HEADLINERS

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

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livinluvin72
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HEADLINERS

Post by livinluvin72 » Fri Jan 21, 2022 3:22 am

At what point did Alice Cooper become THE Headlining Act on the road in the 70s?

I mean, not a few shows here and there but from what point forward were you guys ALWAYS the headliner?

Was it the LITD, Killer, School’s Out or the Billion Dollar Babies’ tour?

Thanks

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Dreary
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Re: HEADLINERS

Post by Dreary » Fri Jan 21, 2022 5:22 pm

In those days, having any empty seats in an arena concert could be detrimental for any headliner's future arena bookings, so Joe and Shep wisely turned down offers until we felt confident that we could sell out shows. We also knew we were more popular in some towns than others.
We did lots of festivals, but stuck to headlining theaters rather than arenas because having crowds outside a sold out theater was something that arena promoters would hear about, and that would give us bargaining clout.
A hit single was most any band's best bargaining point for headlining and, even though the Killer album didn't quite produce a hit as strong as "Eighteen" we had created a show that nobody wanted to follow so we became headliners. "School's Out" was such a big hit, that, even with our controversial reputation, arena promoters came knocking and we had plenty of press and therefore bargaining clout.

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