Beasto Livestream Tomorrow

Beasto Blanco Livestream Reggies Show

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.

Kane Roberts Returns

Kane Roberts Rejoins the Alice Cooper band.

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.

Goodbye Nita

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

Hollywood Vampires Add Show

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 In Greece

Alice makes an appearance with Desmond Child in Athens

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.

Hollywood Vampires In Europe

Hollywood Vampires Announced European Dates For 2023

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.

New Show In Sweden

Alice Cooper added to Töreboda Festival

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!

Blue Coupe

UK Tour and Catch Up

UK Tour Reviews, New show date and more

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:

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 In The UK

News from the UK Tour and other happenings

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’.

CoopStock 2

CoopStock 2 Review

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!