Muscle Of Love Timeline

TIMELINE 8 - Muscle Of Love

1973

Nov 15th `73 `Muscle Of Love` album released

South Africa, the Customs and Vice Squad met the LPs at the airport and stripped them of their record liners, which display a comic scene in front of the Academy of Nude Wrestling, renamed "the institute" on the cover.

Nov 25th `73 On returning to New York he attends a post show party for Hawkwind at the Hayden Planetarium. Alice and Cindy attended where Alice met Lemmy (Hawkwind were playing a rare show in NY on the 25th).

Nov 28th `73 Teenage Lament `74 single released

Billion Dollar Babies Holiday Tour

ZZ Top support of most(all?) dates.

Dec 7th `73 Alive meets another of his idols, Author Kurt Vonnegut.

Dec 8th `73 Municipal Auditorium, Nashville (ticket stub)

Dec 9th `73 Greensboro, NC Coliseum

Dec 11th `73 Madison, WI Dane County Expo Center.

Shep Gordon heads to LA for a court hearing about record companies. Presumably to do with Zappa and Straight.(MM)
The band stays at the Sheraton Inn.
At the press conference they are given the keys to the city(MM)
Alice is suffering from Stomach pains from a flu bug and suffering from a 103 temperature which effects the performance. The band pull together to help him out during the show.

Dec 12th `73 Ann Arbor, MI University of Michigan Field House/Crisler Arena (ticket says Crisler Arena) .

Dec 13th `73 Toledo, OH Sports Arena (only 10 mins. due to riot)

Toledo Riot. This was an additional date added in after the tour began.

Rolling Stone - 31st January 1974

Alice Bombed in Toledo
Toledo - Pelted by fireworks and debris, Alice Cooper recently walked off their "Holiday Show" at the Toledo Sports Arena. According to Ashley Pandel, Cooper's publicist, "Alice felt if they continued, there could be another Altamont."
Guitarist Michael Bruce was reportedly cut on the face after fireworks thrown from the audience shattered an overhead light bar. He was taken to a nearby hospital, where a particle of metal was removed from an eye. He suffered no serious injuries.

Alice and the rest of the band left the arena shortly after their walk off. During a half-hour wait - while the audience lingered, waiting for resumption of the show - seven carloads of police were summoned to join 20 off-duty cops at the auditorium to control the near sell-out crowd of 8,000.

"Security at the concert was nonexistent," charged James Randi, who plays the executioner in the band's "I Love Dead Things" (sic) act. "There was only a two-foot barrier to separate the crowd from the stage."

Trouble began to develop even before Cooper appeared. Fireworks, including Roman candles, were set off during Z.Z. Top's opening set. Then, according to Mark Scheerer, newsman at WIOT-FM Toledo, "Alice got the first bars of 'Hello Hooray' out and got hit in the chest with either an egg or vegetables. He did a mock stagger and went on. Then people started throwing a variety of missiles at a fairly steady pace. Alice did the second number, 'Billion Dollar Babies,' and the lights went down. Alice told the people, 'We came to play, and we don't appreciate being targets.'"

A cherry bomb, as Scheerer described it - arena manger Gerald Francis said it was an M-80, equal in power to one-eighth of a stick of dynamite - went off, shattered the light, and Bruce was hit and led offstage. Alice then decided to cancel, Pandel said, "before someone got killed."

The band - and most witnesses - were unable to explain the violence. Pandel said the crowd seemed more "bewildered" than angry at anything. A crush of people directly in front of the stage, he said, began pushing forward, shoving matches began "and then things were being thrown." Scheerer said Toledo rock fans had no history of violence. "It was just a handful of malcontents. I think they just felt it was obligatory. You know, to match his violence."

Pandel disagreed. "Alice is only trying to relieve tension in kids. When they leave an Alice Cooper show, they sure won't get into violence. They've seen it already."

Ironically enough, the night before in Ann Arbor, Dennis Dunaway said before the concert, "We get off more on a Detroit-type crowd - crowds that physically get into a concert."

After an hour's wait, the crowd was finally dispersed, according to police. No arrests or refunds were made.

In fact, as is reported in great detail in 'Billion Dollar Baby', the story of Michael Bruce being hurt was actually a cover. The band, and especially Alice were genuinely afraid of what would happen if they returned to the stage, especially if they performed the Guillotine. Alice would be a sitting duck.

An eyewitness account:

The Muscle Of Love tour, really called the Billion Dollar Babies tour at the time, in Toledo, OH was opened by ZZ Top. This was the concert that ended in a so called riot. What happened was, ZZ Top played a full set. During their set balloons were released from the ceiling and the crowd was tossing them around. When the Cooper set started people were still tossing balloons, but then started tossing other things on stage. At one point Alice was hit with something and slammed his mike down on the stage. At that point he ran to the other side of the stage and grabbed another mike.
At the end of the 2nd song, as the lights went dim you could see spark coming from something thrown from the crowd and it exploded on stage. It appeared to be a firecracker or M-80. At this point the band left the stage and it was announced that they would be back out. When the lights came back on some time later, the Toledo Sports Arena was filled with police. It was then announced that the band would not come back out and that the concert was canceled.

I don't know that I would call what happened a riot. I know as I left the arena there wasn't any problems, but then next day in the local newspaper the said a ticket window at the arena had been broken and there was some fighting by a group of kids. As always as stories are told they get wilder.
(Ron Prentice, Aug. 2000)

Another Eyewitness:

That was my first concert at age 16. The reason the riot happened in my opinion was that 1-1/2 - 2 hours passed after ZZ Topp played and Alice Cooper hit the stage. The crowd was upset having to wait that long. Some fools started throwing things when he finally came out. I heard a rumor that the reason he took so long was because he was watching a hockey game on TV. At least we got to see ZZ Topp, which was a treat for a Texas native like myself. I remember coming out of the stadium to a blizzard and a lot of police cars. I don’t remember any violence besides the fireworks.
( Wayne Beal, December 2007)

Dec 14th `73 Toronto, Ontario Maple Leaf Garden [Ticket]

Tour equipment didn`t arrive for this show and the next two. The band had to make do with what they could get which included The Amazing Randi executing Alice with a sword.

Dec 15th `73 Syracuse, NY Onondaga County War Memorial

Dec 16th `73 Norfolk, VA Scope

Dec 19th `73 Largo, MD Capital Center [Ticket]

First use of Video screens during a performance.

Dec 22nd `73 Tampa Bay, FL Tampa Bay Stadium (CANCELED)[Ticket]

Dec 26th `73 New Haven, CT Coliseum

`The Exorcist` opens to the public. Alice has made mention frequently of the fact he was at the Premier accompanied by star Linda Blair. The film opened today so presumably the Premier was a short while before, however this premier he speaks of could have been the UK premier(see later).

Dec 27th `73 Montreal Forum

Dec 29th `73 Utica, NY Memorial Auditorium

Originally this was to have been Binghampton Broome County Coliseum but the City Fathers refused to let them play so it was changed.

Dec 31st `73 Buffalo, NY Memorial Auditorium [Ticket]

1974

Jan 25th `74 Muscle Of Love single released

17th (3rd week) Jan `74 Alice films `Snoop Sisters`(MM) (contract dated 17th January).

1st Week Feb `74 Alice is in Acapulco, Mexico on what is described as a `Golf Sojourn.` He`s renting a house down there with Cindy and he gets food poisoning!

Disc Feb 16th `74 states that Alice was heading to Mexico a week before, so he must have been there for a few weeks as:
Circus Apr `74(Interview by phone from Mexico presumably done in February): `Two days back from a vacation in Acapulco, Mexico, the game-loving ghoul taped a "Hollywood Squares" segment for their evening show.`
They also report `To facilitate his own TV viewing, Alice has installed the huge 50-inch Sony television that works like a movie projector, with the picture being cast from a projector to an enormous screen. Sony has made only a handful of these gigantic television sets which cost upwards of $3,000. They are, to be sure, color, and come complete with your very own video tape unit, so that you can make your own films. `
Disc also infers that he`s already recorded `Snoop Sisters`: `He recently played a con man in one episode of a television serial, and thoroughly enjoyed it. "I had to learn my lines and everything - I loved it!"
Neal and Babbette move to Miami. Alice and Cindy move to LA

Late Feb `74 LA sketches for movie

Disc Mexico article says "we start filming in LA in about ten days. "

Feb 19th `74 Alice is at Century Plaza. LA for a Kiss album launch party where he makes the famous quote"all these guys need is a gimmick"

Mar 2nd `74 Alice appears at the Gammy`s.

Sat Mar `74 `Hollywood Squares` filmed-three shows

Around here, Alice also meets Elvis.

Mar 5th `74 `Snoop Sisters` airs

Mar 10th `74 Alice arrives in Holland

There was a European tour planned for this period but it was canceled However Alice still headed to Europe alone. Alice attended the soccer match between FC Haarlem vs. AFC Ajax in the Dutch city of Haarlem. There he was presented with a gold disc for 'Billion Dollar Babies' by FC Haarlem's coach, Barry Hughes (the album had been number one in the Dutch album charts for seven weeks).
After the match, Alice did a press conference in Haarlem, and then went to Amsterdam, where Dutch
gossip journalist Henk van der Meijden invited him to his 'Club Prive', located at the Leiseplein in Amsterdam. In the evening, Alice was interviewed in his Amsterdam hotel room by Bert van de Kamp, a writer for Dutch music paper 'Muziekkrant Oor'. Van de Kamp's article was published on March 27. Alice was also interviewed by Dutch deejay Lex Harding. The interviewed was taped and aired on Radio Veronica on March 15.

Mar 11th `74 Still In Holland but travels to Finland that afternoon

Alice discovered that Colonel ('Kentucky Fried Chicken') Sanders was staying in the same hotel. Dutch photographer Gijsbert Hanekroot took some pictures of them. Alice also did another press conference, where parts of a concert movie were shown. In the afternoon, he took a plane to Helsinki, Finland.
In Finland, authorities have to close the airport due to 5,000 fans turning up to meet him! He also meets the Russian press about a possible Russian show but the Russian government aren`t interested. When Alice arrived to the airport, he was welcomed by ten model girls (wearing Muscle Of Love t-shirts) with roses. Alice was so touched about the gesture that apparently he started to cry. Alice was interviewed (in his hotel suite) for Finnish television. A part of this interview was shown on a program called Rockstop in the summer of 1990

Mar 12th `74 Alice flies from Helsinki to Copenhagen, Denmark

Mar 14th or 15th `74 Alice is in Paris where he`s seen talking to Aristotle Onassis at a nightclub.

Mar 15th `74 Alice flies to Heathrow, London

Mar 16th `74 Alice is in London

Daily Express March 19th reports Alice is in London (for 3 days staying at Blakes Hotel in Chelsea). He`s seen at a party in his honour held by Tessa Elwes(nee Kennedy) at her flat in Hyde Park Gardens. They dine on avocado with caviar, and lamb before watching a 16 minute clip of a new film Alice had made (Good To See You Again?)
He also appears in `The Old Grey Whistle Test`. He also spends an evening at the Speakeasy club drinking with Bernie Taupin.
Yve Marie Snake is dead(MM).
`The Exorcist` opens in London during his stay. Could this be the premier that Alice refers to attending with LInda Blair? An interview infers he hasn`t seen it by the beginning of March(MM)

March 18th `74 Alice leaves London for Hamburg Germany

March 21st `74 Alice is in Holland

March 22nd `74 Alice arrives home in the US

March 28th `74 The band travel to Sao Paulo

March 29th `74 Rehearsals at Anhembi

March 30th `74 Sao Paolo, Brazil Anhembi Exposition Hal l- Start of the 1st South American rock tour ever

Largest indoor audience ever (120,000-148,000 depending on report)
Band stay at Copacabana Palace Hotel

From Mick Mashbir (June 1988):

I was just looking in my diary for some clues. Found a couple. We played in Sao Paulo on March 30. That was the gig that nearly wasn't. I'm sure you heard about the crowd control problems that effectively stopped the show. There were over 70,000 people in a building so large that there was a Volkswagen factory in the other half! Next show April 2 was in a concert hall.
Then we went to Rio. April 5 Played a club!! It was fun but a little crazy April 7/8/? Played in a sports arena. I don't have a set list but I'm sure it wasn't any different than the X-mas MOL tour. I'm sure someone has that.

April 1st `74 Sao Paolo, Brazil Teatro

April 3rd `74 Sao Paolo Brazil Teatro second show mentioned on official press release)

April 5th `74 Rio De Janeiro, Brazil Canecao

April 6th `74 Rio De Janeiro, Brazil Maracanacinho - The last ever show by the original band.

Oct `74 Circus reports the band at rest.

`After the last Brazil show, Glen disappears into the jungle for six weeks before returning to Conn. via New York, where he`s playing with video equipment(he then watched as an electrical fault caused $300,000 of damage to the mansion during a fire). Dennis is also in Conn. relaxing with Cindy. Mike has sold his Connecticut house and has moved to Lake Tahoe where he has built his own studio and is working there with Mike Mashbir. Neal is in Conn. putting finishing touches on `Platinum God`. Alice is also beginning to plan his own Solo album. He`s also spotted in Hawaii playing golf at James MacArthur's(Hawaii 5-0) Hawaiian Adventure Celebrity Golf and Tennis Tournament.`

April 8th `74 Alice leaves Brazil and flies home to the US

April 9th-16th `74 Hollywood Squares shown.

May `74 `Good To See You Again, Alice Cooper` opens but is then re-edited and released again in the fall.

June `74 Rolling Stone:`Details of what apparently were Cooper-inspired hanging parties surfaced last month at a coroner's inquest into the death of a 13-year-old boy who was found swinging from a sturdy length of hemp in his bedroom closet. The boy's father told the inquiry that his son's experiment with execution dated from his viewing an In Concert show aired in Canada in March in which Alice did his staged demonstration of do-it-yourself death with a gallows and a hangman's rope`

June 19th(?) '74 Alice is in in NYC at the Playboy Club to see Barbi Benton perform

July `74 There are reports that Alice spent the summer in the Bahamas with Dick Wagner writing the material tat would become `Welcome To Me Nightmare`

Aug 11th `74 Alice is spotted at the `Catch A Rising Star as Eastside Club, Manhattan and the following day he arrived at the office on roller-skates.

Aug `74 Alice comes forth in the Nashville Pro-Am Golf Tournament.

End Aug `74 `Neal Smith celebrated his first wedding anniversary with a $20,000 party aboard a luxury yacht at the weekend, and on the day of the party Alice's bassist Dennis Dunaway married Cindy Smith who took the part of the tooth during the dentist routine on Alice's last tour. Also at the party were Alice's guitarists Glen Buxton and Michael Bruce, Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, and Todd Rundgren.`

Late Aug `74 Alice is reported to be in the studio in Toronto with Bob Ezrin.

Sept 18th `74 - `Good To See You Again, Alice Cooper` reopens in Kansas City.

Billboard 14th Sept `74: "What may be the largest promotional and merchandising campaign ever centered around a rock movie will be launched Sept. 18 in Kansas City for the opening of 'Good To See You Again, Alice Cooper.' Heading the merchandising and promotional plans is Product Communications Inc., with a firm dubbed Creative Coalition (distribution for the film) and Penthouse Productions (producers) involved in the distribution. The movie first released last may, has now been edited and Los Angeles and San Francisco openings will follow the Kansas City opening."

19th Oct `74 Alice rumoured to appear on-stage with Lou Reed at Massey Hall, Toronto, Canada (this is Reeds only Toronto date in the period, the next closest is Dec `73) singing the chorus of `Walk On The Wild Side`
It`s suggested this may have happened in New York and if so it would likely have been the 9th Oct.

20th Oct `74 Alice came fourth in Nashville's Pro/Celebrity Golf Invitational, the tenth in its history.

`By the time Alice teed off on Sunday the crowd had risen to 25,000 apparently the largest the tournament has ever attracted, and Cooper, in two days, had signed 5,000 autographs and lost more than 40 golf balls to souvenir hunters. Fourth out of 35 not bad. Other competitors included Charley Pride, Mickey Mantle (the baseball player), Mac Davis, Flip Wilson, Pat Boone, Perry Como, Dale Robertson (Wells Fargo), Bobby Goldsboro and the governor of Tennessee, Winfield Dunn. `

While he was down in Nashville he was made a deputy sheriff of Davidson County.

Nov `74 `Billion Dollar Baby` hard cover published.

Nov 17th 1974 Alice attends the US premiere/party for 'Sgt. Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band' stage play in New York. Also in attendance were John Lennon, May Pang, Yoko Ono, Bette Midler, David Johanssen ("lead singer of the New York Dolls"), John Phillips, Wayne County, Johnny Winter, and Andy Warhol

Nov 30th `74 Rolling Stone: Alice attended the November 30th wedding of new guitarist Dick Wagner (former Lou Reed crony) to Elizabeth "Lizard" Marsh of Grosse Ile, Michigan.

Dec `74 The Smoothers Brothers show filmed

Xmas Holidays '74 Alice appears onstage at a Flo And Eddie show with fellow guest Keith Moon at the Troubador in Los Angeles. The guests take part dirung the encore and do songs including "Wooly Bully". Erik Scott is on Flo And Eddies Band.

"I had met Alice while playing with Flo and Eddie. He came up on stage in 1974 with Keith Moon at the Troubador in LA for an encore with F&E. Great sport. I think we did Wooly Bully as one of the tunes. The drummer, Craig Krampf ('Special Forces' album Drummer)....... he had just gotten the new drum set from Rogers drums , and was afraid Keith Moon would trash 'em...so he wouldn't let Keith play his brand new drums...ha!"
(Erik Scott, July 2005)

By the end of `74, Alice had legally changed his name to Alice Cooper.

1975

Jan 2nd `75 Alice`s first talk show appearance on `Mike Douglas Show` with Peter Falk and Ryan O`Neal.

Jan 13th `75 `The Smothers Brothers Show` aired.

Jan 20th `75 Alice signs new deal with Atlantic to issue `Welcome To My Nightmare`(MM).

Feb `75 Welcome To My Nightmare album released.