SickthingsUK

Please accept my apologies if this has been answered or discussed before.

Around 1983 I can recall seeing an advert to subscribe to a "fanzine" (I suppose it would be called then), about Alice. I think I collected about four issues and I remember they were sent by post. They were a home produced photocopied magazine with photos giving a history of the original band. They were very informative and had some great pictures. For some reason I only got the first four and regrettably I don't know what I did with them but have a feeling I misplaced them during a house move.

The author / distributor deserves much credit because in these Internet days with loads of Alice information readily available, it is perhaps difficult to recall just how little exposure Alice was getting back then. He was virtually ignored in the British rock press apart from short, perfunctory album reviews and I sometimes felt alone in still being a fan! The magazine was great in reinforcing that other people also appreciated the legacy of Alice Cooper and still remained enthusiastic about his work.

I wonder if anyone else subscribed to the "fanzine" or whether the author is here on this site?

As I said at the top of my post sorry if this has been discussed before but whoever was behind the "fanzine" has my admiration.

> whether the author is here on this site?

Yes, I am.

>was behind the "fanzine" has my admiration.

Thanks. You are far too kind.

A_MichaelUK wrote:> whether the author is here on this site?

Yes, I am.

>was behind the "fanzine" has my admiration.

Thanks. You are far too kind.

Andy is being far too modest. That fanzine is brilliantly written and does a fantastic job of summarizing Alice's career during the years covered. A fascinating read and well worth it.

AS Robbie said , it is sometimes hard to realise just how little info was out there back in the 70s.
I used to wait for Sounds to come out , which was like a bible back then as it seemed to be the only media that would carry any Alice news.

They used to have a " News From USA " column , or something like that, it may have been New York actually, and i must admit, more often than not there was an Alice reference, though it could never be called a feature as it was usually telling us who he been seen out with.
Any decent stories were like rocking horse shit.

In fact as I recall, the break up of the band was treated in a rather casual manner, kinda, "by the way the Alice Cooper Group have split."
Good god, my world nearly fell apart, and i was being told the news in the same way as somebody would say " By the way, yer granny is coming to stay"
Good old days eh .

Good for Andy ,for doing what he did back then.

Stand up and take a bow Andy as I said there was little else and it was a great read and to know there were other fans too!Many thanks

Have these fanzines been scanned in anywhere so they're viewable online?

Andy, I'm curious... how many subscribers did you have (ballpark figure).

>AS Robbie said , it is sometimes hard to realise just how little info was out there back in the 70s.

I was going to write that I thought you meant to refer to the early eighties, but now I think about it, it was around the late seventies that Alice started getting less attention here, primarily, I think, because it was only in North America that Alice was doing any touring.

>I used to wait for Sounds to come out , which was like a bible back then as it seemed to be the only media that would carry any Alice news.

In the early seventies, Alice (and also the band) had massive coverage in British magazines and newspapers. There was a huge amount of press coverage.

>In fact as I recall, the break up of the band was treated in a rather casual manner, kinda, "by the way the Alice Cooper Group have split."

In a way, that reflects the way they did break up in that it was some huge, dramatic event.

>Good god, my world nearly fell apart,

You remind me of the way fans of Take That reacted when that particular band broke – up.

>Good for Andy ,for doing what he did back then.

Stop it.

>Andy, I'm curious... how many subscribers did you have (ballpark figure).

I'm not sure if I took subscriptions, but the biggest number of copies I sold was about a hundred I think.

>You remind me of the way fans of Take That reacted when that particular band broke – up.

OK , I may have exagerrated a bit, but I remember being gutted all the same.

>In the early seventies, Alice (and also the band) had massive coverage in British magazines and newspapers. There was a huge amount of press coverage.

I will take your word for it Andy, though I don`t remember it being that way, maybe things weren`t as bad as I make out.

RemarkablyInsincere wrote:Have these fanzines been scanned in anywhere so they're viewable online?

Yes, they have been printed online because that is how I managed to finally read them. (I should have mentioned that in my first post.) Since I lived in North America, I did not know about these fanzines during the 1980s either. I only found out about Andy's fanzines during the days of the internet when someone finally printed them online. I am not sure which website they may be on now though. Perhaps Si or Andy can tell you where to find them. I highly recommend them as they are quite interesting.

Baz wrote:>In the early seventies, Alice (and also the band) had massive coverage in British magazines and newspapers. There was a huge amount of press coverage.

I will take your word for it Andy, though I don`t remember it being that way, maybe things weren`t as bad as I make out.

Is it possible Baz that you are confusing the late 70s with the early 70s? Because during the early 70s, Alice had HUGE coverage in the British rock press and was one of their faves. It was in the late 70s, when Alice's press coverage went into serious decline. And it was not just in the UK. By the late 70s, his press coverage in North America declined as well.

glamprincess wrote: Yes, they have been printed online because that is how I managed to finally read them. (I should have mentioned that in my first post.) Since I lived in North America, I did not know about these fanzines during the 1980s either. I only found out about Andy's fanzines during the days of the internet when someone finally printed them online. I am not sure which website they may be on now though. Perhaps Si or Andy can tell you where to find them. I highly recommend them as they are quite interesting.

Thanks Glam... I would be very interested in checking these out.

glamprincess wrote: Yes, they have been printed online because that is how I managed to finally read them. (I should have mentioned that in my first post.) Since I lived in North America, I did not know about these fanzines during the 1980s either. I only found out about Andy's fanzines during the days of the internet when someone finally printed them online. I am not sure which website they may be on now though. Perhaps Si or Andy can tell you where to find them. I highly recommend them as they are quite interesting.

The story behind the online version:
When I first got a computer and online the first thing I did was search for Alice info.
I found Hunters list
Shortly after that I typed in (not scanned, typed word by word, it took weeks) all the ACA fanzines. I then asked Andy if I could put them online.

He said no, as he thought there were too many mistakes.

Over the next few years I sent out copies to two or three friends who asked about it but that was it, until suddenly one of these people put it online himself, suggesting HE had transcibed it.

Wasn`t particuliarly happy at the time.

If Andy gives his permission, I can put it back up for people to see. It's just the text, no pics, as at the time scanners were pretty crappy (hence the hand typing) and, to be honest, the original pics in the photocopied mags left something to be desired.

glamprincess wrote:

Baz wrote:>In the early seventies, Alice (and also the band) had massive coverage in British magazines and newspapers. There was a huge amount of press coverage.

I will take your word for it Andy, though I don`t remember it being that way, maybe things weren`t as bad as I make out.

Is it possible Baz that you are confusing the late 70s with the early 70s? Because during the early 70s, Alice had HUGE coverage in the British rock press and was one of their faves. It was in the late 70s, when Alice's press coverage went into serious decline. And it was not just in the UK. By the late 70s, his press coverage in North America declined as well.

Mmm, I don`t think so Glam, I left school in 74, and as I recall there wasn`t much press coverage up to that point, but I will accept that i am wrong about that, maybe i wasn`t looking in the right places.

This would be some good reading.
Oh yes......we want to read it. Dont care about mistakes... I cant find enough to read now. Need more Alice.

Andy....Friday is my Birthday...The perfect gift !

>If Andy gives his permission, I can put it back up for people to see.

Let me think about it. The thing is, a lot of the information in them is now easy to find elsewhere and also (and not that I'm comparing the fanzine with these) but since then, you've had "Prime Cuts", the incredible essay written by Jeffrey Morgan for the box - set, as well as "Golf Monster".

> and, to be honest, the original pics in the photocopied mags left something to be desired.

Exactly (if you mean the quality of the reproduction). There may be some here who may find this difficult to understand, but once, a long time ago, there were no such things as computers, word - processing, digital images, scanning and all the other things we now all take for granted.

>maybe i wasn`t looking in the right places.

You definitely were not. If you were buying "Sounds", then I don't understand how you missed out on "New Musical Express", "Disc", "Melody Maker and "Record Mirror".

>I cant find enough to read now.

Take a look at the other parts of this site!

A_MichaelUK wrote:>maybe i wasn`t looking in the right places.

You definitely were not. If you were buying "Sounds", then I don't understand how you missed out on "New Musical Express", "Disc", "Melody Maker and "Record Mirror".

I could only afford to buy one.