Article Database
1986 - 1988
The master of horror and shock-rock is back: Alice Cooper
(Bravo, 1986-00-00)
He slashed baby dolls, had scary monsters dancing on the stage, got his head cut off by a guillotine and wrapped live snakes around his neck: Alice Cooper was the first musician who caused quite a stir with his bizarre and brutal horror show...
Letter
(Ladies Home Journal, 1986-06-00)
I'm sorry you found that old song of mine crude and offensive. Actually, "Cold Ethyl" is just a harmless number about necrophilia. Kids see this for exactly what it is - satire, done with a sense of humor to a rock and roll beat. Kids know I'm harmless. It's parents that make me out to be some kind of a monster....
Back Alice
(Kerrang!, 1986-08-21)
Alice Cooper's back! Having sorted out a fresh deal with MCA Records, the King Of The Night Time World returns to the scene with a new single/album and an upcoming tour. The single, 'He's Back - The Man Behind The Mask' (the theme song from the movie 'Friday The 13th Part VI'), is set to be released towards the end of August in the US, with the album, titled 'Constrictor', lined up to follow the following month - and what's the betting that the sleeve will feature a snake in some shape, size or form?!...
News Report
(Kerrang!, 1986-10-02)
Alice Cooper who will issue a new album ('Constrictor') on the MCA label shortly, is expected to play 10 shows in the UK at the end of the year. This is probably going to include a date at Wembley Arena on November 23. Watch out for confirmation shortly....
Constrictor Album Review
(Billboard, 1986-10-04)
After series of disappointing releases in recent years, master of rock horror returns with highly refreshing debut MCA set. With Beau (Ratt) Hill producing, Cooper has gone for harder edge and delivered rock solid package that should hold strong...
Crawl To Be Kind
(Kerrang!, 1986-10-16)
He's back! Alice Cooper welcomes the world to the Nightmare of 'Constrictor'. Dave Dickson watches as AC flexes his new muscle of love... All together now!! 'He's back...He's the man behind the mask....And he's out of control!!!!'...
Cooper is back with shock rock
(Des Moines Register, 1986-10-30)
Razor-sharp guillotines. Crackling electric chairs. Slithering boa constrictors. These are wonderful ingredients for a hellish nightmare, but in the dark and mysterious world of legendary shock-rocker Alice Cooper, these are but a few of his...
Constrictor
(Metal Hammer, 1986-11-00)
"He's Back" he exclaims gleefully from his new single. But with it's stomping disco beat the single is far removed from Alice Cooper's comeback album. The teeny-idol, creative genius and master of the eccentric who has kept so quiet for ten years has...
Alice Cooper's Back: 'It Was Time'
(Tucson Citizen, 1986-11-04)
Razor-sharp guillotine. Crackling electric chairs. Slithering boa constrictors. These are wonderful ingredients for a hellish nightmare. But, in the dark and mysterious world of legendary shock-rocker Alice Cooper, these are but a few of his...
Alice In Splatterland
(Kerrang!, 1986-11-13)
After three years away from the scene, three years spent nurturing psychotic urges with regular daily doses of hack 'n' slash movies, the gorier the better, Alice Cooper returns to the UK with a carefully planned OTT stageshow harking back in places of his classic 'Welcome To My Nightmare' era. ...
Alice Cooper - Constrictor
(Pop Rock, 1986-11-22)
Having been asked to write and perform music for the film FRIDAY THE 13th and stimulated by the meeting of a new colleague, the brilliant guitarist and multi-instrumentalist from New York, Kane Roberts, ALICE COOPER...
Alice Cooper
(Aardschok America, 1986-12-00)
ALICE COOPER. The stage shows. The classic rock anthems. The name itself. There's never been anyone quite like ALICE COOPER — not even close. ALICE says, "Everybody was into peace and love. We were into fun, sex, death and money. I was trying...
Who says Alice doesn't live here anymore? He's Back!
(Faces, 1986-12-00)
Remember: When you're under the influence of Alice Cooper, you may never be the same again. It's been nearly 15 years since the rock luminary has wreaked havoc with macabre stage antics and such anthemic classics as "I'm Eighteen", "School's Out", and "Elected". In the early '70s, most bands wore simple jeans and T-shirts on stage, but Alice in his tattered tights hung himself, and chopped up baby dolls. A true innovator, The Coop was the first to dare open a Pandora's box that unleashed all the primers for a shock rock invasion that would ensue a decade later....
Shock-rock pioneer dies in Mason City at age 49
(Globe Gazette, 1986-12-00)
MASON CITY-Glen E. Buxton, lead guitarist for the famed '70s shock-rock band Alice Cooper, died early Sunday morning at North Iowa Mercy Health Center. Buxton, 49, had lived the last few years at Clarion. He died of natural causes, according to Dr. Steven Goetz, Cerro Gordo County medical examiner, who conducted an autopsy at the family's request Sunday afternoon....
Alice Cooper: The Man Behind The Mask
(Metal Hammer, 1986-12-00)
If it's Thursday, it must be Columbus, Ohio, and Vincent Furnier is preparing to change personality. In a few hours time, for the duration of approximately one hour and twenty minutes, the modest, unassuming Mr. Furnier will adopt, some say...
Alice Cooper: His effect on audience is frightful
(Palm Beach Post, 1986-12-26)
If you've ever been to a Motley Crue concert, you've seen living evidence of Alice Cooper's effect on rock 'n' roll. The whole notion of theater in rock originated when the preacher's son decided that he knew how to grab people's attention...
Horrorshow with Alice Cooper
(Crash, 1987-00-00)
He's got a lot on his plate — this man with the eyes of a whore and the spirit of a world ruler. Blackie Lawless and Dee Snider may try to destroy each other's ego while battling for the position of "spokesman for everything that's bad in metal these days"...
Blood from a Rocker
(Fangoria, 1987-00-00)
Veteran splatter rock pioneer Alice Cooper welcomes us back to his nightmare. Alice Cooper would probably marry Friday the 13th's Jason if there wasn't a law in his home state against interfaith marriages. But seriously, folks... "I love the children of Jason," enthuses Cooper. "In a way, the character of Alice Cooper and the character of Jason came from the same sort of weird place."...
Alice Cooper
(Hit Parader, 1987-00-00)
Alice Cooper is a rock and roll original. During his 18-year career, he's called every name in the book — madman, martyr, genius, ghoul. But the bottom line may well be that Cooper remains one of the most inventive, if bizarre, forces in...
Heavy Metal Awards
(Hit Parader, 1987-00-00)
Ironically, just as Twisted Sister are preparing to regain their top form, the band's prime influence — Alice Cooper — is in the midst of resurrecting his own unique brand of metal mayhem. With the release of Constrictor, his first album...
The Master Returns
(Hit Parader, 1987-00-00)
Alice Cooper hasn't cozied up to a snake for quite a while. So he was understandably tentative about approaching the scaly extra in his first music video - He's back (The Man Behind the Mask) for the mad slasher film Friday The 13th Part VI...
Flashback
(Hurricane, 1987-00-00)
He is loved and adored by his fans, positively hated by the mothers of his many female hangers on, and either priased to the skies or completely cut down by various critics. The mans name? Alice Cooper, of course, lead singer amd mentor of "the most bizarre and entertaining rock-theatre in the world", "a wonderful mixture of Frankenstein and Charlies Aunt" and other such critical praise. But all this positive praise was heaped on him during the seventies, when our hero was celebrating success after success and it seemed as if nothing would stop his onward, and upward progress. But, at the end of the seventies things began to go down hill. ...
Master of Disaster
(Metal Edge, 1987-00-00)
Spiders, snakes, decapitated brides, and dead babies - it's all in a nightmare's work for Alice Cooper, the master of horror movie metal. On the charts with a 19th album, Raise Your Fist and Yell, the veteran rocker once again entertaining audiences...
Thank You For Clearing That Up
(Penthouse, 1987-00-00)
Rock singer Alice Cooper, denying that he had ever killed a chicken during a performance: "I never killed that chicken. At the Toronto Rock 'n' Roll Revival, someone threw a chicken on stage and I threw it back into the audience. And the audience tore it to pieces, not me."...
The Nightmare Returns: The Alice Cooper Tour
(People, 1987-00-00)
All right kids: In case you're lacking historical perspective, the thing draped around this guy's neck is a live, 10-foot boa constrictor. He calls himself Alice, and he was a past master of macabre rock drama back when the members of Metallica thought heavy metal meant an oversized safety pin in their diapers....
Malice With Alice
(Solid Rock, 1987-00-00)
Alice Cooper has spent more years in rock'n'roll than some HM acts have written songs, yet he still has the power to shock. Brian Pithers quizzes the man behind the make-up. Alice Cooper is back with 'Raise Your Fist And Yell', a new album that promises to hit the streets like a breath of fresh outrage. But can the Grand Master of Shock pull it off again? After all, it was as long ago as 1964 when the plan was put into action that first transformed The Earwigs, The Spiders and The Nazz into Alice Cooper....
Concert Review
(Times, The, 1987-00-00)
Before the excesses of W.A.S.P., Iron Maiden, The Damned, The Tubes, Kiss and even The Rocky Horror Show there was Alice Cooper, the man most singularly responsible for the catalogue of miscreant entertainment that has become so pronounced...
Alice Cooper
(Aardschok America, 1987-01-00)
An interview with Alice Cooper could be a real experience based on speculation concerning his new show. It certainly leads to more anticipation than walking into the room to speak with Billy Joel. There is always a little reminder upstairs that says...
Alice Cooper: Welcome To My Nightmare, Again
(Circus, 1987-01-00)
"He's Back" is Alice Cooper's theme song for Friday The 13th, Part 6 — but could just as well apply to Cooper himself. The legendary frontman is making a strong comeback with the late 1986 release of Constrictor (MCA) and a U.S. tour after five...
Live On Stage
(Metal Hammer, 1987-01-00)
A massive hoarding outside the arena boldly advertised 'The Legendary Alice Cooper', but such a description is no idle boast. No siree, the seminal figure that inspired a generation has risen from the grave to remind us just what real shock rock is all...
Welcome To My Nightmare Dreamhouse
(RIP, 1987-02-00)
It's Saturday night at the local overcrowded concert madhouse, and the teeming fans are going wild! Frisbees are flying everywhere. Suddenly, the lights go out, and flaming Bics are held up high to the right, left and front of you. Hell, the guy behind you just lit your hair on fire! Thousands of rabid teenage shagheads start chanting, "Al-ice! Al-ice! Al-ice!" and girls in sexy spandex pants, wearing those silly, green, glow-in-the-dark things around their necks, squeal with excitement as a solitary figure makes his way to the edge of the stage-holding a huge, green python!<...
Cooper Among Chickens
(Vancouver, 1987-02-00)
He was the Yankee-Doodle dandy in a gold Rolls-Royce. He wore lace and he wore black leather. He was the all-American transvestite returned from the dead. And Alice Cooper was my hero during the early and mid-1970s....
Alice Cooper At Verdun On The 28th
(Pop Rock, 1987-02-06)
1986 is the year ALICE COOPER returns to the world rock scene with his new album "CONSTRICTOR", and as Alice says: "This album is dedicated to real hard-rock fans, as it contains no ballads." Produced by Beau Hill (producer of RATT) and...
Alice is coming with his goriest show yet
(Vancouver Sun, 1987-02-10)
HALIFAX - Nothing terrifies shock rocker Alice Cooper more than decor at the Holiday Inn. "How could you live with those colors? Turquoise and coral. Anybody who would think of that is scary."...
Generation Landslide '87
(Creem, 1987-03-00)
First things first. Alice Cooper's "Under My Wheels" is a rock 'n' roll classic. You can put it on a party tape or hear it on the radio after, say, something from the Stones' Exile On Main Street, and it doesn't sound a bit out of place. I always thought it was...
Welcome back to your nightmares!
(Monde Du Rock, 1987-03-00)
"He's back, the man behind the mask, and he's completely mad" (He's back, Alice Cooper). As in the most manic horror films (Friday the 13th, Halloween, Opera of Terror, etc.), Alice Cooper is immortal. We thought he'd disappeared...
The Nightmare Returns Review
(RIP, 1987-03-00)
Through his long and inventive career, Alice Cooper has remained the Master of the Macabre, with his live shows always a gruesome gas....
Alice Cooper: He's Back With Another Nightmare
(Blast, 1987-03-14)
The problem child of the 70s, complete with the bag of tricks that gave him headlines and parents nightmares, has made it all the way back. He battled booze and fell out the spotlight. "I drank for ten years straight, and then started running again...
Alice Cooper's Nightmare Revisited
(Salt Lake Tribune, 1987-03-19)
So sang the ghoulish, ever so outrageous Alice Cooper Thursday night before about 5,000 fans at the Salt Palace. The 39-year-old singer/entertainer, backed by a powerhouse band and surrounded by a melange of ghastly props, thrilled, chilled, and at times spilled blood on an audience rapt with attention....
Shock Rocker Flirts with Lady Guillotine
(Calgary Herald, 1987-03-27)
Most rock performers have a sound check before a concert. Alice Cooper has a guillotine check. "I always go and check my guillotine closely since the blade only misses my head by about eight inches. I definitely want to make sure it's working...
I love America
(Rock Beat, 1987-04-00)
These days in rock and roll circles we're getting what's known as veterans. Not guys who've been in the war, but guys who've seen action. Proof positive are bands like Kiss and Aerosmith, people like George Harrison and Chuck Berry who have seen and affected a whole generation of pubescent rock and rollers - and then they watched as these kids matured into yuppie adults....
Alice Proves Bore Of Gore
(Calgary Herald, 1987-04-01)
Alice Cooper may have promised his fans a thrilling live show that combined the bloodfest aspects of slasher flicks with the naughtiest musical qualities this side of Black Sabbath, but he only proved to be the ultimate bore of rock 'n' roll gore...
Teenage Frankenstein
(Kerrang!, 1987-04-02)
I've a feeling this is also on the 'Friday The 13th Pt. 786' soundtrack along with Alice's last single, 'He's Back...'. This one, though, is devoid of all trace of a synthesiser and just kicks serious thingy. Buy. The B-side, I'm told, has a bunch of old Alice hits!...
News Report
(Kerrang!, 1987-04-30)
Thunderbolt records have just put out 'Ladies Man', a live album from Alice Cooper recorded at the Toronto Rock And Roll festival. This mid-priced LP has been repackaged for the UK market and includes two bonus tracks not available elsewhere. ...
Caught in the Act
(Hit Parader, 1987-05-00)
The ad appeared in a Detroit newspaper one morning. "For adoption," it read, "One 150 pound, 14 foot-long boa constrictor," which made even that old snake charmer himself, Alice Cooper, take notice. As it happened, Alice was in...
Constrictor Review
(Rock Scene, 1987-05-00)
On the last day of eighth grade, some of my buddies and I had the bright idea of tapping in to the school PA system just before the bell rang and blasting "School's Out" throughout the school to celebrate our ascension to high school. It didn't come off, but it's nice to contemplate such dreams of glory while listening to Alice Cooper's latest LP, Constrictor. Everything I ever loved about Alice is in there....
Alice Cooper...I Was A Teenage Video Nasty!
(Samhain, 1987-05-00)
THE parallels between rock music and horror imagery are many and varied, and getting ever closer with videos now standard practice for a song - witness Michael Jackson's "Thriller", ZZ Top ' s "TV Dinner" or anything by Ozzy Osbourne. The man who has seen it, done it and been it all is Alice Cooper. His marriage of music and theatrics was, and remains, unequalled. ...
News Report
(Kerrang!, 1987-07-09)
Alice Cooper has just completed work on his latest album with producer Michael Wagener. As yet untitled, it should be out on the MCA label to coincide with his headlining appearance at the Reading Festival on August 30....
News Report & Video Review
(Metal Hammer, 1987-08-00)
Alice Cooper and producer Michael Wagener began mixing Alice's new album recently at Amigo Studios in the valley. No title has been confirmed as yet, however sources say that one cut called 'Freedom' will be the only one considered for radio play...
Kulture - Vids
(Kerrang!, 1987-08-06)
For real laughs and delightfully disgusting entertainment, check out the noo Alice Cooper vid - 'The Nightmare Returns' (Hendring) - which captures all the bowel-opening excitment of his Halloween '86 show in his hometown of Detroit. Yup, the man who makes Ozzy Frogspawn seem like Keith Chegwin is on peak (puke?) form as he lurches through all his classic kuts, lancing baby dolls with swords, singing with a live snake around his neck, impaling a cameraman on a mike stand, fighting with a quickly constructed robot during 'Teenage Frankenstein' and being 'beheaded' by a blood-splattered guillotine at the end (three brilliant illusions!), before returning for 'School's Out', 'Elected' and 'Suffragette City'....
News Report
(Kerrang!, 1987-08-20)
Alice Cooper, the man who put the gore into 'gore-blimy-what-a-brilliant-meisterwork-just-sitting-here-waiting-to-rip-it-off', has just completed a new album. Anthemically-titled 'Raise Your Fist And Yell', it's due out (in the states at least) through MCA in the first week of October and produced by Michael Wagener (who helped out Beau Hill on 'Constrictor'). "Michael, I think, really does great with that kind of sound", says Alice. "The thing that makes it different from a metal album is we used all the elements I like from metal, but lyrically and melodically, it's a whole different thing. I'm really happy with it! I think it makes 'Constrictor' sound tired! It's much heavier and much more guitar-orientated."...
Prince Of Darkness
(Metal Hammer, 1987-09-00)
He is back, and you'd better believe it. We should have known that when he got the bit between his teeth last year that he'd regain his love for the taste of blood... and act on it. And how we loved him for it. When Alice came over to the UK at the tail...
Alice Cooper
(Record Collector, 1987-09-00)
The reception afforded Alice Cooper on his recent return to the music scene after a lengthy abscence has re-affirmed his status as one of the most individual and influential performers of the Seventies. His controversial stage antics tended to obsure his ability as a songwriter, as a sardonic observer of the spiralling decay of U.S. culture. Most of Alice Cooper's discography can be aquired with little trouble as few of his songs have not turned up on LP. However, collectors face more of a challange if they wish to seek out picture sleeve singles and first pressings of the albums....
Reading '87
(Kerrang!, 1987-09-17)
Alice Cooper was the reason why a whole lot of people braved three days camping in a field, not washing or eating (probably) and being sick (certainly). Alice Cooper has always had a hold on people and in '87, with no new album or stage show to offer, he's still got it in him to headline Reading. I guess that being brutally frank there was no way I wouldn't have been disapointed. After all, I'd seen exactly the same show not that many months back and as such knew all the thrills and spills in advance. That Alice was as entertaining as he proved to be in spite of that is a big feather in his cap to my mind....
Reading Rules
(Metal Hammer, 1987-10-00)
The nightmare returns! Alice Cooper is back and, boy, is he mad. The album kicks off with a real piledriving anthem called 'Freedom', obviously penned with those dickheads at the PMRC in mind. The intensity of this song is almost frightening, and...
News Report
(Kerrang!, 1987-10-10)
Alice Cooper will issue his latest studio album, 'Raise Your Fist And Yell', through MCA on October 19. Produced by Michael Wagener, it has the following track listing: Side One: 'Freedom', 'Lock Me Up', 'Give The Radio Back', 'Step On You' and Not that Kind Of Love'. Side Two: 'Prince Of Darkness', 'Time To Kill', 'Chop Chop Chop', 'Gale' and 'Roses On White Lace'....
Raise Your Fist and Yell Album Review
(Kerrang!, 1987-10-17)
'We the people of the United States ... Stop pretending that you've never been bad. You are the rulers with the iron hand!' Alice launches hot foot into a powerful assault that attempts to prick the nation's conscience. He demands 'freedom to rock and freedom to talk.' but Americans have done nothing but talk and rock for years on end. They invented the chat show, Elvis Presley and the Washington Post after all. But doubtless Alice sees deep dangers in the current anti-rock stance being taken by some concerned US citizens. Nothing to get up about, as John Lennon might say. Rock, and indeed all art, thrives on oppression. More freedom usually means less quality, but that's one of life's ironies....
Shriek Of The Mutilated
(Kerrang!, 1987-10-24)
ALICE COOPER leads DAVE DICKSON through the spooking glass and talks about his latest album 'Raise Your Fist And Yell', his sordid past and his gore-drenched future. Picture this: Me, my friend Kay, Andy Layson (then marketing man at MCA), Kane Roberts (Alice Cooper guitarist) and Alice himself. We're lounging around Alice's suite at the Birmingham Holiday Inn. It's about midnight and I've just finished an interview with Kane, and a little while ago we all trooped down the corridor to join Alice in his suite, the inner sanctum. Before me sits a pot of tea and some empty cans of Diet Coke. The TV is showing 'The New Avengers' and Alice has just passed some admiring comment about Joanna Lumley (Purdey)....
Shock Rock Rolls with Alice Cooper
(Battle Creek Enquirer, 1987-10-30)
The bewitching season is here and what better time for a concert, even better, a concert from the acknowledged king of shock rock, the master of macabre, Alice Cooper. Such was the setting Thursday night at Wings Stadium as Cooper brought...
Cooper's Pretend Terror Goes Past Limits of Taste
(Detroit Free Press, 1987-10-30)
Alice Cooper's most famous quote from the '70s is probably: "The sicker (the audience) gets, the sicker we'll get." On Wednesday night at Wendler Arena here, the Detroit-born shock rocker showed he's sticking to that credo...
The Nightmare Returns
(Concert Shots, 1987-11-00)
The new Alice Cooper show has to be seen to be believed, Alice has successfully pulled off the comeback of the '80s. By sheer talent and creativity, Alice has managed to hold on to his oldest devotees and, with the release of the hardrocking Constrictor...
"King of Shock Rock"
(Inside Track, 1987-11-00)
Alice Cooper (really Vincent Furnier pronounced Furnya) is the infamous "King of Shock Rock". Hard Rock and Theatrics was combined into a conceptual form of the first time by Alice Cooper. Since the release of his first album, "PRETTIES FOR YOU" in 1969, Alice has shocked audiences all over the world....
Cooper in Bloody Good Form, Concert Makes Audience See Red
(Daily Gazette, 1987-11-05)
A woman's throat was slit at Dayton's Hara Arena on Tuesday. No, it was not a heinous murder, it was the Alice Cooper show and as usual the king of horror-rock had plenty of blood to spray around....
Raise Your Fist and Yell Album Review
(Billboard, 1987-11-07)
Heavy metal pioneer returns-bedecked in horror-show imagery-to prove once again that he can be just as snotty as the young 'uns-such raw-knuckled rockers as "Step On You" and "Prince Of Darkness" and solid heavy metal pop tunes like...
Shock Rocker Back To Wow '80s Audience
(Boston Herald, 1987-11-12)
Alice Cooper, the man known for mixing heavy metal and heavy menace, is back. Cooper returns to the Boston Garden on Tuesday with a new band, several chainsaws, a boa constrictor, enough fake blood to float a battleship and even a working...
Raise Up Your Legs And Tour
(Metal Hammer, 1987-11-12)
After the stupendous performance at the Reading Festival, British and European fans will have to wait until February of next year to see Alice Cooper perform again in this part of the world. A tour had been booked in for around this time of year, but was...
Alice Cooper: Coop's back!!!
(Scene, 1987-11-12)
It's the afternoon of Alice Cooper's appearance on WMMS' "Classic Rock Saturday Night" show, and a sebdued looking Alice is sprawled out on his bed at the Sheraton Hopkins watching the Detroit Tigers play the Minnesota Twins in the third game of the American League Playoffs....
Alice Cooper Still A Spectacle
(Boston Globe, 1987-11-18)
What goes around, comes around: Alice Cooper is back, and if he's not as bad as he once was, he's a little bloodier. Or, at least his props are. At the conclusion of "Dead Babies," Cooper swung his mighty ax and decapitated the "woman" who ...
Cooper Still Gory After All These Years
(Patriot Ledger, 1987-11-18)
For the past 15 years, Alice Cooper - the self-proclaimed Master of Shock Rock - has made his mark on the music world by belting out gory musical oddities ("I Love The Dead") and passionate teenage anthems ("Elected") while mutilating mannequins and engaging in his own mock beheading with a guillotine....
Blood Orange
(Kerrang!, 1987-11-28)
Exactly one year after Alice Cooper made the comeback of the '80s on his 'Constrictor' tour, he returned to San Bernardino to give us a chance to raise our fists and yell before going on to once again conquer the rest of the world. With two strikes already against him - the first being that virtually no-one was aware of the new album, 'Raise Your Fist And Yell', and second being that he was playing to an audience whose local radio station considers Bruce Springsteen and Madonna to be hard rock - 'The Coop' definitely had his work cut out, and there was one other minor problem to be dealt with: Faster Pussycat. The opening act, were definitely no favourites with the locals, having been pelted with beer bottles and booed off stage during their last appearance in nearby Corona....
Raise Your Fist and Yell Album Review
(Circus, 1987-12-00)
Alice Cooper barnstorms his way through ten anthemic rockers that hearken all the way back to his classic Billion Dollar Babies days. Like Aerosmith, Alice has improved upon his comeback LP. Producer Michael Wagener has given the sound a harder...
Bring Back The Noose
(Metal Hammer, 1987-12-10)
Crikey, they used to say that cats have nine lives but that's not a patch on Alice Cooper. Just when you think the guillotine's blade has dropped for the final time, the ghost of Alice always returns, bigger, bolder, stronger, and ultimately far more intimadating...
Back, Bad and Looking to Be Banned
(Georgia Straight, 1987-12-18)
I bought Alice Cooper's Killer album last month. That's right. I'm 30 years old, and I went out an laid down $8.99 for the record with "Dead Babies" on it. Now some people might think, "How immature. Doesn't the guy have any taste?" But I don't care....
Alice, with Malice
(Province, The, 1987-12-27)
Freddy Kreuger, the raisin face from Nightmare on Elm Street, has just released his first album, Freddy's Greatest Hits, but, hah, he's a pussy cat compared to that old shocktrooper, Alice Cooper....
Playlists
(Metal Hammer, 1987-12-31)
Alice Cooper seems almost certain to undertake a full European tour during April. Dates are expected to begin on April 1st in the UK and this will involve nine British shows (including Wembley Arena), followed by three weeks on the continent. The latter...
Screaming in the Night
(Hit Parader, 1988-00-00)
Alice Cooper is a rock and roll original. During his 18-year career, he's been called every name in the book — madman, martyr, genius, ghoul. But the bottom line may well be that Cooper remains one of the most inventive, if bizarre...
If You Want Blood... You've Got It!
(Metal Rendezvous, 1988-01-00)
LOS ANGELES, California — One of the few areas of the entertainment industry that never changes is the popularity of horror. Scary stuff has always found an audience. That's why movies like Friday the 13th< have two hundred-fifty sequels to them. ...
Alice Is Back And Is As Sweet As Ever
(Everyday, 1988-01-07)
If there is one thing Alice Cooper does not want his performing alter ego to be, it's a cliche. One might think it was time for the rock 'n' roll theatrics legend to take it easy, to tone down the glitzy, macabre stagecraft for which he has become famous. After all, rock 'n' roll is mostly for the young, and Cooper has been around since the early '70s. Well, forget it. The performer, who usually refers to himself in the third person, tried that several years ago. The has-been costume didn't fit....
Letters
(Post Dispatch, 1988-01-15)
I strongly urge parents to keep their children away from the Alice Cooper concert tomorrow night. The band plans an evening of simulated violence and mayhem complete with beatings, dismemberment and gore, or in Cooper's words, "the biggest bloodbath ever." Much of this violence is directed at the most vulnerable members of our society, women and children, and at animals. To make it all seem as real as possible, the band uses special effects, lighting and "blood" to splash on the audience....
Alice Cooper, Master Of Shock-Rock, Plays At Kiel
(Post Dispatch, 1988-01-16)
EVERY ROCK fan's favorite nightmare, Alice Cooper, brought his theatrical brand of rock to Kiel Auditorium on Saturday evening. The singer's program was a fast-paced visual orgy of the gruesome, fueled by the metal-powered onslaught of Cooper's crack five-piece backing group. When rock maestro Frank Zappa released Cooper's debut album "Pretties For You" in 1969 on his own Straight records, few would have imagined that the master of shock-rock would still be thrilling audiences nearly two decades later. However, with his "Raise Your Fist and Yell" tour in full swing, Cooper has captured an entirely new generation of rock ghoul watchers. ...
Alice Is Back And Is As Sweet As Ever
(Post Dispatch, 1988-01-17)
If there is one thing Alice Cooper does not want his performing alter ego to be, it's a cliche. One might think it was time for the rock 'n' roll theatrics legend to take it easy, to tone down the glitzy, macabre stagecraft for which he has become famous. After all, rock 'n' roll is mostly for the young, and Cooper has been around since the early '70s. Well, forget it. The performer, who usually refers to himself in the third person, tried that several years ago. The has-been costume didn't fit. "Alice took three years off in the early 1980s," Cooper explained, "because it sounded good at the time. After a while, though, I discovered that I was retiring way too soon. I was looking at a magazine one day, seeing which bands were hot at the time, and they were all doing Alice. They were imitating the act I had done for so long. That was all the urging I needed. ...
Alice Cooper, Master Of Shock-Rock, Plays At Kiel
(Everyday, 1988-01-18)
EVERY ROCK fan's favorite nightmare, Alice Cooper, brought his theatrical brand of rock to Kiel Auditorium on Saturday evening. The singer's program was a fast-paced visual orgy of the gruesome, fueled by the metal-powered onslaught of Cooper's crack five-piece backing group. When rock maestro Frank Zappa released Cooper's debut album "Pretties For You" in 1969 on his own Straight records, few would have imagined that the master of shock-rock would still be thrilling audiences nearly two decades later. However, with his "Raise Your Fist and Yell" tour in full swing, Cooper has captured an entirely new generation of rock ghoul watchers....
Alice Cooper has crawled out of the crypt yet again
(Montreal Gazette, 1988-01-22)
Alice Cooper is all the evidence needed in a court of law to prove hard rock is the work of the devil. Cooper, a.k.a. Vincent Furnier, first surfaced on Frank Zappa's Straight Records in the late '60s sporting waist-length hair, gingham dresses, a name he claimed came form a 17-century witch and a reputation as the worst live act in southern California. ...
Alice Aforethought
(Guitarist, 1988-02-00)
Kane Roberts is probably best known as Alice Cooper's guitarist and current songwriting partner - the man who's built like Rambo and plays a flame throwing guitar that looks like a M-60 machine gun. Yes, I know you must have seen him. Well. He's stepping out on his own for a while and has a self-titled solo album, released by MCA. ...
Welcome To My Nightmare
(Montreal Mirror, 1988-02-05)
The magic of a memorable rock performance is just that - the rock and the show, Todays' musical wanna-bes, spoiled by video special effects, have ruined any chance of being a decent live act. ...
Alice back, shock-rock lives
(Montreal Gazette, 1988-02-11)
What become a legend most? In the strange case of Alice Cooper, it isn't Blackglama Mink; it's blood - as in buckets....
Alice promises a red Valentine
(Ottawa Citizen, 1988-02-11)
A few years ago, it didn't look as though Vincent Furnier was going to be able to revive Alice Cooper. It didn't even look like he would be able to revive Vincent Furnier....
News Report
(Kerrang!, 1988-02-13)
Alice Cooper returns to a nightmare near you with his 'Live ....In The Flesh' tour in April. He plays Edinburgh Playhouse April 1, Sheffield City Hall 4 , Birmingham NEC 5, Wembley Arena 7, Manchester Apollo 10-11. Expect all of Alice's usual theatrics, and see you in hell, losers......
Alice horrifying in every spectacle
(Ottawa Citizen, 1988-02-15)
Most performers give concerts which have at least a few boring stretches, no matter how charismatic the person is. ...
People Column
(Post Dispatch, 1988-02-25)
Shock-rock star ALICE COOPER, who says he bought his first car years ago from impeached Arizona Gov. EVAN MECHAM, has half-serious plans to run for political office in Arizona, his home state. "I'm definitely a write-in candidate," said Cooper. "Hey, I'm a native. I'm a registered voter. I represent the Wild Party, and I even have a campaign slogan: 'Alice Cooper - a troubled man for troubled times."' Cooper, 39, is in Phoenix for a show Saturday night that will end the American leg of his yearlong comeback tour. ...
The Continuing Re-Invention of Alice Cooper
(Creem, 1988-03-00)
Evil, evil Alice. It's been 17 years since he first rose from the murky depths of Vincent Furnier's twisted mind to terrorize an unsuspecting legion of rock fans hungry for new meat. Since then, he's shown more resilience than Friday The 13th's...
Alice Cooper, Ain't nothing like the real thing
(Faces, 1988-03-00)
As I pick up the telephone receiver and listen with awe to the friendly tones emanating from the other end of the line, it begins to dawn on my consciousness that this is truly the voice of Alice Cooper, the man whose face has haunted my dreams (and probably yours too!) With a rampaging new LP, Raise Your Fist And Yell, a Godzilla of a tour, a fiendish cameo in John (Halloween / The Thing) Carpenter's new horror epic Prince Of Darkness, and across-the-board respect from the hard rock community, Alice Cooper is not only back, but here to stay for some grandly gruesome time to come. Yet the humorous, down-to-earth guy on the phone rapping with me bears little of no resemblance to that ghoul-faced concert persona we all know and love. Nonetheless, The Coop had a lot to say about what his evil half is up to....
The Weird Weird World of Alice Cooper
(RIP, 1988-03-00)
How can Alice Cooper ever be normal? His life has been one long splatter movie with angels circling about it. He grew up as Vincent Furnier. He lived a very comfortable childhood in Detroit and Phoenix, dreaming of ghosts and watching...
News Report
(Samhain, 1988-03-00)
"ALICE Cooper, a troubled man for troubled times." That's the slogan that's going around Arizona at the moment where SAMHAIN's favourite rock star is running for governor. I kid you not and what's more Cooper, who is currently touring the UK ...
News Report
(Kerrang!, 1988-03-05)
Alice Cooper has added extra dates to his spring UK tour. He plays Edinburgh Playhouse April 2, Newcastle City Hall 9. Even more dates may be added soon. Chrome Molly will support Alice Cooper on his forthcoming tour. Readers Poll results: No. 10 Live Gig. No. 8 Retail Video (The Nightmare Returns). No. 1 Kerrang Cover...
News Report
(Kerrang!, 1988-03-12)
Alice Cooper has added another date to his spring UK tour. It's Machester Apollo on april 12....
News Report
(Kerrang!, 1988-03-19)
Alice Cooper has re-recorded his old classic 'Under My Wheels' for the soundtrack of a new film 'The Decline Of Western Civilisation Part 2'. Guns'n'Roses singer Axl Rose duets with Alice, and the guitars feature Kane Roberts plus Slash and Izzy from the Roses....
'I WANNA BE ELECTED!' - On Tour With Alice Cooper
(Metal Hammer, 1988-03-28)
He wants to be elected, or does he? Following a radio interview in the states, it suddenly became front page news that Alice Cooper was going to stand for the post of Governor of Arizona! Of course, the whole thing was a complete misunderstanding...
Alice Cooper Is Still The Freak Show Maestro
(Post Dispatch, 1988-03-29)
Rock singer Alice Cooper appeared at the Fox Theatre on Tuesday evening in a ghoulish exhibition of horror-show bravado. Undoubtedly rock music's last bastion of musical theater, the Cooper performance was a seamless blend of heavy rock and high-tech drama on a superlative scale. At "thirtysomething," I've watched Alice Cooper's career go from an early performance at Rainy Daze Teen Club in my high school days, to a mid-period oddity at the Arena Annex, to the platinum glory of his "Billion Dollar Babies" tour and on to his current sensational comeback. It couldn't happen to a stranger guy, or more talented entertainer. ...
Alice Cooper
(Hollywood Music, 1988-04-00)
18.04 - Osnabrück, Stadhalle. 20.04 - Stuttgart, Stadhalle Böblingen. 20.04 - Fürth, Stadhalle. 22.04 - Essen, Grugahalle. 24.04 - Ludwigshafen, Eberthalle. 25.04 - München, Rudi-Seydlmeyer-Halle. 26.04 - Offenbach, Stadhalle. Oft verschoben, doch nun soll's endlich losgehen. Kurx nach Redaktions-schluß erreichten uns die aktuellen Daten der Alice Cooper-Tour. Ob jedoch weider Totenköpfe rollen, oder eine lebendige Boa als Special-Guest dabei ist, konnte uns keiner verraten. Aber es wird mit Sicherheit eine bunte, skurille und sehenswerte Veranstaltung....
Who Made Who?
(Kerrang!, 1988-04-02)
Around 17 years ago, an ordinary guy called Vincent Furnier cam up with an extraordinary idea. He decided to invent an alter ego name of Alice Cooper and tread a rockin’ trail strewn with blood ‘n’ gore across this beleaguered planet. Now, in 1988, the dividing line between the man and the character he created has become blurred. No-one is entirely sure who is who any more - Steffan Chirazi least of all, as you can read in this schizophrenic story from the (altered) States......
Sick Sick Sick
(Mirror, 1988-04-06)
An outraged MP last night called for the a ban on shock rock star Alice Cooper after his first British gig at which young fans fainted, threw up and were splattered with buckets of blood. Outspoken Sheffield politician David Blunkett stormed: "I'm horrified by his behaviour - it goes beyond the bounds of entertainment". He added: "Its an indication of the sick society we're moving into and something drastic should be done to protect young people from paying for this sort of obscenity"....
Concert Review
(Kerrang!, 1988-04-16)
Good Friday, April Fools Day becomes Bad Friday, April Ghouls Day, 'cos he's back - AAAAAALISS COOPERRR! Beyond legendary, beyond mere infamy, the anti-hero personified. Just seein' ol' black-eyes in the flesh again made me feel all warm inside...
Edinburgh Playhouse '88
(Metal Hammer, 1988-04-25)
As for Alice? The gig was in the bag before he left his dressing room (or should that read 'crypt'?!). He's not exactly breaking new ground these days, but when the crowd's forked out nine-and-a-half lager tokens per head, it's only fair to give them...
Alice Cooper: Eight Questions
(Graffiti, 1988-05-00)
In a non-descript hotel room in downtown Toronto, the legendary Alice Cooper sits on a non-descript sofa, drinking Clamato juice and Diet Coke chasers and compulsively watching game shows. Alice has been storming his way across the world with his latest album, Raise Your Fist and Yell, and equally legendary stage show, which is notorious for its theatrical tricks, sadistic violence and, especially, blood letting (Alice guesstimates they go through "a couple of humans full" a night). ...
Alice throttled
(Metal Hammer, 1988-05-23)
Alice Cooper had a bad experience on the last night of his Wembley dates when the safety device failed on the gallows which Alice uses to perform on stage. A shaken and shocked Alice had to be cut free from the noose which had tightened...
News Report
(Samhain, 1988-06-00)
SHEFFIELD'S blind labour MP David Blunkett called for a ban on Alice Cooper after the first date of his 1988 British tour had 'em fainting in the aisles. The show included a hanging sequence, throat-slittings, disembowellments and baby mutilation - all simulated we hasten to add. At the climax of the 90 minute show, fans in the front row were soaked by gallons of theatrical blood. "I'm horrified by this man's behaviour" raged Blunkett."It's an indication of the sick society we're moving into." Sounds to us more like the same act Alice has been peddling for over 15 years now....
News Report
(Kerrang!, 1988-06-25)
Alice Cooper's recent tour of Germany was hit by censorship and protest about the content of his stage show. Following reports in the English tabloid press about girls fainting in horror at Alice's antics, he was forced to drop sections of the show that involved spearing baby dolls on his swoord, axing a female mannequin, disembowling a pregnant woman and splattering fake blood. Alice commented: "The most important thing was to play a show, even a censored one, for fans who've waited so long for me to return to Germany. I'm sorry that they didn't get to see the entire show, but they seemed to enjoy each night just as much as if we hadn't changed a thing."...
Alice Cooper: The Legend and The Man
(Rock Rag, 1988-08-00)
Alice does a lot of horrible things in concert and then he gets it. The funny thing is that with the electric chair and the hanging and the guillotine there is always a sort of "black and white" about the whole thing. For about an hour up there on stage, Alice is a horrible villain and then they get him for it....
Alice Cooper's Rocky Horror
(Sound and Vision, 1988-09-00)
"I've always said that there's a perfect marriage between horror and rock music," says singer Alice Cooper who, after four years of laying low, is back again scaring audiences. The project that bought Cooper back is Monster Dog, a film made for video in which he plays an adventuresome rock star transformed into a killer canine/man. "I was at a period where I wasn't really doing anything," says Cooper. "I'd been watching all of those [Dario] Argento splatter movies when they offered me the part. It had an Italian director, so I figured we'd be able to get away with more. It sounded like fun - three months in Madrid, I'd get to turn into a dog, and we'd get to kill eight people," he laughs. Cooper agreed to do Monster Dog as long as it was cast with unknowns. "I love C-movies," he says, "but there's nothing worse than a big budget splatter film."...
Alice Cooper: Still The Shock Rock Master
(Circus, 1988-10-00)
Armed with a boa constrictor, guillotine and teen anthems like "I'm Eighteen" and "School's Out," Alice Cooper (a.k.a. Vincent Furnier) has been the shock rock master ever since his 1969 debut. His gore-filled extravaganzas like 1975's Welcome...
Boycott Alice Cooper
(Everyday, 1988-11-15)
I strongly urge parents to keep their children away from the Alice Cooper concert tomorrow night. The band plans an evening of simulated violence and mayhem complete with beatings, dismemberment and gore, or in Cooper's words, "the biggest bloodbath ever." Much of this violence is directed at the most vulnerable members of our society, women and children, and at animals. To make it all seem as real as possible, the band uses special effects, lighting and "blood" to splash on the audience....
This Week In Rock
(Kerrang!, 1988-12-17)
A New York Department store stays open late on December 14 so that Alice Cooper, wearing silver pants and a 'Paul McCartney Lives' badge, can do some private Christmas shopping. ...
News Report
(Kerrang!, 1988-12-24)
Alice Cooper, king of gore-filled rock, is currently writing songs for his next album, a follow-up to 'Raise Your Fist And Yell', due on the MCA label early next summer. Hit-maker Desmond Childs is co-writing a number of songs, and will be producing the album. Recording takes place in Woodstock, New York. ...