“Love, cuts deep as a laser” Ivan Dryer and Alice Cooper

Alice Cooper co-founder and Hall Of Fame inductee Dennis Dunaway answers your questions!

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steven_crayn
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“Love, cuts deep as a laser” Ivan Dryer and Alice Cooper

Post by steven_crayn » Tue Apr 13, 2021 2:13 am

Hi Dennis,

Years ago i was reading about Ivan Dryer the creator of the laser light show, he gave an interview on a website where he claimed:

“There was one friend with a technical background, Charlie McDanald, who saw some potential and began to work with me as my new partner. So in 1972 we set about building projectors, including four small helium-neon units for a rock tour with Alice Cooper – the first use of lasers for a rock tour.”

When i posted an amazing photo of him with lasers around his head on Facebook with some info, Cindy commented that it was considered using lasers on the Billion Dollar Babies tour, but thought to be too dangerous.

It always looked like there were lasers as opposed to just ordinary lights coming out of the eyes of the Egyptian Sarcophagus, behind Neal’s kit during 'My Stars’.

Have you any more inside info on this?

Here is that interview in full
https://www.imersa.org/summit-2018-spea ... ivan-dryer
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Re: “Love, cuts deep as a laser” Ivan Dryer and Alice Cooper

Post by Dreary » Tue Apr 13, 2021 7:05 pm

steven_crayn wrote:
Tue Apr 13, 2021 2:13 am
Hi Dennis,

Years ago i was reading about Ivan Dryer the creator of the laser light show, he gave an interview on a website where he claimed:

“There was one friend with a technical background, Charlie McDanald, who saw some potential and began to work with me as my new partner. So in 1972 we set about building projectors, including four small helium-neon units for a rock tour with Alice Cooper – the first use of lasers for a rock tour.”

When i posted an amazing photo of him with lasers around his head on Facebook with some info, Cindy commented that it was considered using lasers on the Billion Dollar Babies tour, but thought to be too dangerous.

It always looked like there were lasers as opposed to just ordinary lights coming out of the eyes of the Egyptian Sarcophagus, behind Neal’s kit during 'My Stars’.

Have you any more inside info on this?

Here is that interview in full
https://www.imersa.org/summit-2018-spea ... ivan-dryer
We had the lasers at the Galesi Estate. Charlie and I took them up to the upstairs balcony outside of my room and put on our own late night laser show for Cindy. As we understood it at that early stage, looking directly into a laser beam would damage your eyes. And with so many various officials showing up at our shows with reasons to prevent us from performing, and most certainly considering the safety of our fans, we disappointingly passed on the lasers. Soon after that, again as we understood it, some sort of study showed that reflecting the laser beams off of mirrors solved the issue. Blue Öyster Cult incorporated lasers into their show with amazing results.

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Re: “Love, cuts deep as a laser” Ivan Dryer and Alice Cooper

Post by steven_crayn » Thu Apr 15, 2021 5:04 am

Thanks Dennis
Lead guitar on Social Debris. Album on iTunes, Amazon & Spotify, title track featured on TV

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