Catch Up

It’s been extremely quiet in Cooperland the last couple of weeks. Almost no news has come through, so I’m just going to cover the few things tha have to keep up today.

Alice listed his 20 top horror movies (again) for ‘Far Out’ magazine which you can see here.

Calico Cooper was on the ‘Chuck Shute Podcast’ and spent over an hour chatting away from her clothes closet. Well worth listing to here.

The ‘Six String Salute‘ benefit livestream with Tommy, Nita and Ryan was a little disappointing as they just showed (around 4 minutes in) the video of them playing their solos from ‘Black Widow’ which was online weeks ago. However you did get to see Damon Johnson and his band play a few songs which you can check out around 22 minutes into the show.

Speaking of Damon, he’s getting together with Richie Faulkner of Judas Priest to make a livestream tribute to his favourite band Thin Lizzy. It airs live on Friday (25th) at 7pm central time but you can listen any time after that. Tickets are available from Veeps for $10.

Ryan Roxie’s ‘In The Trenches’ podcast last week featured Sickthings Kai Ross-Best, Bill Crowe and Me! You can subject yourself to that here. He followed that up with an interview with Alice’s personal assistant Kyler Clark which you can check out here.
Lined up for future shows are guitar god Joe Satriani and Trash songwriter Desmond Child and Ryan is offering YOU the chance to join them on air to chat and ask your questions! It’s called the ‘In The Trenches Special Sauce’ and he’s the details from Ryan:

"We really hope you are enjoying the In-The-Trenches Podcast with Ryan Roxie. In all of our almost 50 episodes so far, we have brought to you many full-length insider interviews with today’s hardest working rock musicians and entertainers.
Now, we are ready to take In-The-Trenches to the next level, and we want YOU involved. We are planning a number of once-in-a-lifetime episode SPECIALS, interviewing some of the major names in rock n’ roll, and we want YOU TO BE IN THE SHOW. Here’s how it works:
In each SPECIAL episode we have a maximum of 3 ONSTAGE passes available, where you will be inside our virtual studio, ask our special guest your question face to face, and will be immortalized in direct conversation with them forever, for the world to see. So take a look at the names of our next special guests and recording times, and get your VIP ONSTAGE PASS now!
But there’s more good news! We are also inviting exactly 4 lucky souls to a private aftershow ‘fireside chat’ with Ryan Roxie and our special guest of the week. By securing your BACKSTAGE PASS now, you will hang out for 20 minutes after the show and make lifelong memories.”

You can sign up for you special pass now, if you’re quick, at RyanRoxie.com.

Lastly, check out this cool piano version of ‘Only Women Bleed’ by Daydreamer.

Friday Update

Alice’s appearance on the ‘Forbidden Planet 42’ livestream event last week can be seen now on YouTube. In it Alice remembers the signing session for ‘The Last Temptation’ with Neil Gaiman and seems to suggest he’s been talking to Gaiman about working together again! Amusingly he recalls the signing as like an early comic convention… I was there.. Few people knew it was happening (pre-internet it was only really advertised in store) and around 50 people really don’t make a convention!

The Disney Channel have revealed Alice will be back this October reprising his role as ‘Alistair Coop De Ville’ in a new episode of ‘Mickey Mouse Mixed Up Adventures’ airing in the US on October 2nd. The episode is called ‘The Mystery Of Hot Dog Lake’.

Hard Rock 80 has a new, long interview with Ryan Roxie, but it’s in French. You can use google to translate it here.

Ryan’s latest ‘In The Trenches’ interviews are up now featuring Orianthi, and Mike Fasano (Gilby Clark/Warrant). Next Tuesday it’s the turn of Chip Z’Nuff from Enuff Z’Nuff.

Calico Cooper is interviewed on ‘Talking Metal’ which you can watch here. As always Calico is a great interviewee and this is another one well worth watching.

Tommy Henriksen has posted a new AC/DC cover with Team SoloDallas. This time it’s ‘You Shook Me All Night Long’ to celebrate the 40th anniversary of ‘Back In Black’.

Scream Factory will be releasing a huge box set of ‘Friday 13th’ movies on October 13th with a ton of bonus stuff. On the list are new exclusive interviews with Alice and the ‘He’s Back’ video.

‘Don’t Give Up’ at #1

It’s been a pretty quiet couple of weeks in Cooperland but in the last couple of days things have started to happen again.

Firstly the official Alice Cooper social media has put out the following statement in regards to a insert included in some German copies of the new ‘Don’t Give Up’ single. It goes as follows:

"A special news flash for everyone…. It has come to our attention that the German-released “Don’t Give Up” on vinyl by Alice Cooper had an unauthorized inserted message. Neither Alice, his management, nor the record label had any knowledge that the German distributor inserted an anti-covid statement using offensive language into the new vinyl release. Alice apologizes if you were offended as this does not reflect the personal lifestyle nor verbal language of Mr. Cooper [End Transmission]"

Speaking of ‘Don’t Give Up’ the single is currently #1 on the official UK vinyl single chart!

Don’t forget Alice is due to appear on the Forbidden Planet 42 online event this Saturday. You should be able to watch it live here.

Alice has released a promotional video for the special chocolate milk bottles now on sale around the Arizona area. Danzeisen Dairy now have presumably empty bottles on sale via their website for those outside the area. $10 from each sale will go to Alice’s Solid Rock Teen Center.

He’s also been talking to AZCentral about the milk project and confirmed that the Christmas Pudding show will go ahead this year in some form, although it’s unlikely to be the normal live show. This years ‘Proof is in the Pudding’ young band competition has also been postponed until February.

Ryan Roxie’s guest on ‘In The Trenches’ this week was ex-Cooper guitarist Orianthi talking about her time with Alice. You can check that out here. Next up is Warrant and Dad’s Porno Mag drummer Mike Fasano.

Nita Strauss was at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles on Saturday playing to an empty stadium during to mark L.A. Rams ‘first scrimmage’ at the new stadium. She played a bit of Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’ to become the first musician to ever play in the new complex. You can see footage Nita posted via Blabbermouth.

On August 20th Shep Gordon took part in a ‘Pollstar Live Session’ which you can watch now on YouTube.

Damon Johnson was on the ‘Talking Metal’ podcast talking about his solo career and working with Alice. You can listen to that one here.

This Weeks Online Action

This Weeks Alice Cooper related Podcasts

Chuck and Calico of Beasto Blanco appeared on ‘Coffee Talk with Stefan Adika’ promoting tonight’s ‘Freak Stream.’ You can watch the interview here starting at around 15 minutes. It’s not to late to grab your ‘Freak Stream’ tickets for tonight’s show here.

Alice alumni Kip Winger was Ryan Roxie’s guest on ‘In The Trenches’ this week for an entertaining chat about Kip’s career. Well worth checking out here. Next Tuesday Ryan’s guest will be Slash bassist Todd Kerns.

Alice appeared on the ‘Life Of Brian… Mannix that is’ podcast this week which you can check out here. He talks about ‘Detroit Stories’ and ‘Don’t Give Up’ which as of yesterday is out as a cool 7" picture disc.

Alice will also be making an appearance on the ‘Forbidden Planet 42’ online event celebrating 42 years of the legendary London comic store. The event features a who’s who of the comic and fantasy industry including Neil Gaiman (who worked on ‘The Last Temptation’), Michael Moorcock, Kevin Smith, Simon Pegg, Chris Claremont and many, many more. You’ll be able to watch the show here.

The Alice Cooper guitar trio, Ryan, Tommy and Nita, along with ex-Cooper Damon Johnson and many others, will be taking part in an online benefit show called ‘Six String Salute‘ for the ‘Crew Nation Relief Fund’ on September 17th. The event will be streamed live on Live Nation’s YouTube channel and ‘Live From Home‘ site.

The Mondance Jam festival, which Alice was due to play this year, has been rescheduled for July 22nd-24th next year and Alice is among the acts confirmed to appear. All tickets for this years festival will be valid for the new dates.

Beasto Freak Stream

Beasto Blanco Announce Freak Stream

Beasto Blanco and the ‘Monsters Of Rock Cruise’ have teamed up to present ‘Freak Stream’, a pay per view event on August 15th featuring the band performing live. Tickets are just $10 in advance ($15 on the night) and are available now here. Once you have your ticket you will have access to the stream for a few days so plenty of time to check it out regardless of any time difference where you are.

Alice was on ‘Little Steven’s Roadshow’ last night talking ‘Detroit Stories’ with Little Steven and co-host Drew Carey. You can check it out on YouTube beginning about an hour into the show.

Lzzy Hale has reposted her interview Alice from a couple of months ago as part of her ‘Raise Your Horns’ livestream series which you can check out here.

Another lockdown interview I may have missed at the time is with Radio Freccia back in June and you can see that one here.

Nita Strauss can be seen performing Iron Maiden’s ‘Aces High’ as part of a new lockdown band called ‘The Wheelblocks’ with Chris Jerico (Fozzy), Phil Demmel (Vio-lence/Machinehead), Johnny Christ (Avenged Sevenfold) and Nita’s boyfriend Josh Villalta on drums. Check it out here.

Wacken Streaming

Wacken World Wide performance streaming

Alice and the band appeared on the Wacken World Wide virtual festival yesterday with ‘at home’ performances of ‘School’s Out’ and ‘Don’t Give Up’. This was followed by highlights from the ‘Raise The Dead – Live From Wacken’ dvd. You can see what was broadcast via this post on facebook, while the Magenta360 site has the full Wacken 2013 show streaming if you don’t already own it.

Sheryl Cooper was interviewed on Arizona TV7 a few days before the birth little Desiree Diaz talking about being a grandmother again, lockdown, and being on the road with Alice.

‘Interviewing The Legends’ have a new interview with Neal Smith promoting his latest ‘Pop 85/95’ CD.

Ryan Roxie has launched a new Instagram Face Filter ‘Electric Guitar Quiz’ which you can find here on a mobile device. I don’t use Instagram, so all I can add is what Roxie says: "What ‘Guitar’ Are You? Ever wondered that exact question? Well…. now it can finally be answered by using Ryan Roxie’s newest Instagram FaceFilter  ‘Electric Guitar Quiz’. Roxie has collaborated with Beats AR to bring you the Rock’n’Roll Face Filter of all time… featuring some of the worlds most memorable and iconic Guitars! NOW it’s YOUR turn to find out exactly ‘which’ of these Electronic Beauties will be your ‘Axe of the day’…And because it’s nobody’s guess, try it as many times as you want until you get that ONE Guitar that screams… ‘THIS IS ME!’

Alice shows up briefly in a new documentary ‘House Of Cardin’, about the fashion legend Pierre Cardin.

Wacken World Wide

Alice Cooper and Band to appear on Wacken World Wide Virtual Concert

This years Wacken Open Air Festival in Germany has obviously been cancelled, however they are mounting an online version with interviews and performances by many of the festival regulars and this includes Alice and the band. On Thursday there will be an interview with Alice, followed a little later by a special performance by the full band and some archive footage of previous Wacken shows. You can see the daily schedules at ‘Wacken-world-wide.com‘ where you will also be able to tune in. Ryan Roxie and Glen Sobel confirmed their participation during the latest ‘In The Trenches‘ podcast this evening saying they would be playing "a few songs" for the event.

Sheryl Cooper has just announced the arrival of their first granddaughter, named Desiree Diaz! Congratulations to Sonora Cooper and her husband Diego Diaz!

And speaking of ‘In The Trenches‘ Ryan also announced that his next guest will be Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick! This will air next Tuesday at 5PM UK time. Make sure you catch up with Roxie’s recent podcasts including chats with Glen Sobel and a return of Kane Roberts, both well worth watching.

In a tour update it seems as expected every show this year is now cancelled, with the exception of the Seattle show with is listed as ‘Postponed’ but expect that to go as well. I wouldn’t expect any new show announcements until things have calmed down significantly and it’s safe for them to go ahead without more cancellations.

Cleveland.com have a new interview with Alice talking as usual about the lockdown and the new album, ‘Detroit Stories’ which is now apparently 99% done.

This Week

Weekly News

It’s been a pretty quiet week in Cooperland but Alice turned up briefly on the Manchester Arena 25th Anniversary livestream. He talks about the playing in the UK and they then play a few clips of the Manchester show. You can see him around two hours six minutes into the show.

Various sites have been reporting that Alice is working with Desmond Child (Trash, Hey Stoopid) again after Desmond posted about it. It’s likely however that he is talking about Alice’s appearance on his forthcoming solo album which he first announced last year, rather then a new Alice Cooper album.

Calico Cooper was on the ‘What Does Joey Know‘ podcast last week amd it was a pretty entertaining chat with Calico talking about growing up in the Cooper house with Alice Cooper as her dad. Worth checking out.

Steve Hunter’s ‘Cafe la Rouge’ has a new six track EP out called ‘Covered In Love’. Recorded in Spain while on lockdown it also features legendary bassist Tony Levin and Steve’s wife Karen on vocals. Anything Steve does is worth checking out and you can hear samples and order a copy here. ‘Animal House Radio’ interviewed Steve and Karen Hunter about the new EP which you can watch on facebook.

Ryan Roxie’s next ‘In The Trenches’ on Tuesday sees the return of Kane Roberts for a second chat, while his newest show ‘The Roxie Review‘ had a surprise start when Alice and Sheryl happened to call just as they went live! It also saw a quick appearance by Eric Dover. Both have agreed to be on ‘In The Trenches’ sometime soon so watch out for that.

Weekly Update

More dates cancelled, and new interviews

Alice has been hard on the lockdown interview trail in the last week. First was ‘Rock For Relief’ where he is interviewed by Cathouse legend Rikki Rachtman. Then Yahoo Sports talked to Alice about the ‘Flush The Fashion’ album and Q104.3 ‘Out Of The Box’ chatted about lockdown, ‘Detroit Stories’ and other stuff. He’s also been talking to Loudwire. Metal Hammer have published an interview from last year (?) which was in the print edition but possibly not online before. Also the Hawaii public radio interview mentioned a little while ago is now online to listen to.

More of the November rescheduled dates have now been cancelled (with one officially ‘postponed’ again). I would say the rest will be gone soon with a completely new set of shows next year. It’s a shame, but what can you do. Not only have they got to keep Alice, the band and the crew safe, but also the fans at the show. Better to be safe then sorry.

Alice is also now on ‘Cameo’, A site that allows you to pay for personal video messages from the star (or it seems almost anyone – there even seems to be a cat and a pig available!) of your choice. All the info is here including a few examples of what you get.

The Danzeisen Dairy in Phoenix. AZ is producing a special Alice Cooper chocolate milk bottle with all profits going to the Solid Rock Teen Center. The instant collectors items will be available in stores this fall. Hopefully they will announce some way of getting one for those of us outside the Arizona area.

Glen Sobel was interviewed by GalaxyCon which you can check out here. Glen talks about all sorts of things including his early career and of course Alice.

Ryan Roxie has annouced two live shows in Sweden. He will play "An Evening With Ryan Roxie’ shows on July 25th at the Garage Bar in Höganäs. and August 15th at Trollhättan’s Backstage Bar. The next ‘In The Trenches’ podcast will feature Sepultura guitarist Andreas Kisser on July 14th. Roxie also turned up on ‘The VoiceIt Show’ which you can check out here.

Vampires Shows Rescheduled for 2021

The 2020 Hollywood Vampires tour now has rescheduled dates as listed below. Tickets for previously postponed shows should be valid for these new dates. In the UK it seems Killing Joke will be replacing Primal Scream as the opening act.

5th August 2021 – Birmingham Arena, Birmingham, UK (w/ Killing Joke)
6th August 2021 – First Direct Arena, Leeds, UK (w/ Killing Joke)
7th August 2021 – SSE Hydro, Glasgow, UK (w/ Killing Joke)
9th August 2021 – The 02, London, UK (w/ Killing Joke)
12th August 2021 – Charlotta, Charlotta Valley, PL
14th August 2021 – Summer In The City, Mainz, DE
15th August 2021 – Olympiahalle, Munich, DE
18th August 2021 – Citadel Music Festival, Belin, DE
22nd August 2021 – Emsland Open Air, Lingen, DE
23rd August 2021 – Olympia, Paris, FR
25th August 2021 – Stadtpark, Hamburg, DE
26th August 2021 – Konig-Pilsener Arena, Oberhausen, DE
28th August 2021 – Riverside Open Air, Aarburg, CH
29th August 2021 – Clam Castle, Klam, AT
1st September 2021 – Armeets Arena, Sophia, BU
4th September 2021 – Lifepark Open Air, Istanbul, TR

In addition to these changes it appears the Alice Cooper shows in Thackerville, OK and Topeka, KS on October 30th and 31st respectively have now been cancelled according to the venue websites. Sadly it looks likely there will be more cancellations to come.
UPDATE: The Regina, Edmonton, Penticton, and Abbotsford shows are now also listed as cancelled on venue sites.

Ryan Roxie’s chat with legendary Elton John/Alice Cooper guitarist Davey Johnstone last night can now be seen on YouTube. If you missed the last few ‘In The Trenches’ broadcasts you can catch up at Roxie’s YouTube channel.

Shep Gordon will be taking part in a ‘Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp’ class on July 26th. As with Alice’s class this is is open just 25 people but is rather cheaper at $100 per person. Details here.

Something Else Reviews look back to the ‘Brutal Planet’ album here.

Hollywood Vampires 2021