A Chance To See Alice Live! & Review: 1974

Alice Cooper's Music Scene Album Win & Tour Comp

Published in the UK on January 1, 1974, Music Scene Magazine across two pages feature “A Chance To See Alice Live!” promoted a competition to win one of 50 copies of the Alice Cooper Group’s latest album, with every entrant (regardless of winning an album) getting a chance to see Alice live during his upcoming UK tour. The article stated the tour was scheduled for sometime in April, with all entries kept and lucky ticket winners picked at random once the tour was finalised. Winners would be notified by post.

Article Text Excerpt

FREE! 50 Alice Albums must be won and a chance to see him live!

EVERYONE who enters this competition, regardless of whether they win an album or not, gets a chance to see Alice live when he tours here.

The latest information is that it will be sometime in April. All the entries will be kept, and the lucky ticket winners will be picked out at random as soon as the tour is finalized. They will be notified by post.

Originally, we were going to include the tickets as bonus prizes for Alice's January tour. Now, we could try blaming the fact that we can't do this on the petrol shortage, the power cuts, or even the Greek generals, but the simple truth is that at the last moment, Alice postponed his visit! That, as we all know, is show business.

EASY-TO-ENTER TRUE OR FALSE QUIZ

He is a musical phenomenon. ALICE COOPER is more than just a rock star, dynamic enough to draw 800,000 people through the turnstiles on their recent American tour and assured of being just as successful when he tours here early in '74.

Freaky maybe, instant anathema to Mrs. Mary Whitehouse certainly, but Alice Cooper, for all the flash showmanship, the displays of mock sadism with sawn-up babies and writhing snakes, is musically intriguing too.

Take Alice's latest album: "Muscle Of Love," and that's a title to give you something to think about! It's action all the way through with a raunchy, hard-driving rock sound, some pungent lyrics, and great musicianship.

And "Music Scene" is giving away 50 copies of it in this easy-to-enter competition with 25 copies of Back Door's "8th Street Nites" going to the runners-up (see opposite).

To win a copy of "Muscle Of Love," all you have to do is use your knowledge of Alice Cooper and decide if the following five statements about him are true or false.

For example, if you think that Statement No. 1 is true, then write "True" opposite the square marked No. 1 in the coupon on the right-hand page, and so on until you have completed all five squares.

MUSCLE OF LOVE: reviewed by Roger St. Pierre.

TRACK OF TRACKS is "Teenage Lament," appropriately enough scheduled as the next single from our boy and his boys.

Besides the frantic fivesome, there's Liza Minnelli, yes, she of "Cabaret" fame, the much-touted black vocal trio The Pointer Sisters, and one Ronnie Spector singing the backup vocals.

Ronnie Spector is Mrs. Phil Spector; she's also Veronica, lead singer on all those old Ronettes classics.

There's aid from others too: Bob Dolin on keyboards, Mick

Masher on guitar, Dick Wagner on guitar, and a vocal team comprising Dave Libert with Dolly, Stu Day, the aforementioned Bob Dolin, Dennis Ferrante, Joe Gannon, and the Big Cheese, whoever or whatever that might be, while a certain midget named Mr. Trudnich, billed as "the Dean Of Men," also plays a role, but we're not sure in what manner.

The inner-sleeve pics show Alice and his cohorts Dennis Dunaway, Neal Smith, Michael Bruce, and Glen Buxton, dressed as naval ratings leaning outside "The Institute Of Nude Wrestling." Flip it over and there they are all battered and torn, being dragged away by the military police. Alice then is as outra-

geous as ever, lined by song themes like "Muscle Of Love," "Never Been Sold Before," "Hard Hearted Love," and "Man With The Golden Gun." Alice Cooper is rock revolution.

In the past, Bob Ezrin has been their producer, but when he fell ill, his partner Jack Richardson stepped in for "Muscle Of Love."

Richardson is renowned for his work with the Kinks, Poco, and The Guess Who, and certainly "Muscle Of Love" will do no harm to his reputation.

It's arguably their best album to date, possessed of an immediacy which no doubt derives in large measure from its having been recorded live in the studio.

If there is a tie, the prizes will go to those readers who can let their imagination run riot and dream up the most appropriate alternative name for Alice Cooper.

The five statements you have to answer as being True or False are:

I-"Killer" was the title of the first album to be released by Warner Brothers. True or false?

2-Including Alice, there are six permanent members of the Alice Cooper band. True or false?

3-Alice is the son of a church minister. True or false?

4-Their hit single "Elected" was one of the tracks on "Billion Dollar Babies". True or false?

5-His "School's Out album was co-produced for him by Phil Spector. True or false?

Don't forget to add your name and address in the space provided and to suggest a new name for Alice Cooper, then cut around the dotted line and send to the address shown.

The coupon must be completed in ink and posted to reach us before the closing date which is FIRST POST, JANUARY 16, 1974. As soon as the entries have been examined the albums will be sent to the winners.

without over-dubs or editing.

There are some nice variations of tempo and mood on display.

"Crazy Little Child" for instance has almost a bar-room feel with strong hints of trad jazz and great rolling piano behind the mid-tempo churning rhythm.

is as "Big Apple Dreamin' heavy as heavy with that familiar hard, brash, muzzy Alice Cooper guitar sound, while "Never Been Sold Before" is a real stormer with some great lead guitar work and brass of which the original Blood Sweat And Tears would have been proud.

And what of "Teenage Lament"? Well suffice to say it's a hit. You need to hear it for and you soon will! yourself