Canceled Tour

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

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livinluvin72
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Canceled Tour

Post by livinluvin72 » Tue Oct 19, 2021 11:17 pm

I’ve read in numerous places, including this site, that a planned European tour was canceled around March 1974.
This would probably have been an extension of the MOL tour.
Why was it canceled?
Thanks

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Re: Canceled Tour

Post by Dreary » Wed Oct 20, 2021 8:47 pm

There very well might have been some other bands that were releasing 2 albums per year, but we were doing that plus developing 2 new stage shows per year. That is until we had so many gigs that keeping the quality up while we were all exhausted began to show the strain and limitations of too much wear and tear.

If we had a week off, a couple of days involved traveling and the rest was writing new songs and brain storming theatrical ideas.

Alice was complaining that he was tired of playing the Alice character night after night and that he wanted to go into acting. Meanwhile, the rest of Alice Cooper were being shoved into a supporting role.

Alice and Glen were drinking every waking minute and it was compromising the quality of our shows, and the fun sarcasm that kept the band tight, began, at times, to turn into a stream of negativity.

I adamantly voiced my opinion about not taking a long break but the argument that it might give Alice and Glen time to "dry out a bit" appealed to my concerns about their health and finally won me over.

With all of this going on, I was paying little attention to what bookings might be cancelled.

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Re: Canceled Tour

Post by Saint&Sinner » Mon Oct 25, 2021 1:07 am

it sounds like a nightmare time to be honest, was there ever any thought of any of the band members working with alice when he went solo or was it always a wholesale split and nothing else was ever thought about/discussed ?

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Re: Canceled Tour

Post by Dreary » Mon Oct 25, 2021 3:53 pm

Saint&Sinner wrote:
Mon Oct 25, 2021 1:07 am
it sounds like a nightmare time to be honest, was there ever any thought of any of the band members working with alice when he went solo or was it always a wholesale split and nothing else was ever thought about/discussed ?
Alice Cooper never broke up. We needed a break and intended to continue but Alice took the name and went solo.

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Re: Canceled Tour

Post by Daggers & Contracts » Tue Oct 26, 2021 12:08 am

Dreary wrote:
Mon Oct 25, 2021 3:53 pm
Saint&Sinner wrote:
Mon Oct 25, 2021 1:07 am
it sounds like a nightmare time to be honest, was there ever any thought of any of the band members working with alice when he went solo or was it always a wholesale split and nothing else was ever thought about/discussed ?
Alice Cooper never broke up. We needed a break and intended to continue but Alice took the name and went solo.
His Solo work (maybe) & BDB's indicate that. Or, was the whole group cut loose by Warner Bros. due to Vincent's going solo? Little Feat suffered a similar setback when Lowell George died. (Has anyone heard of the Bluesbusters?) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzkPpAfge9E
Yet, somewhere along the line did the band secure 1/5 of royalties due the ACG for previous recordings?
:rock:
I've Got The Answers To All Of Your Questions...

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Re: Canceled Tour

Post by Ted Sallis » Wed Oct 27, 2021 11:46 am

Daggers & Contracts wrote:
Tue Oct 26, 2021 12:08 am
...was the whole group cut loose by Warner Bros. due to Vincent's going solo?
Yet, somewhere along the line did the band secure 1/5 of royalties due the ACG for previous recordings?
:rock:
It's been stated elsewhere in this Forum that the Greatest Hits album and WTMN were the final albums released under the ACG's WB contract, the latter having been possible due to a clause in the Group's contract allowing a soundtrack album to be made with another record company. Alice used that clause to make his (debut) solo album, then Shep and him negotiated a new record contract for Alice as a solo artist.

Dennis stated in his book that the Original Group continued to receive royalties after Alice went solo, but they had to find new careers (in order to live comfortably). I assume the Group continued to receive their share of publishing earnings as well. The royalties split wouldn't be 1/5th (per Group Member) except for those albums and songs on which the entire Group was credited as songwriters.

Ted

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Re: Canceled Tour

Post by Dreary » Wed Oct 27, 2021 2:30 pm

Ted Sallis wrote:
Wed Oct 27, 2021 11:46 am
Daggers & Contracts wrote:
Tue Oct 26, 2021 12:08 am
...was the whole group cut loose by Warner Bros. due to Vincent's going solo?
Yet, somewhere along the line did the band secure 1/5 of royalties due the ACG for previous recordings?
:rock:
It's been stated elsewhere in this Forum that the Greatest Hits album and WTMN were the final albums released under the ACG's WB contract, the latter having been possible due to a clause in the Group's contract allowing a soundtrack album to be made with another record company. Alice used that clause to make his (debut) solo album, then Shep and him negotiated a new record contract for Alice as a solo artist.

Dennis stated in his book that the Original Group continued to receive royalties after Alice went solo, but they had to find new careers (in order to live comfortably). I assume the Group continued to receive their share of publishing earnings as well. The royalties split wouldn't be 1/5th (per Group Member) except for those albums and songs on which the entire Group was credited as songwriters.

Ted
The soundtrack clause was negotiated into our WB contract on behalf of the entire group but it wound up being used to benefit one member's solo project.

Like most bands of that era, we didn't own our publishing. Joe Greenberg and Shep Gordon did, and due to a court ruling, so did Zappa's manager Herbie Cohen.

During that time, the majority of bands couldn't get a record deal unless the record company got their publishing.

I get song writing royalties for whatever songs I'm credited on. Ted is correct that Michael, Neal, Glen, Alice, and I each have 20% of the songs with song writing credited as Alice Cooper, which is proof that Alice Cooper was the name of the group as a whole. Each of us have a written agreement stating that we own the name but we haven't gotten our fair share for the use of that name, which we all made famous.

In my opinion, there is a bit of a trade off in that Alice's continual touring generates the sales of our songs and, therefore, boosts song writing royalties, but the unscrupulous domination of digital music has sucked the life out of those royalties.

I hope that sheds some light on my personal finances.

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Re: Canceled Tour

Post by Ted Sallis » Wed Oct 27, 2021 4:28 pm

^^ Thanks for your reply Dennis. I wasn't aware that Record Companies owned the publishing when recording contracts were signed back in the day, and I know about the publishing lawsuit initiated by Herb Cohen but it slipped my mind when I made my previous post. I know what the apparent outcome of the lawsuit was but maybe that's a topic for a separate discussion.

Ted

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Re: Canceled Tour

Post by Saint&Sinner » Sun Nov 07, 2021 11:12 pm

I am not interested in your personal finances or anything dennis (other than hoping you live a cool, comfortable life)
Im interested in the "music buisness" side of things i guess. Do the rights not revert back to the writers after a certain period?
I know other artists who , for example, after 20 years they own the songs again. Is that not the same with yourselves? or does it always and forever more owned by the record company/management

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Re: Canceled Tour

Post by Ted Sallis » Mon Nov 08, 2021 5:22 pm

I too am only really interested in the business aspect regarding royalties, publishing, etc. Re. songs reverting to their author(s) after a certain amount of time has lapsed, I've read about this happening under certain circumstances; in others, the rights enter the public domain which has happened to a couple of The Beatles' earliest songs.

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Re: Canceled Tour

Post by Babysquid » Sat Nov 13, 2021 9:21 am

Ted Sallis wrote:
Mon Nov 08, 2021 5:22 pm
I too am only really interested in the business aspect regarding royalties, publishing, etc. Re. songs reverting to their author(s) after a certain amount of time has lapsed, I've read about this happening under certain circumstances; in others, the rights enter the public domain which has happened to a couple of The Beatles' earliest songs.

Ted
I think that’s something different Ted. If something is in the public domain everyone has the right to use it. In Europe it used to be 50 years before this happened. (Now 70 i believe). This is why we get a lot of anniversary re-issues so the copyright can be extended. Publishing only “reverts” to the authors (or whoever owns it) if they have made some deal where they’ve licensed the publishing to another entity for a certain amount of time, like David Bowie. Or if it comes up for sale and they buy it!

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