes with a microphone, a snake and a billion dollar bill. Must admit personally I don’t think this one is that great (and I normally love this sort of thing) but decide for yourself.

And lastly for now, US TV channel ‘Reelz‘ will be showing ‘Alice Cooper: Story of the Songs’ on June 19th with Alice talking about ‘School’s Out’, Welcome To My Nightmare’ and ‘Poison’.

Arizona Central has coverage and photos from last weekends ‘CoopStock 2′ in Phoenix. Alice played an eight song set which closed with a version of The Doors’ ‘Roadhouse Blues’ featuring other acts that performed including Rob Halford of Judas Priest. For the show he was backed by Chuck Garric and local band ‘Sixwire’, with backing vocals by Sheryl and Calico Cooper.
Blabbermouth has collected a selection of video of varying quality.

Alice will be a guest at this years ‘Comicpalooza‘ in Houston, TX on July 16th and 17th. Day tickets are on sale now.

Episode 4 of ‘No Cover’ is available on YouTube. New episodes are released every Wednesday.

Alice has taken part in a photo shoot for a series of new Cooper-themed suits from LGFG Fashion House. They range from the relatively normal to the somewhat bizarre (pink pinstripe anyone?). Going by the website it looks like these suits will be extortionately expensive, and made to measure, so it’s unlikely you’ll see many at any upcoming gigs unless it’s Alice himself wearing them!

A new show has been added to the October tour in the US. Alice Cooper will play the Dollar Loan Center in Henderson, NV on October 8th.

‘Creeper‘ have been announced as the opening act on next months UK tour with The Cult. They’re a goth/punk/emo band from Southampton who have been building a substantial following over the last few years.

Alice has been talking to Planet Rock about the forthcoming UK tour, promising to do "something a little different" for the dates. "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." Whether these songs will be the same old warhorses they’ve played endlessly (‘Lost In America’ again anyone?) or something more interesting only time will tell.

There’s also a new interview from the Yorkshire Post which you can check out here.

The last few nights of the US tour saw a few unusual events. Tommy missed three shows, presumably due to illness (I’ve not seen the reason posted) but was back for the final Greek Theater show, and Nita Strauss has been seriously in the wars, after "…struggling with a bit of knee pain on and off the past couple weeks, it all finally came to a screeching halt on stage last night [April 22) when I stepped off the castle stairs and my right knee went POP! Definitely some of the most overwhelming pain I’ve ever had in my life." She managed to finish the show with her knee heavily strapped up before heading for the ER for tests. Nita soldiered on to finish out the US dates and has since had more treatment and been cleared to play her scheduled solo dates over the next few weeks, although you probably won’t been seeing her tearing around the stage quite as much as usual for a few weeks!

Music Connection has a long review of the final LA show the other night including so great photos.

‘No Cover’ episode 3 is now up on YouTube as four more hopefuls play for Alice and the other judges for a chance at the top prize.

The Akron Beacon has a cool new interview with Neal Smith, talking about his childhood growing up in Akron, OH.

German tour posters are advertising the release of a ‘Live EP” version of ‘Live From The Astroturf’, the recording of the original band’s 2015 reunion at Good Records in Dallas, TX, which is to be released on August 26th. No more details as yet.

Alice has been signed up to be a character in HypGames‘ ‘Ultimate Golf’ at some point in the future. The mobile golf simulator is available to download now but it’s unclear when Alice will make an appearance.

The first two episodes of ‘No Cover’ are now available to watch via YouTube. The shows see Alice, Lzzy Hale and the other judges watching the first batch of diverse acts and deciding who to send on to the later rounds of the competition. New episodes will be released every Wednesday evening.

Alice has had a bit of UK press in the last couple of weeks. Firstly he turned up in the Daily Express magazine on March 19th, and then last weekend he was in the Sunday Times magazine, both being fairly generic interviews. He’s also in the latest ‘Classic Rock’ magazine which celebrates the mags 300th issue.

Jason Becker has posted a video of Alice chatting backstage about legendary guitarist Steve Hunter as part of his ‘Grateful Greetings’ video series.

Blue Coupe with Dennis Dunaway are back in action playing the Can-AM Festival in Sackets Harbour, NY on July 16th, ‘Under The Neon Palms’ at El Mocambo in Toronto on July 21st, and The Casbah in Hamilton, Ontario on July 22nd with more dates to come.

Ryan Roxie was on the ‘Talk Louder‘ podcast this week which is co-hosted by Jason McMaster of Dangerous Toys (remember their Alice tribute song ‘Scared’) and you can find that on YouTube. This one is over 2 hours long!

‘No Cover‘, the new TV talent show Alice filmed last year, now has a trailer and official release date. Season one will launch on April 20th exclusively on YouTube, Recorded at the legendary Troubadour club in West Hollywood the new show is a rock’n’roll equivalent of the seemingly endless pop talent shows, the difference being all the acts play live and perform their own material. Alice judges along side Lzzy Hale, Gavin Rossdale (Bush), Bishop Briggs and Tosin Abasi.

Arizona will be releasing Alice Cooper car number plates in the near future. The specialty plates will cost $25 per year for the driver, $8 of which is an administrative fee. The remaining $17 per plate per year will go to Alice’s ‘Solid Rock’ charity.

Beasto Blanco, featuring Chuck Garric and Calico Cooper, have announced a week of shows in July. The dates are as follows:

July 23 – Rascals Live, Moline, IL
July 26 – Reggie’s, Chicago, IL
July 27 – Eclectic Room, Angola, IN
July 28 – The Winchester, Lakewood, OH
July 29 – 2300 Arena, Philadelphia, PA
July 30 – Dingbats, Clifton, NJ

The Edmonton Journal have a review of the recent show at the Jubilee with a few photos.

Alice Cooper has announced more North American dates for September with pre-sales beginning tomorrow. The full list is as follows:

September 7th Vision Nightclub at Wind Creek Event Center, Bethlehem, PA
September 8th Blue Ridge Rock Festival, Alton, VA
September 11th The Colosseum @ Cesar’s, Windsor, Ontario
September 13th Shea’s Buffalo Theatre,Buffalo, NY
September 14th Visions Arena, Binghamton, NY
September 16th Palace Theater, Albany, NY
September 17th Tropicana Casino & Resort, Atlantic City, NJ
September 18th Toyota Oakdale Theatre, Wallingford, CT
September 20th Emens Auditorium, Muncie, IN
September 21st DeVos Hall, Grand Rapids, MI
September 22nd The Venue @ Horseshoe Casino, Hammond, IN
September 24th Louder Than Life 2022, Louisville, KY
September 25th Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Auditorium, Chattanooga, TN
September 27th Orpheum Theater, Memphis, TN
September 28th Stifel Theatre, St. Louis, MO
September 30th Paramount Theater, Cedar Rapids, IA
October 1st Bank of Springfield Center, Springfield, IL
October 4th Budweiser Event Center, Loveland, CO
Ocotber 6th Findlay Toyota Center, Prescott Valley, AZ

Metal Department have released a 1 track 10″ vinyl single of ‘Welcome To My Nightmare’. This is the 2010 ‘Alice Does Alice’ re-recording originally meant for games like ‘Rock Star’ and has only ever been available in digital form before now. The singles comes on 10″ black vinyl and is limited to 500 copies at a pretty hefty price tag for just one track (especially when you add the postage!). You can order now here.

Alice Cooper and Nita Strauss are both confirmed as playing the Blue Ridge Rock Festival at the Virginia International Raceway on September 8th. Tickets are on sale now.

Alice’s official channels posted a statement following the tragic death of the Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins earlier this week:

"I got to know #TaylorHawkins thru both the Foo Fighters and his band Chevy Metal and was blessed to share the same stage with him a handful of times. Taylor drove both bands like a semi truck. There’s no one else like him. He was one of the great characters in Rock N Roll, beloved by all who knew him, and certainly one if the greatest drummers of his time. My band and I are devastated by this news and we will truly miss him. Much love from us to the Hawkins family and to the Foos and Chevy family."

The Davenport Gazette has a new short interview with Alice promoting the local show.

Dennis Dunaway has also been busy with interviews with long chats with ROX TV’s Carrie-Anne Grove, and Stefen Adika.

Ryan Roxie has launched a new ‘All Access Pass’ for the new US tour which began last night at Foxwoods. With the virtual pass you will get access to exclusive backstage videos, contests and giveaways, access to an exclusive instagram account with more content and lots more. You can sign up now at RyanRoxie.com.

Ryan’s ‘In The Trenches‘ podcast interviewed David Libert, the Alice Cooper 70s tour manager who has just released his biography ‘Rock and Roll Warrior’. The book is sadly only currently available in the US from Sunset Blvd Books, but they are looking at distribution in the UK and elsewhere.

Roxie is also the guest on the latest ‘Noisy Paul Podcast’ which you can check out on YouTube.

Alice is interviewed by ‘The Aquarian‘ talking about the problems of remaining politically correct among other things.

Check out Calico Cooper’s video promoting the first Beasto Blanco comic book ‘Space Wave’ on facebook here or below.

Nita Strauss is interviewed on iHeartRadioCA talking about ‘Dead Again’ and her forthcoming second solo album.

Alice Cooper will play the ‘Louder Than Life‘ festival in Louisville, KY on September 24th. Also on the bill the same day are Kiss, Rob Zombie, and Nita Strauss playing a solo set. Weekend and single day tickets are on sale now.

Coopstock 2 will take place on April 30th in Phoenix, AZ at the Las Sendas Golf Club. A now annual fundraiser for Solid Rock, this will feature performances from Alice, Chuck Garric, Rob Halford, Larry the Cable Guy and many others. Tickets are on sale now.

Dennis Dunaway and Ryan Roxie are both interviewed on the Flustercluck show which you can watch here.

‘SW Wall Interviews’ has a new interview with Calico Cooper which you can check out on YouTube.

Firstly a correction. The Finland show mentioned in the last update appears to actually be two shows in Finland. The ‘Rock In The City’ festival appears to be taking place in two places, and Alice Cooper is scheduled to play at both locations. The correct dates appear to be June 10th 2022 in Vantaa, Finland and June 11th in Kuopio, Finland.

In addition to the Finnish shows there is now an additional show on July 6th in Athens, Greece at the Olympic Stadium, as special guest for The Scorpions.

Alice’s recent appearance on the Eddie Trunk podcast is available now on Spotify. You can also listen to Alice’s appearance on Freq 90.5 FM yesterday at Speaker.com.

There’s a new interview with Chuck Garric at Metal-Rules promoting the new Beasto Blanco comic book, during which he says the new Alice Cooper album is well on it’s way with most of the instrumental tracks recorded. It’s likely a release is a fair way off yet though.

Ryan Roxie will be on ‘Reignite with Cathy Grant’ webcast on march 12th, and you can set a reminder for that here.

Nita Strauss will be opening for Zakk Wylde and Black Label Society during a break in the Cooper tour during May. The dates are as follows:

April 30th – San Diego, CA – House Of Blues
May 1st – Reno, NV – Virginia Street Social Outdoors
May 3rd – Casper, WY – Gaslight Social Outdoors
May 5th – Belvidere, IL – Apollo Theater
May 6th – Sault Ste. Marie, MI – Kewadin Casino
May 7th – Bowler, WI – North Star Mohican Gaming & Resort
May 9th – Lexington, KY – Manchester Music Hall
May 10th – Raleigh, NC – The Ritz
May 11th – Chattanooga, TN – The Signal
May 13th – Fayetteville, AR – JJ’s Live
May 14th – Tyler, TX – Country River Club
May 15th – New Orleans, LA – Fillmore
May 17th – Birmingham, AL – Iron City

Alice Cooper will appear at the ‘Rock In The City‘ festival in Kuopio, Finland on June 10th. Tickets appear to be on sale now. Also appearing on the same day are Uriah Heep, Lordi and Michael Monroe among others.
UPDATE: This seems to have been changed to the 11th.

Alice will also be the subject of the next episode of ‘Frontman’ on the Reelz channel in the US which airs on Sunday at 9ET and 11PT.

You can watch Alice’s Q&A from last weeks ‘Monsters Of Rock’ Cruise over at Blabbermouth. The MOR show saw some differences to the normal tour shows, in that there was no castle stage set and it appears no guillotine either!

There’s a new interview with Alice from BBC Radio Scotland which you can check out on YouTube.

I haven’t seen many reviews from recent shows but Creative Loafing have covered the Clearwater show with some great photos.

Shep Gordon is the subject of the Gibson TV ‘Icon’ web show which you can watch here. There’s plenty of Cooper coverage.

Nita Strauss is on the bill for this years Aftershock Festival in Sacramento, CA on October 7th. Also playing are Kiss, Judas Priest and Lamb of God.

Alice Cooper has added an extra date to the forthcoming European tour and is now playing La Nueva Cubierta in Leganés, Spain on July 2nd.

Dennis Dunaway is the guest on the new ‘Talkin’ Blues’ podcast which you can listen to here. The 90 minute interview moves through Dennis’ career from high school to Blue Coupe.

Nita Strauss has been talking to ‘Rock Zoom Room‘ about the forthcoming Alice Cooper album and her own new solo album.

There’s an interesting article from ‘Variety‘ magazine which describes how Alice was an inspiration for the Harley Quinn make up during the making of ‘The Suicide Squad’.

Yesterdays show in Louisville, KY was postponed due to an ice storm. A new date will be announced and all tickets will be valid for the new date.

There’s new Alice interviews at ‘Creative Loafing‘, NME. and WOUB, while Alice also turned up on Eddie Trunk’s ‘Trunk Nation’ show (subscription only) during which Alice reveals that he’s working on two new albums with the first, presumably the ‘Road’ album, hopefully due sometime this year.

If you’ve been following Dennis Dunaway and his ‘Cold Cold Coffin’ film you will know that people who pledged to the fundraising campaign have been receiving a vinyl album called ‘And So It Began’ in return for their support. Excess copies of the album are now available to buy via Good Records in clear or blood red vinyl, with three slightly different sleeves. The album includes various demos including the original demos for ‘Fireball’ and ‘The Sound Of A’. Grab a copy while they last now via Good Records, but beware of postage and customs charges if you’re not in the US.

The new tour was expected to start last night but it seems the first show in Windsor, Ontario was cancelled
. I’m not sure how much notice there was of this as it was only pointed out to me yesterday, but looking at the venue site it seems the whole place is currently closed until the 31st so maybe that’s why. Hopefully tonights show will go ahead as expected.

‘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 come 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 are available exclusively from Metal Department and they aren’t cheap, especially when you add in postage to the UK! The slot machine game is apparently available on a couple of gambling sites, but you have to sign up to them to play. You can see a short promo video here.

Nita Strauss appears to like being on the road as she’s added even more solo shows on her ‘Winter Wasteland‘ tour during the gaps in the Alice Cooper schedule. The new shows are:

February 22nd – Jacksonville, FL – Underbelly 
February 23rd – Tampa, FL – The Brass Mug 
February 24th – West Palm, FL – Respectable Street 
March 1st – Atlantic City – Anchor Rock Club 
March 2nd – Annapolis, MD – Rams Head On Stage 
March 3rd – Hampton, NH – Wally’s 
March 4th – Frederick, MD – Cafe 611 
March 5th – Johnson City, TN – Capones 
March 6th – Huntsville, AL – Side Tracks Music Hall 
March 8th – Corpus Christi, TX – House Of Rock 
March 9th – Houston, TX – Warehouse Live 

Nita is also on the bill of the ‘Rockfest‘ festival in Cadott, WI on July 14th.

Beasto Blanco have a new comic book on the way from Source Point Press entitled ‘Beasto Blanco: Spacewave Conquest’ and it looks really nice! Check out some images from it here. It’s due sometime during the summer but some comics sites seem to be taking pre-orders from next month.

Alice Cooper has been announced as a headliner at the Barcelona Rockfest on July 1st with UFO, Mercyful Fate and Bland Guardian also on the bill.

Classic Rock has had a brief chat with Alice about lock
down and returning to the road which you can read here.

Talkulture had a live chat with Chuck Garric a few days ago which you can watch here.

And Nita Strauss has been chatting to WRIF about her forthcoming second solo album which you can watch here.

In the latest ‘In The Trenches’ podcast Ryan Roxie has been chatting to ex-Alice Bassist Greg Smith which you can check out here.

The Xmas break has been pretty quiet in Cooperland but there are a few things to catch up on which you may have missed.

The annual ‘Alice Cooper’s Christmas Pudding’ show went ahead this year without a hitch and raised around $660,000 for the charity. Much of that total came from the auction of a mosaic made from guitar picks that pulled in a cool £120,000 on it’s own. Orianthi stepped in for Nita in the Alice band as the latter was still out on her own tour. AZCentral has a review and photos of the event.

Alice was interviewed in Forbes magazine talking about the time in the 70s when the band were on the Forbes cover in 1973 and being back on the road.

Nita Strauss has released a 10 minute mid-tour recap video with short clips of the various guests she had join her including Alice. You can watch it on YouTube or below.
Nita’s next show in Baton Rouge on Friday has had to be postponed due to a Covid issue at the venue (not connected to Nita or the band). They are looking for a suitable replacement venue, so if you were going to this show keep an eye on Nita’s social media. The rest of the tour should be unaffected.

Sunset Sound Recorders posted a good video interview with Glen Sobel just before Xmas with Glen discussing his career including Alice Cooper and the Hollywood Vampires.