Crossbone Skully Launched

Crossbone Skully Launch

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.

Today is Astroturf Day

‘Alice Cooper, Live From The Astroturf’ Released

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.

Back on the Road again

Alice Cooper returns to the road with Kane Roberts

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.

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’.

First Two Episodes of ‘No Cover’ Released

First Two Episodes of ‘No Cover’ Released

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!

Roxie All Access Pass

Roxie All Access Pass

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 plays Louder Than Life Festival

Alice plays Louder Than Life Festival

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.

Finland Update and Greek Show

Alice Cooper plays Finland and Greece

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

New Barcelona Festival

Alice Cooper Headlines Barcelona Rockfest

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.