SickthingsUK

Now that this is available to ship worldwide, at a hefty cost, I guess plenty of the hardcore fans will be thinking of ordering one.

Here are a few thoughts on it if you're deciding whether or not to take the plunge.

Without doing an exact count, I'd say that there are roughly 100 pages of Alice Cooper content in a book of 264 pages and a bunch of good photos as well.

Libert was right there for some of the most famous/notorious times, so he has a take on plenty of things, with at least a couple of his revelations countering the standard versions of the stories.

His love and respect for Alice and Shep are obvious throughout. Unfortunately, specific mentions of the individual band members other than Alice are minimal, verging on zero.

I personally found his statements on the break-up of the band disappointing, as I expect most people on here would, being as they are of the old school variety.

Like almost all rock'n'roll memoirs (or so it seems), there's a chunk of sex and drugs running through it, but it never becomes so predominant as to swamp everything else.

The fact that a lot of what he is talking about is five decades ago probably accounts for the way the Alice timelines are a bit incoherent. Pretty much all of the tours are grouped together into one big entity. I guess this won't bother the more casual reader but fans might well wish for something that's defined a bit clearer, especially when original band tales are overlapped with the Welcome to My Nightmare tour.

I think Neal Smith's name is only spelt correctly in the acknowledgements. A clanger on the part of the publishers that'll make plenty of people wince.

The non Alice stuff is interesting, with a few stories that particularly stand out, including his attempt to become the manager of Guns N' Roses just before they broke big.

Thanks for the comments.

Has anyone ordered a signed edition and not received the item?

I put my order in a month ago and was told to expect 2-3 weeks for delivery, but nothing has turned up and I haven't had the shipping email that I was told would come through.

The seller (Sunset Blvd Books) also doesn't have a contact email address so there appears to be no way to follow this up.

wind_up_toy wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 02, 2022 4:07 pm

Has anyone ordered a signed edition and not received the item?

I put my order in a month ago and was told to expect 2-3 weeks for delivery, but nothing has turned up and I haven't had the shipping email that I was told would come through.

The seller (Sunset Blvd Books) also doesn't have a contact email address so there appears to be no way to follow this up.

I got a signed one posted to a friend in New York who forwarded it on to me. That's how I got to to read it quite early.

My order was confirmed on March 8th, didn't get an email saying it had been shipped until March 24th, didn't arrive in New York until April 13th. Just checked the dates as it felt like it took even longer than that.

One reason for the delay might be waiting on Dave dropping by to sign it for you. I assumed I'd simply get his signature, maybe with Best Wishes or something like that. I did indeed get those but it was also personalised to me with my first name.

I expect you'll get the book alright, but it might take a while. I get the impression they're not a smooth operation when it comes to postage.

VinceRaven wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 02, 2022 6:28 pm

wind_up_toy wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 02, 2022 4:07 pm

Has anyone ordered a signed edition and not received the item?

I put my order in a month ago and was told to expect 2-3 weeks for delivery, but nothing has turned up and I haven't had the shipping email that I was told would come through.

The seller (Sunset Blvd Books) also doesn't have a contact email address so there appears to be no way to follow this up.

I got a signed one posted to a friend in New York who forwarded it on to me. That's how I got to to read it quite early.

My order was confirmed on March 8th, didn't get an email saying it had been shipped until March 24th, didn't arrive in New York until April 13th. Just checked the dates as it felt like it took even longer than that.

One reason for the delay might be waiting on Dave dropping by to sign it for you. I assumed I'd simply get his signature, maybe with Best Wishes or something like that. I did indeed get those but it was also personalised to me with my first name.

I expect you'll get the book alright, but it might take a while. I get the impression they're not a smooth operation when it comes to postage.

Thanks for the response, very much appreciated and reassuring to know. I'll give them another week or two before not being able to contact them to complain

wind_up_toy wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 02, 2022 7:12 pm

VinceRaven wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 02, 2022 6:28 pm

wind_up_toy wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 02, 2022 4:07 pm

Has anyone ordered a signed edition and not received the item?

I put my order in a month ago and was told to expect 2-3 weeks for delivery, but nothing has turned up and I haven't had the shipping email that I was told would come through.

The seller (Sunset Blvd Books) also doesn't have a contact email address so there appears to be no way to follow this up.

I got a signed one posted to a friend in New York who forwarded it on to me. That's how I got to to read it quite early.

My order was confirmed on March 8th, didn't get an email saying it had been shipped until March 24th, didn't arrive in New York until April 13th. Just checked the dates as it felt like it took even longer than that.

One reason for the delay might be waiting on Dave dropping by to sign it for you. I assumed I'd simply get his signature, maybe with Best Wishes or something like that. I did indeed get those but it was also personalised to me with my first name.

I expect you'll get the book alright, but it might take a while. I get the impression they're not a smooth operation when it comes to postage.

Thanks for the response, very much appreciated and reassuring to know. I'll give them another week or two before not being able to contact them to complain

If you do Facebook at all, the book is getting promoted on the 'Sunset Blvd. Records' page, which has a message facility.

I'm not sure if you'd get a response, but would be worth a try if this drags on.

VinceRaven wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 02, 2022 9:28 pm

wind_up_toy wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 02, 2022 7:12 pm

VinceRaven wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 02, 2022 6:28 pm

I got a signed one posted to a friend in New York who forwarded it on to me. That's how I got to to read it quite early.

My order was confirmed on March 8th, didn't get an email saying it had been shipped until March 24th, didn't arrive in New York until April 13th. Just checked the dates as it felt like it took even longer than that.

One reason for the delay might be waiting on Dave dropping by to sign it for you. I assumed I'd simply get his signature, maybe with Best Wishes or something like that. I did indeed get those but it was also personalised to me with my first name.

I expect you'll get the book alright, but it might take a while. I get the impression they're not a smooth operation when it comes to postage.

Thanks for the response, very much appreciated and reassuring to know. I'll give them another week or two before not being able to contact them to complain

If you do Facebook at all, the book is getting promoted on the 'Sunset Blvd. Records' page, which has a message facility.

I'm not sure if you'd get a response, but would be worth a try if this drags on.

Great idea, thanks!

I live 2 hours from where the book is made or shipped out from, but it took me 4 to 6 weeks for me to get it. It was signed.
An ok book, I mostly read for the Alice Cooper content. Time frames and personnel get mixed up. He said Neil Smith, should be Neal not Neil as Vince Raven said, used headphones and a click track to keep time when the permeable video screen was used on stage for Alice and the dancers to jump through. This was during and after the WTMN tour, so it was Whitey Glan on drums not Neal Smith.
He also said after the Billion Dollar Baby book by Bob Greene came out the band went into the studio to record Muscle of Love. Bob Greene wrote about the recording of Muscle of Love in the book, so his timeline is mixed up. Understandable seeing as this was almost half a century ago and many things were probably a blur.

I've finally got round to reading / reviewing this book on my website here:

https://www.welcometomynightmare.co.uk/ ... ion/books/

I forgot all about this thread but good to see that several of my observations were picked up by others!