Editorial - Issue 2

Welcome back, to this most august of publications. A little late but at least we are here. To those who wrote in with encourageing remarks, many thanx. to those that were savage and destructive in their criticisms - love and kisses.

Before explaining why ACA 2 is so late, I'll fill you in with the latest Alice news. As you know, Alice recieves precious little mmedia attention these days and as a result we have to rely on fifth-hand information and half-truths to keep us going in place of more authorative statements. However, the most recent news is particularly saddening, in that Alices' wife of 7 years, Sheryl, has filled for devoice (Nov. 15th 1983) and is claiming custody of their daughter, Calico. It goes without saying that we should hopefully get a clearer picture of events at sometime in the future, but for the moment I am sure that we all hope that the situation is resolved as quickly as possible to the advantage of all, but particularly Calico.

There are other bits and pieces of news. Apparently, In late '82 Alice took the 'Special Forces' show to Japan and that early in '83, he toured the West Coast of America. There are also rumours (vicious or otherwise) that Alice maybe appearing in a movie called 'The Deadly ID', but we have no real evidence of this. Just before Christmas, Alice was seen at Culture Clubs L.A. debut - one wonders what Boy Alice thought of Boy George... Some bright spark wrote to me asking if I knew about a new Alice single called 'Alice Rap' - methinks there is some leg-pulling going on, particulaly as there is suposed to be a 12" concrete mix!!

Now the reason for our late appearance. There is a grotesque story behind this that you all need to know. - a 'Grim Fact'. D.A. and I had arranged to print some more copies of ACA 1. D.A., as circulation manager, arranged an appointment with the printer who had produced our first batch and we duly travelled quite some distance and at some expence to deliver the work.

At further expence, we travelled to D.A's house to await the delivery of the finished copies where, to our horror, the printer (who shall remain nameless) telephoned to tell us that he would not take the order because he felt that Alice Cooper was 'sick, evil, a bad influence' and that he did not like Alices' 'act'. Stunned, we explained that all he had to do was print the order for the agreed sum and if he felt that way, wwe would not use him again. He refused. At this point D.A. and I exploded in fury. The bastard printer who, instead of telling us that morning not to make the long expensive journey to his works, had said he would take the order, was now telling us to take it off his hands. He said that he had printed the previous issue of ACA 1 because we had an agreement the previous time. Making use of my legal knowledge (!), I told him that we had an agreement THIS time since the circumstances were EXACTLY the same. He still refused, stating that on principle he would prefer not to take the order because he was a 'christian'. Because we were now desperate, I offered to him that since he was objected to certain 'swear words', he could censor them in white marker which would allow him to print the order and me to replace the words. To my horror, he went over them in black, which in effect was a feat of censorship on ACA. As a result, some of you may have a 'rare' censored version of ACA 1. Makes you think doesn't it? Some people are still disturbed by Alice Coooper...

On a lighter note, has anybody noticed the similarity in certain lines on John Lennons' 'Nobody Told Me' and Alices' 'Generation Landslide'?:

"There's always something cooking and nothing's in the pot
They're starving back in China, so finish what you got"

And:

"Please clean your plate dear, the Lord above can see ya
Don't you nkow people are starving in Korea?"


Since the sending out of issue 1, I have come across a few more juicy titbits with regards Alices' early childhood. It's all very frustrating since I would have prefered to include that information in issue 1 but life isn't like that. So: The so-called 'mysterious circumstances' surrounding Alices/Vinces' birth on 4th February 1948 are merely the fact that he was born a month early on an unusually windy day!! I hope you all raised your glasses and drank a toast to Alice n Feb. 4th 1984, he was twice '18'!!

At an early age, Vince/Alice was told by his parents that he was of French descent and as a result, he was convinced that he had a regel bearing. He would spend hours looking at paintings of French nobility, emulating their aloofness.

An event which made a big impression on the small vince was a visit to an aunt who lived in California. She had a swimming pool, which Vince had never seen before:

"I made up my mind that I would have one two. But a bigger one of course..."

His older sister, Nicola, whom he often set up to take their parents wraith was, it turns out, to be a mathmatical genius and apparently now teaches Maths at Yale University.

Much has been made of vinces' history of illness and indeed he was stuck down by a severe case of peritonitus, which is an inflamation of the membrane which covers the abdominal organs. The cause was a ruptured appendix and as a result, Vince required surgery. A 'mild' case of peritonites is cause for concern but Vince had it so bad that one night he was given a 50-50 chance of survival. During surgery, "enough poison was taken out of the stomach to kill a fucking army!" and there was also treatments of antibiotics and introvenous feeding to replace fluids that had escaped from the blood flow into the abdominal cavity. A sck thing indeed, but not in the same sense as 'Sick Things'... As a result of the surgery, Vince was left with a couple of 4 inch scars across his abdomen, which he later attributed to a collision with a Hammerhead shark while scuba diving!! While in hospital, Vince spent hours building at least 60-70 model aeroplanes, cars, boats etc...

STOP PRESS!!

Hot news from the USA. Alices' TV special of 'Welcome To My Nightmare' has been released on home video. Further, It has been nominated for a Grammy award under the category 'Best Video LP'. Alice will be appearing on the live TV award on Feb. 28th. Anybody got a satellite dish??


Some of you havealso asked for more information on the Spiders/Nazz recordings - real tresured finds to be sure.

The very first release was 'Don't Blow Your Mind' by the Spiders, released in 1965 on Santa Cruz (003). I've no information as to who wrote the song, but it's a high-powered, sub Rolling Stones/Who with buzzing guitars thrashing away in the foreground. A very young Vince Furnier tells the story:

"You tried to take me for a ride
Now all you feel is suicide
We're two of a kind
Take what you can find
But don't blow your mind - away ...
...cos you don't mean a thing no more
And I'm just like I was before..."

It's b-side was the equally tuneful 'No Price Tag', but again very British R&B influenced:

I think you'd better watch your step
Don't you ever mess with me
Thank god I'm not on your layaway plan...
No merchandise, I'm a man
There ain't no price tag hanging on me"

In the distance you can hear Vinces' harmonica overdubd wailing away!!

'Wonder Who's Loving Her Now' by the Nazz (with Neal Smith on drums) is a mournful but poppy tune about the jealousies of love:

"It's no trouble trying to prove it
It was her I was-a losing
And I wonder who's loving her now
Who's gonna stand in my place
And make that same mistake...
Yes, I took her bruising
Here's the tears I cried to prove it..."

Marvellous lyrics, marvellous song. The song was vaguely psychedelic (released on VERY 001) but it's b-side sound like the 13th Floor Elevators after too much LSD! "Lay Down And Die Goodbye' here is totally different to the album versiion, with its' janglings, gauzy guitars, the rhythm being carried by Dennis Dunnaway:

"Well I've written home to mother
The ink ran from my tears
I said 'momma momma oh please
Tell me why yo brought me here?'
Well I'll stay here for another minute
But I really have to go
If you ever want to see me again
You know what you can dooo"

Again the song carries a suicide statement ("I prey in my final hour, for people who yet must die").

Own up! Who has the original copies of these...?? "I'm caughht in a dream" of owning them as must be any serious Alice collector.


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