Home...... Previous Page
Where do I begin. This festival was the source of all those chicken rumours. It's also where the many early live albums like 'Freak Out' were recorded. The date was 13th September, 1969.
The Alice Cooper Group also backed rock'n'roll legend Gene Vincent at this show. An interview with Gene Vincent exists and he talks about playing the Toronto Festival and how he liked some new band called Alice Cooper so much he invited members of the band (with Alice on Harmonica) to back him up in the recording studio for a couple of demos.
This incident also explains the 'For Gene Vincent' dedication on 'Return of the Spiders' on 'Easy Action'.
It's true they backed him at the show but I never heard about any studio session.
(Renfield, September 1995)
From an interview with Gene Vincent:
Interviewer - How'd that Toronto Rock and Roll Festival go?
Gene during that thing. - That went very well, actually. John.....John Lennon was my guest. He and I and Yoko talked for quite a spell
I-Did you have your own backup group?
Gene - No, actually I worked with Alice Cooper....he's a boy, you know.
I - That's open to doubt, but....could they play rock?
Gene - Oh, yeah. We did "Be-Bop-A-Lula", "Rockin' Robin", "A Lotta Lovin" and several others.
I-Who were some of the rock people on the bill with you?
Gene - Alice Cooper, John Lennon, the Doors, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis.......