More US Dates Added

Alice Cooper adds five shows in August

Alice Cooper has announced five more headline shows in August with tickets going on sale tomorrow. The new shows are:

August 6th – 1st Summit Arena at Cambria County War Memorial, Johnstown, PA, Johnstown, PA
August 15th – Juanita K Hammons Hall, Springfield, MO
August 19th – Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center, Midland, TX
August 20th – The Buddy Holly Hall at Helen DeVitt Jones Theater, Lubbock, TX
August 22nd – Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, San Antonio, TX

The Hollywood Vampires show at Hellfest almost didn’t go ahead after their equipment was stuck in traffic at the French border. Luckily thanks to Kiss and their crew, who were also at the festival, they managed to put together enough gear for them to play the show.

Dennis Dunaway will be appearing on ‘Voodoo Radio’ tomorrow at 7pm UK time. Anyone can listen in to this via the stations website here.

There’s a new 90 minute interview with Chuck Garric thanks to the ‘Mama Tried Show & Flat Out Friday’ Youtube channel which you can check out here.

Hollywood Soapbox has a short interview with Neal Smith talking about his latest solo album ‘Killsmith Goes West’.

Nita Strauss jumped up on stage with Demi Lovato again the other night, on a night off during her current tour, to guest on ‘Heart Attack’. Blabbermouth have videos.

Alice Hits The Road

Alice Cooper hits the ‘Road’ with new album

While we’re still waiting for the official press announcement, details of the new album have been surfacing over the last few days from various retailer listings and the appearance of the short video teaser above [since removed for some reason] suggests a full announcement won’t be long coming.
What we know so far is that the album is entitled ‘Road’ and it will be released on August 25th by earMusic in various combinations. There are *at least* three different CD versions: CD, CD/DVD and CD/Blu-ray. Then there are also *at least* three double vinyl versions, in black, red and orange, which also come with the DVD. There will also be a deluxe limited edition vinyl+CD+Blu-Ray+merchandise version. The DVD contains last years Hellfest performance which was streamed live at the time. (I’ll post order links up once both AmazonUK and US have finalised their listings)
The album was produced by Bob Ezrin and features the current live band (Tommy, Roxie, Nita, Chuck, Glen) plus guest appearances by Kane Roberts, Tom Morello, Keith Nelson (Buckcherry) and Wayne Kramer (MC5) who all also co-write at least one song. The track listing as listed on Amazon is:

  1. I’m Alice
  2. Welcome To The Show
  3. All Over The World
  4. Dead Don’t Dance
  5. Go Away
  6. White Line Frankenstein
  7. Big Boots
  8. Rules Of The Road
  9. The Big Goodbye
  10. Road Rats Forever
  11. Baby Please Don’t Go
  12. 100 More Miles
  13. Magic Bus

Amazon.com has the following description:

“The road will make you or break you. To survive it, you need to be as tough as asphalt and move fast enough to make the competition eat dust. Throughout 2022, Alice collaborated closely with the members of his touring band as well as long-time producer Bob Ezrin, putting together what would become his brand-new studio album “Road.” You can feel the energy and lightness that the band brings with every riff and hear the story behind what inspired them. Bringing everything full circle, it channels the spirit of old school Alice with instantly recognizable grit and plenty of gusto. It’s everything you’d hope for from him and more. And this time his trusted longtime bandmates— Ryan Roxie [guitar], Chuck Garric [bass], Tommy Henrikson [guitar], Glen Sobel [drums], and Nita Strauss [guitar]—are riding shotgun. Kane Roberts (a touring and recording collaborator with Alice’s in years past who briefly rejoined Cooper on the road in 2022) makes a special guest appearance, contributing the raucous and rip-roaring “Dead Don’t Dance.” Other special contributors to the album include Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello, who co-wrote, and plays and sings backing vocals on “White Line Frankenstein,” and Buckcherry’s Keith Nelson and MC5’s Wayne Kramer, who also co-wrote new songs with Alice.”

Obviously I’ll post the full release information as soon as it’s released

In other news, Nita Strauss has released another track from her forthcoming second album. This one is called ‘Victorious’ and features "Dorothy" on vocals. Nita says: "Victorious is the anthem I always wanted, a song about inspiring change, marching forward relentlessly, being willing to save yourself instead of waiting for someone to do it for you, and never backing down from a fight, Dorothy was the perfect powerhouse voice and personality to stand and deliver, and knock this one out of the park.” You can see the video below.

Radio Eksen in Istanbul, Turkey have posted a short interview with the Hollywood Vampires which you can check out here. It’s in English. The band began their European tour a couple of days ago with a similar set to the last tour but with a couple of nods to Jeff Beck added in.

The "Sally Steel Rocks! Show" has posted the second part of her interview with Alice talking about being on Hollywood Squares, what he feels his best song was, what he was like in high school. You can check it out here.

Beasto Blanco have signed a deal with COP International for two new singles later this year followed by a new album in 2024. You can read the full press release here.

Too Close For Comfort

The Too Close For Comfort Tour Begins

We’re now three shows into the new ‘Too Close For Comfort’ US tour and there’s plenty of video appearing on YouTube. As promised the tour features a completely new stage set which heavily relies on video screens showing close ups of Alice and the band, as well as pre-recorded clips to illustrate certain songs. Sadly the new setlist is rather predictable, with only a couple of real surprises, and there seems to be minimal theatrics, although the snake is back for the first time in some years. The tour also sees the return of Nita Strauss after she sat out the fall tour last year.
Ultimate Classic Rock have a full review of the Mount Pleasant show with photos and lots of spoilers, while Seth Lewis has posted some excellent photos from the same show. More photos can be found at PennLive.

To mark the start of the tour April 29th was named ‘Alice Cooper Day’ in Youngstown, MI by radio station WYFM and the Mahoning County Commissioners who presented Alice with a proclamation in honour of his 50 years playing shows in the area and a custom painted trash can! You can see a copy of the document here while WYTV has video and a report but it’s region locked.

Nita Strauss has been talking to Loudwire about touring with Alice and Demi Lovato, plus her new solo album which is due this summer.

New Cooper Magazine Covers

Two new magazines have Alice on the cover

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!

Vampires In Italy and Poland

Hollywood Vampires confirmed for the Marostica Summer Festival

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.

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.

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.

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!