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Welcome To My Nightmare

HELLO, HURRAH - IT'S HALLOWEEN!

And when it comes to real rock 'n' roll monsters, Alice Cooper is numero uno on the list of haunted Halloween horrors.

In fact, many radio stations have taken to playing Welcome To My Nightmare in its entirety on Halloween night.

But now there's an even spookier way to while away the witching hours, while you get the costume primed, or wait for the kids to return with their booty.

Why not try picking up a copy of the fabulous new Alice Cooper video: Prime Cuts - featuring 23 (count 'em) Cooper classics - all the way from day one, right through to his current monster Hey Stoopid.

You can roll the video as a haunting background, or keep it centre stage in your living room to liven things up while the little urchins rap at your door.

As a long-time Cooper fanatic - and one who inevitably dresses as Alice on Halloween - I'm supremely impressed with the contents of this video.

From start to finish Prime Cuts is one of the best on the market.

With Cooper the captain of his own video ship, we take a visual voyage through on of the most bizarre, explosive, and visually neurotic careers in contemporary rock.

And Coop pulls no punches, as he frankly discusses everything from his own alcoholism, to the ins and outs of touring.

The interview material never gets in the way. It's treated with the same good time flavor as his shows. And Cooper's a video natural - calm, cool and collected, he's fun to watch as he dissects his own career, with help form the likes of Canadian mega-producer Bob Ezrin.

Unlike a lot of video biographies on the market, Prime Cuts doesn't spend the bulk of its time with endless interviews - instead we get an exceptional overview of Alice Cooper and his music.

Right from square one.

He talks about the very first time his band got up on stage in front of a high school audience - they couldn't play their instruments, and had actually hired girls to scream at them.

The boys got off on the experience so much, they immediately learned how to play guitar.

From there, we tracked the Cooper legend from the days the boys auditioned for Frank Zappa - in front of Zappa's house at seven in the morning - while he stood dumbfounded in his underwear at the door.

Once singed to Zappa's label, Cooper and company launched themselves on a 23-year-voyage through shock, excess and hard-nosed rock anthems.

Prime Cuts is loaded with great historical footage of the band's early career, including a whole stack of TV appearances, the legendary chicken episode at the Toronto Peace Festival, load on in-concert goodies and even a rarely seen video for the tune Elected.

In addition, the music is not chopped into little bits as it often the case with much of the material available today.

And there's loads of music to enjoy.

I'm Eighteen, Black Juju, Ballad of Dwight Fry, Sick Things, Dead Babies, Billion Dollar Babies, No More Mr Nice Guy, Welcome To My Nightmare, Cold Ethyl, Only Women Bleed, Trash, Poison and School's Out make it a must for fans.

Gallows, pythons, guillotines, daggers and dolls - it's all a part of the the world outrage that is Alice Cooper.

And simply perfect for Halloween entertainment.