Beasto Blanco have announced a string of European shows opening for The Dead Daisies and Mike Tramp. The dates are as follows:

November 1st Hengelo Metropod, NL
November 2nd Sint Niklaas De Casino, BE
November 3rd Hamburg Grinspan, DE
November 5th Cologne Essigfabrik, DE
November 6th Munich Technikum, DE
November 8th Dordrecht Bibelot, NL
November 9th Bochum Ruhr Congress, DE
November 10th Pratteln Z7, CH
November 11th Paris Élysée Montmartre, FR
November 13th Prague Palac Akropolis, CZ
November 15th Budapest Barba Negra, HU
November 16th Vienna Simm City, AT
November 17th Frankfurt Gibson, DE

After all the confusion over the Australian shows it seems the gigs have been going ahead without any issues. A few reviews are coming in. Alice is playing a shortened 70 minute headline show, which is basically the same show as last year but with the addition of ‘Department of Youth’ as it was a big hit in Australia. There’s some great photos at Spotlight Report, plus reviews at ‘Tone Deaf‘, and ‘The Music‘,

Released today is the new CD version of ‘The Breadcrumbs EP’. Originally released in 2019 as a 10″ vinyl release – and only ever released on CD in Japan before now – this new CD version adds two bonus tracks: The first is ‘Don’t Give Up’, the the version of ‘Hanging By A Thread’ from ‘Detroit Stories’ that was released during the Covid pandemic as a limited 7″ single, and the second is a live version of ‘Go Man Go’ recorded at the 2022 Hellfest festival – footage of which was released with the ‘Road’ album in 2023. The CD is available now via AmazonUK and AmazonUS.

May 11th-12th the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, AZ will ‘Celebrate the Music of Alice Cooper’ with displays, Q&A’s, films and performances throughout the day. Admission to the event is included in a normal museum entry fee.

The Goon Squad (Ryan, Chuck, Tommy, Glen) played a club show at the Crowbar after the main Alice Cooper show in Sydney last night (25th). It was only announced the day before so not a lot of warning!

Tommy Henriksen’s Crossbone Skully have release a fourth single from their forthcoming album. This one is entitled ‘I Am The Wolf’ and you can check out the video here or below.

There’s a new Frank Zappa live album coming out on June 21st featuring a live recording from the Whisky a Go Go in Hollywood on July 23rd 1968. Of interest to us is that Alice Cooper opened this show, a recording of which was released years ago as ‘Live at the Whisky’. This Zappa release features a booklet with an interview between Alice and Ahnet Zappa about the show which could be interesting.

Rolling Stone has a new article looking at musicians who have also moved into the real estate business, including a few comments from Neal Smith.

Alice Cooper and Deep Purple will be playing at the legendary Montreux Jazz Festival on July 8th. Tickets go on sale Tomorrow, April 19th at 11 am local time.

Alice Cooper has added yet more US shows to the current tour. AC.com Presales start tomorrow at 10am local time (password ‘SICKTHINGS’) with the general onsale on Friday. The dates are:

July 30th – Fallsview Casino Resort, Niagara Falls, ONT
July 31st – Palace Theatre, Albany, NY
August 2nd – Wings Event Center, Kalamazoo, MI
August 4th – Peoria Civic Center, Peoria, IL
August 6th – Rose Music Center at The Heights, Huber Heights, OH
August 7th – BMO Harris Bank Center, Rockford, IL
August 10th – River Spirit Casino and Resort, Tulsa, OK
August 11th – Hartman Arena, Park City, KS
August 13th – The Mission Ballroom, Denver, CO
August 15th – Harrah’s Rincon Pavilion, Valley Center, CA
August 16th – Pacific Amphitheater, Costa Mesa, CA
August 17th – Casino Del Sol – AVA Amphitheater, Tuscon, AZ

You can check out video from the Coopstock show this weekend courtesy of Blabbermouth. The chaity show, supporting Alice’s ‘The Rock’ Teen centers also featured Orianthi, Tommy Thayer (Kiss), Kevin Cronin and Micky Dolenz.

Last weeks Versofest ‘Glam to Punk Fashion’ panel featuring Cindy Dunaway and special guest Dennis Dunaway is now up on YouTube to watch.

‘Outsider Rock’ has a new interview with Neal Smith promoting the recent ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ reissue.

Beasto Blanco’s Chuck Garric and Calico Cooper are interviewed on the ‘Ghouls Gone Wild’ podcast which you can watch on YouTube.

Chuck has also been promoting his ‘other’ band, Killington Pit, with an interview with Soundsphere Magazine.

The Pandemonium festival tour later this month is scheduled to go ahead with a revised line up and reduced to one stage. Alice is confirmed to be headlining with Blondie but several other big names have pulled out including Deep Purple. There has also been a couple of venue changes: The Gold Coast show will now take place at Broadwater Parklands, while the Bribie Island show has been moved to Brisbane at Eatons Hill. All tickets remain valid for the changed shows.

Alice Cooper will be appearing at the ‘Spooky Empire‘ convention at the Wyndham Orlando Resort in Orlando, FL between May 17th- 19th for signings and photos. Tickets are available now.

AZCentral have posted an interview/update about the forthcoming Solid Rock charity album that was first announced last year. The album includes covers of classic songs with the lyrics changed for a younger audience, and features Alice and Calico along with Rob Halford of Judas Priest among others. It’s due for release later this year.

Blue Coupe’s animated video for Jumped The Gun won Best Animated Film at the Nyack International Film Festival in New York. The video can be seen on the bands ‘When Legends Colide’ release.

The ‘Healthy Metal Hippie’ podcast has a new interview with Ryan Roxie which you can listen to here. Ryan is again offering his ‘All Excess Pass" for the upcoming tour. This gives you access to backstage videos, new music and guitar lessons during the upcoming Alice Cooper tour and you can get an earlybird discount by signing up in advance. Check out ryanroxie.com for all the details.

Calico Cooper is interviewed on the ‘This Day In Metal’ podcast which you can check out here.

Alice Cooper has announced eight more European shows for October with special guest “Doro”. The German shows are apparently already on sale, with the French and Luxembourg pre-sales starting on March 29th with general on-sale April 2nd.

October 2nd – Zénith de Paris, Paris, France
October 3rd – Porsche Arena, Stuttgart, Germany
October 4th – Emsland Arena, Lingen, Germany
October 6th – Rudolf Weber-Arena, Oberhausen, Germany
October 8th – Olympiahalle, München, Germany
October 9th – Max-Schmeling-Halle, Berlin, Germany
October 11th – Arena Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
October 12th – Rockhal, Esch-Sur-Alzette, Luxembourg

The Hollywood Vampires have released an extended trailer for the forthcoming ‘Unleashed Spirits: The Rise of the Hollywood Vampires’ film, and have also launched a website to promote it. You can check out the trailer below.

There seems to be a lot of confusion over the Australian Pandemonium festival tour next month after Channel 9 News had a report that the festival tour had been cancelled, which was repeated in other local news media. As of writing the promoters have posted a statement claiming the shows are still happening with "some changes", and tickets are still on sale, however Deep Purple and Wolfmother have removed the dates from their tour pages suggesting the bill will be substantially different if they do happen. General opinion online seems to be that the shows won’t take place, and I suggest NOT buying tickets for these shows until the situation has been clarified.

Chuck and Calico continue promoting the forthcoming Beasto Blanco album with an interview on the ‘Long Way To The Top‘ podcast.

Neal Smith will be at Lost Padre Records, Santa Fe, NM on Sunday April 7th, 2024 from 1:00 to 4:00 PM signing the new ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ reissue as well as his own CDs and merchandise. Admission is free but autographs are $20 a pop.

Cindy Smith Dunaway was interviewed for over an hour on ‘The Silver Screen’ last week which you can listen to here. Cindy chats about the early years of the band with lots of great stories.

McFarlane Toys are releasing a new Alice Cooper figure as part of their ‘Metal Maniacs’ range. McFarlane previously released three sizes of Alice figures back in the early 2000s. This 6" figure depicts Alice in an oversized top hat, leather jacket and snake with a mic stand and backdrop of amps and a dragon. Pre-orders will be available from March 22nd.

Alice can been seen in an amusing short promo video for the AMP (Association of Music Producers) awards.

Alice appeared on the ‘Power Hour’ podcast last week which you can watch here.

Dennis and Cindy Dunaway were the subject of ‘The Cities Backyard’ podcast yesterday to promote their Versofest appearance at Westport Library on Aril 7th. You can listen to it here.

Chuck and Calico of Beasto Blanco have been busy talking about the forthcoming new Beasto album ‘Kinetica’ on the ‘Brutal Planet Magazine‘ podcast, the ‘MetalRules‘ podcast, ‘The Bloody Legends‘, and ‘Scars and Guitars‘.

Nita Strauss was interviewed by ‘Ultimate Guitar’ which you can watch here.

Steve Hunter was interviewed by the Oakland Press about his new album ‘The Deacon Speaks’

The original Alice Cooper band will be appearing live on TalkShopLive TODAY at 7pm EST (1AM tomorrow UK Time) to promote the new deluxe edition of ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ which is released tomorrow. Additionally copies of the new release, signed by all four surviving members of the band, are now available to pre-order, but unfortunately they don’t seem to ship outside the USA.

A new 190 million-year-old fossil has been named Serpula alicecooperi in honor Alice Cooper.
Serpula alicecooperi is "190 million years old, and represents a serpulid worm, a kind of marine worm who constructed a calcific tube it lived in. They live by filtering the sea water with their crown of tentacles, and when they feel threatened, they can retract their bodies into the tube that closes with a lid." The study describing and naming the fossil was conducted by researchers Tomas Koči from the Natural History Museum in Prague, Czech Republic, Jesper Milàn and Sten Lennart Jakobsen from Geomuseum Faxe, Denmark and Arden Basforth from the Natural History Museum of Denmark. In a press release Milàn states:

“When we studied the fossil, it quickly became clear that it was a new and unknown species of serpulid worm we were dealing with. Being both a palaeontologist and a huge fan of metal and rock music, I have always thought that if somebody deserved to have a fossil named in his honour, it should be Alice for his enormous impact on the musical scene during the last half decade, and his music has been firmly playing in the background during much of my research."

For the scientifically minded, or if you are just interested, you can download the full report with photographs and more details here.

Dennis Dunaway was interviewed by IndiePpwer_TV this week which you can check out here.

Nita Strauss is interviewed by Backstage Pass Rock-News talking about Alice Cooper, Demi Levato and her new tribute project to Jason Becker. She has also taken part in a joint interview with Wolfgang Van Halen (they are currently on tour together) for 101 WRIF which you can watch here.

Chuck Garric was interviewed by Super Cool Radio which you can check out here.

Alice is scheduled to take part in this years Patrick Warburton Celebrity Golf Tournament this weekend. He took part in the ‘Rheneypalooza jam’ last night and is scheduled to play in the celebrity tournament tomorrow.

Alice Cooper has added an extra date to his Australian tour on April 23rd at the Newcastle Entertainment Center. Classed as a ‘Pandemonium festival sideshow’ the show will also feature Deep Purple with local band Gyroscope opening. Ticket are on sale now.
Alice was interviewed by NewFM earlier this week. by phone from Hawaii. promoting the Australian dates.

Sadly we have to report that early Alice Cooper tour manager (1971-1975) and friend David Libert has passed away on February 20th, aged 81. Libert was a key figure in the bands rise to stardom and featured in the legendary ‘Billion Dollar Baby’ book by Bob Greene about the 1973 tour. In later years he formed the David Libert Agency who represented George Clinton, Parliament/Funkadelic, The Runaways and Living Colour amongst others. In 2022 he published his autobiography ‘ Rock and Roll Warrior’ which is recommended reading to any Alice Cooper fan.

Cindy Dunaway will be taking part in this years VersoFest 2024 at Westport Library, Westport, CT on April 7th as part of ‘Music Oral History: Glam to Punk — A Fashion Round Table’ moderated by Saturday Night Live’s Christine Ohlman. Cindy, of course, was behind all the amazing costumes Alice Cooper wore during the rise to the top, and is married to Dennis Dunaway who will also put in an appearance at the event, as will Blue Coupe backing singers Tish and Snooky, talking about their ‘Manic Panic’ make up brand. The panel will be filmed and should be available on Youtube after the event. Tickets are free and can be pre-booked here.

Killington Pit, featuring Chuck Garric, have released a new video for their cover of Judas Priest’s ‘Riding On The Wind’ on YouTube. The band are preparing to release their first original material later this year and also plan live shows to coincide. This is the bands third video release following covers of Accepts ‘Balls To The Wall’ and Rainbow’s ‘Kill The King’ last year.

Good Records in Dallas, TX is hosting a special night at the Texas Theatre on March 7th, sponsored by Rhino Records, to mark the release of the new deluxe version of ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ the following day. Dennis Dunaway will be there for a Q&A and there will be showings of both the ‘Good To See You Again, Alice Cooper’ and ‘Live From The Astroturf’ films. Admission is free.

Alice Cooper has finally announced the long awaited UK dates on his ‘Too Close For Comfort’ tour. Tickets go on sale February 23rd at 10am. ‘Primal Scream’ will be special guests at they first four shows, with ex-Sex Pistol Glen Matlock taking their place at the London shows. ‘The Meffs’ will open all shows. The dates are:

October 14th – Glasgow OVO Hydra
October 16th – Birmingham Utilita Arena
October 17th – Manchester AO Arena
October 18th – Leeds First Direct Arena
October 20th – London Eventim Apollo
October 21th – London Eventim Apollo

Bob Dolin, keyboardist on the 1973-4 tours, the ‘Muscle of Love’ album and member of the ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ band past away earlier this week. Dennis Dunaway posted the following tribute to his old bandmate:

Bob was a friend and an amazing musician to work with.
Socially, he was easy going, ready to smile, and intelligent. I always enjoyed hanging out with him. At after-show parties, he was the guy leaning against the wall with a beer just observing what was going on. He was fun to talk to providing you initiated the conversation.
There are many examples of his musical prowess, but this one has always stood out in my memory.
I once walked into the rehearsal room and found Bob sitting at the organ playing with his left hand while he was leaning over fixing a reverb unit with his right hand.
He also had a reel to reel tape recorder playing an Emerson Lake and Palmer song at a slower speed.
"What are you doing?" I asked. He said he had slowed the tape down so he could learn Keith Emerson’s parts, and then he would play the tape at the proper speed and transpose the parts to the actual key of the song. I said I would come back when he wasn’t so busy, but he said, that’s okay, what’s up? He continued learning the song and repairing the electronic gadget while having a conversation with me about a song arrangement I had thought of.
That was Bob – What looked to be impossibly complex to me was a breeze for him.

Beasto Blanco have announced four European shows for July/August. The band play:

July 7th – Munich at Free and Easy Fest
August 1st – Oberhausen at Kulttempel
August 2nd – Tilburg at Little Devil
August 3rd – Wacken Open Air (Sold Out)

And speaking of Beasto, Chuck Garric is interviewed by Geared Science about building his first motorcycle. while Calico Cooper is a guest on ‘Waste Some Time with Jason Green‘ talking about growing up with Alice Cooper, Beasto and much more.

The ‘Breadcrumbs’ EP will finally get a worldwide CD release August 26th via earMusic. Originally released as a 10" vinyl EP this was previously only released on CD in Japan. In addition to the standard track listing this version adds two bonus tracks: ‘Don’t Give Up’ and a live version of ‘Go Man Go’ from the Hellfest 2022 film.

Guitar legend Steve Hunter has released an excellent new solo album entitled ‘The Deacon Speaks’ which is available via Bandcamp where you can listen to the full album.

Nita Strauss and her fiancé, manager and drummer Josh Villalta have put together a special tribute to the ‘Not Dead Yet’ guitarist Jason Becker which includes an amazing number of the worlds best guitarists all on one track. It’s called ‘Some Assembly Required’ and features 22 musicians including: Chris Broderick (Megadeth), Joe Bonamassa, Gus G, Billy Sheehan, Paul Gilbert, Steve Vai, Steve Stevens, Jennifer Batten, Richie Kotzen, Zakk Wylde, Alex Skolnick (Testerment), Phil Demmel (Machine Head), Marty Friedman (Megadeth), Steve Lukather and Jason Becker himself! You can see the video below or here.
For those who don’t know Jason Becker was a young guitarist heading fo rthe top (David Lee Roth’s band) when he was diagnosed with ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease) in 1989 at just 20 years old. As the disease progressed, Jason could no longer hold on his guitar, but the urge to continue pushed him on as he engineered his own way of writing music, a technique using “eye geometry” and chin movements. His story is told in the documentary film ‘Not Dead Yet’ which if you haven’t seen it is highly recommended.

Nita Strauss has announced a series of solo dates during March in the US with Diamante and Starbenders opening. The dates are as follows:

March 12 – Worcester, MA – The Palladium
March 13 – Mechanicsburg, PA – Lovedraft’s
March 15 – Milwaukee, WI – The Rave Bar
March 16 – Minneapolis, MN – Studio B at Skyway Theatre
March 17 – Omaha, NE – The Waiting Room
March 18 – Des Moines, IA – Wooly’s
March 20 – Colorado Springs, CO The Black Sheep
March 22 – Dallas, TX – Granada Theater
March 23 – Oklahoma City, OK – Diamond Ballroom
March 24 – Memphis, TN – Growlers
March 26 – Ft Wayne, IN – Piere’s
March 28 – Ft Smith, AR – Temple Live
March 29 – Leander, TX – The Haute Spot

Last night Nita lived out a dream by joining fellow guitarists Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Eric Johnson on stage at the Orpheum in Los Angeles to perform Hendrix classic ‘Foxy Lady’. The trio are currently out on tour under the ‘G3’ banner and all three have been major influences on Nita’s playing, so this must have been a real bucket list moment. The show was filmed and is likely to be released on DVD at some point, but you can see her performance via YouTube now.

This years ‘Coopstock’ has been announced for Saturday April 13th. The now annual event, raising funds for Alice’s Solid Rock teen centres, takes place at 7555 East Eagle Crest Drive Mesa, AZ and joining Alice this year will be Kevin Cronin of REO Speedwagon, Tommy Thayer of KISS, Micky Dolenz of the Monkees and Patrick Warburton. Tickets are available now here.

Suzi Quatro has been talking Coop recently, suggesting she wants Alice to appear on her next album. Alice and Suzi of course go way back to Detroit days, and Alice covered Quatro’s ‘Your Mama Won’t Like Me’ on his ‘Breadcrumbs’ EP a few years ago.

The ‘Mark of the Beast’ podcast has a new hour long interview with Alice available now on YouTube which touches on most of the usual subjects but is still pretty entertaining.

The February 2nd edition of the popular US newspaper comic strip ‘Hi and Lois’ featured a small nod of the cap to our own Dennis Dunaway. Check it out here.

Alice shows up in a new documentary called ‘Nightclubbing: Birth of Punk Rock In NYC’ which tells the story of Max’s Kansas City, the New York club where Bob Ezrin first saw Alice Cooper perform, beginning a partnership that lasts to this day. It’s out on DVD now and can also be streamed on Amazon Prime.

Tommy Henriksen’s Crossbone Skully can be heard during a TV advert for the 2023 Suburu WRX in the New England area for the next few months. The track, the first single that was released by the band, also features Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen.
You can also see a new short interview with Tommy on ASX TV talking about the band.

Billboard magazine in Italy features and top 10 of Alice’s most "Iconic" songs. For a change it’s hard to argue with their selections.

Beastö Blancö, featuring Chuck Garric and Calico Cooper, have released their first new music of 2024 with the single and video for ‘Run For Your Life’ directed by Calico Cooper herself. Check it out here or below.

Deep Space Rock’n Roll Mercenaries Beastö Blancö are on a deadly mission to rescue their abducted cohort Machine Girl from a rescue mission gone terribly wrong! Ignoring their pleas for her to not go alone, she is overpowered and imprisoned by an evil space overlord known only as MAX, and the army of faceless crones who do his bidding! He has wanted her for centuries… and now he has her. Knowing it’s a trap, the Beastö gang boards MAX’s heavily armed vessel with explosives, and fights their way to the Machine Girls cell! Even though it means certain death, they are a team and nobody gets left behind. They will free her. Or die trying.

Finding her broken and bleeding in her cell, Beastö re-equips Machine Girl with her secret weapon, and she leads the charge as they take out the villains! They RUN FOR THEIR LIVES to exit MAX’s ship!Just before it explodes, Machine Girl discovers a young woman hiding in fear in the darkness… also captured, branded, and broken.

Does she listen to her cyborg side and save herself? Or is there enough human in her to go back for the girl… just like her friends returned for her? Watch and find out…

Alice Cooper will be playing the Mississippi Valley Fair in Davenport, IA on August 3rd. Tickets for this night of the fair don’t appear to be on sale yet but presumably will be soon.

The announcement of Alice’s show in Sydney, Australia on April 25th has caused a small storm of controversy. Apparently that date is ‘Anzac Day’, the Aussie version of our Remembrance Day, commemorating those who have served and died during wars. The all-day festival venue is close to the Anzac Day events and the noise from the show will likely conflict with the tone of the day. It is important to note it is NOT the concert itself that locals are objecting to, just the day it’s taking place, and the promoters are apparently looking for an alternate venue for the show.
UPDATE: The new venue appears to be Olympic Park, Sydney. The date remains April 25th.

News is slowly coming through on which stations will be running Alice’s new radio show ‘Alice’s Attic’ from Monday. So far these include: Rock107, KLPX 96.1, 104.3 The Hippo, and Fox 103.7 with presumably more to be announced. No word yet on if Alice will return to Planet Rock in the UK, but most of the above stations appear to have a livefeed.

Nita Strauss will be performing the US National Anthem before the Busch Light ‘Clash at the Coliseum’ Nascar race on Sunday, February 4th at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The performance should be televised on Fox TV from 5pm local time.

Tommy Henriksen can be heard singing a new cover of Ace Frehley’s ‘Save Your Love’ which has just shown up on YouTube. It’s taken from a Kiss Tribute album called “Buffalo Rock City II” which is available on Bandcamp.

1989 album ‘Trash’ is being reissued on vinyl yet again. This one comes on ‘translucent blue and red marbled’ vinyl and will be out March 8th, the same day as the new ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ and ‘Theatre Of Death’ vinyls. Expensive month!

Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie have announced another run of ‘Freaks On Parade’ shows in the US for August and September, again with Ministry and Filter opening. Pre-sales beginning Wednesday with the general on sale on Friday. Password is: FREAKS24.
UPDATE: Apparently the original on sale dates above are wrong. Officially pre-sale tickets are supposed to go on sale on Tuesday February 6th, HOWEVER Live Nation seems to be going live today anyway as tickets are available!
The new dates are:

Aug. 20 – Albuquerque, NM – Isleta Amphitheater
Aug. 22 – West Valley City, UT – Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre
Aug. 24 – Lincoln, NE – Pinnacle Bank Arena
Aug. 25 – Saint Paul, MN – Xcel Energy Center
Aug. 27 – Milwaukee, WI – American Family Insurance Amphitheater – Summerfest Grounds
Aug. 28 – Cuyahoga Falls, OH – Blossom Music Center
Aug. 30 – Clarkston, MI – Pine Knob Music Theatre
Aug. 31 – Noblesville, IN – Ruoff Music Center
Sep. 01 – Maryland Heights, MO – Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
Sep. 03 – Burgettstown, PA – The Pavilion at Star Lake
Sep. 04 – Syracuse, NY – Empower Federal Credit Union Amphitheater at Lakeview
Sep. 06 – Mansfield, MA – Xfinity Center
Sep. 07 – Holmdel, NJ – PNC Bank Arts Center
Sep. 08 – Camden, NJ – Freedom Mortgage Pavilion
Sep. 10 – Bristow, VA – Jiffy Lube Live
Sep. 11 – Charlotte, NC – PNC Music Pavilion
Sep. 12 – Alpharetta, GA – Ameris Bank Amphitheatre
Sep. 14 – Austin, TX – Germania Insurance Amphitheater
Sep. 15 – The Woodlands, TX – The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
Sep. 17 – Rogers, AR – Walmart AMP
Sep. 18 – Fort Worth, TX – Dickies Arena

Additionally Alice has added a show to the European tour. He will play the ALMA Festival, in Barcelona, Spain on June 28th.

The official ‘Nights With Alice Cooper‘ social media has announced that the cancelled radio show will be returning on February 5th although no details have been announced as of writing.

Tommy Henriksen was recently in ‘The Logan Show’ talking about the forthcoming Crossbone Skully album, Alice Cooper and the Hollywood Vampires. You can watch it here.

Beasto Blanco are trailering new music to be released this Friday. The song is called ‘Run For Your Life’ and there’s a short teaser on facebook.

The OKYAY record label are releasing a new compilation of early Spiders tracks on March 15th. Limited to 1000 copies it features three versions of ‘Why Don’t You Love Me’ and #Don’t Blow Your Mind’ and two versions of ‘Hitch Hike’. Originally recorded for Mascot records in 1965 these are all taken from the original master recordings and the release will include a reproduction Spiders business card and badge/pin.

There’s a new Alice Cooper related book on it’s way called ‘Dismember The Coop‘, an charity anthology of 15 Cooper-related horror stories edited by long-time Cooper fan Burt Edens. The book is set to be released on February 15th and you can pre-order here.

Following on from last years deluxe reissues of ‘Killer’ and ‘School’s Out’ Rhino Records have announced details of the ‘Billion Dollar Babies “Trillion Dollar” Deluxe Edition’, a 3-LP & 2-CD version of the album which will be released on March 8th. Both versions feature a new remaster of the original album, along with bonus material, including studio outtakes, single mixes, and a 1973 concert recording. For the vinyl edition, the gatefold cover faithfully replicates the original’;s textured snakeskin wallet design and comes complete with a $1 billion dollar bill tucked inside, along with an oral history of the album and the bonus tracks by the surviving band members and Bob Ezrin.
However unlike the previous deluxe remasters there doesn’t seem to be much new or previously unavailable on this version. The live show and demos are likely to be the same ones present on the original ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ 2CD deluxe release, with the live show also available on the recent Record Store Day vinyl release. Many if not all of the single mixes have also shown up on compilations or previous box sets over the years. But having said that it’s likely everything has been remixed to improve the sound so it could still be worth splashing out for – and going by the last two reissues the packaging should be excellent!
You can pre-order the new set via AmazonUK and AmazonUS now. The full track list is as follows:

Also properly released in March 8th will be the first vinyl edition of the ‘Theatre Of Death — Live At Hammersmith 2009’ concert film from earMusic that showed up late last year in Germany but nowhere else. It comes on two red vinyl disc and has a dvd copy of the show, as well as a replica concert ticket. You can pre-order that as well from AmazonUK and AmazonUS.

Alice Cooper will be co-headlining the Pandemonium 2024 touring festival in Australia between April 20th and 28th. The show also features Deep Purple, Blondie, Placebo, Wolfmother and others. There are four shows in all and tickets go on sale January 22nd. The four shows are:

April 20th – Caribbean Gardens, Melbourne
April 25th – The Domain, Sydney
April 27th – Doug Jennings Park, Gold Coast
April 28th – Sandstone Point Hotel, Bribie Island

It’s a new year but amazingly there’s been almost no news to report since the Christmas pudding a month ago. Now, sadly, the first real thing to report this year is the sad news that the legendary Joe Gannon has passed away. Joe was the stage designer behind many Alice Cooper shows from 1972 to the 1990s – including both the ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ and ‘Welcome To My Nightmare’ shows – as well as the director of the ‘Good To See You Again, Alice Cooper’ movie. Away from Alice, Joe also worked with the likes of Frank Zappa, Pink Floyd, Neil Diamond, Barry Manilow and many others. In later years he had moved to Hawaii and together with his wife ran ‘Joe’s Bar and Grill.’ Our condolences go out to Joe’s family and friends.

The Monster Raving Loony Party, the spoof UK political party, announced their ‘Loony New Years Honours’ for 2024 and included "Lord Alice Cooper" as the ‘Minister of Home Skooling.’ They said:

"Sadly after the Poison of lockdowns imposed upon the youth of the UK a few years ago, many have still not returned to school to continue their education with some sources suggesting a rise of over 50% upon pre Covid figures! Lord Cooper’s vast experience of this issue, and not just while they are out for Summer, will benefit all under Eighteen aged Frankenstein’s who have found themselves Under the Wheels of the system, with his No More Mr Nice Guy approach so we Welcome him to his Nightmare of a Ministry with a Hello-Hooray!"

Ryan Roxie has posted that he will be at this years NAMM show in Anaheim, CA between January 25th and 28th. NAMM is a huge industry only event but there’s often ways to get tickets. Ryan will be at the Hughes and Kettner stand in Hall D on booth 5630.

Pull The Plug Patches have released a range of licenced Alice Cooper patches including ‘Hey Stoopid’, ‘School’s Out’ and ‘Raise Your Fist and Yell’.