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Nightmare
DETROIT IS full of cocoa coloured shysters who will try their hand at almost anything - especially groping English girls' bums and other private no-go zones. Walking the boulevards is tantamount to proclaiming TAKE ME I'M ANYONES, so beware...
Me, I'm just strolling along the shopping precinct with another reporter (male), when suddenly a balaclava with big brown eyes and a Colgate smile creeps up from behind and grabs at my Levis — in the obvious place. I look around and stare down on some ten-year-old punk who says somethin' darn rude and warns my escort to take me off the streets before something bad happens... of course I'm a little shaken, but take a photo of him and his elfin 'eavies for a souvenir, 'cos this kind of thing may never happen again.
Strangely enough it is safer for a girl to walk on these supposedly wild streets — where the white man fears to tread — than in the hotel where several banglust gangs are creeping around — you need only to leave your hotel room door slightly ajar!
The boredom of Big D by day diminishes with every darkening hour. Alice Coop's in town and this really means a kick up the backside for everyone. His gig is at the Olympia Ice Hockey Stadium which holds a cool 14,000. Suzi Quatro's dad usually plays the organ at the big Hockey games, but tonite daddy's gal herself is taking over to play support to Alice.
In the massive stadium the air reeks of excitement and tension — again I think it's safer on the streets outside. Frisbees whizzzz through the air crashing into young innocents sitting quietly. Thankfully the lights dim and Elton's The Bitch Is Back reverberates around the hall as an opener for Suzi.
But the real snafu begins when Alice appears to present his theatrical nightmare show. Everyone but everyone is standing on their seats and for several minutes we can't see a thing 'cept dirty necks and bopping heads. When the melee mellows we can at last spot Alice, dressed in blood red holey tights and matching vest, his face made up in vampire fashion. With him is a giant sized creature with coal black eyes; booming out, "Welcome To My Nightmare", in icy, spooky tones.
Spooks
A medieval bed glides on stage and a mixture of ghouls and spooks scurry through the mist filled bedroom while an array of Punch and Judy type characters jump out of an oversized toy box. Everything's totally bizarre — but anything goes, it's a nightmare after all! All this surrealism attacks the nervous system. The crowd are "oohing" and "arrhing".
Alice flashes around with stylish panache and Dick Whittington boots, whirling a silvery sword as though it were a golf club; while his monster friends swirl around him.
Next a screamer-with-laughter routine, incorporates Vaudeville from the excellent dancers. They are dressed as skeletons in frogman suits and top hats; Alice is wearing a Persil bright white dinner suit, skipping the light fantastic to a Jazz oriented, finger clicking, tip-toe-in-case-somebody-hears-you ditty, called Some Folks.
Then the mood changes drastically and Alice begins to beat-up a life sized doll on the bed, to the tune of Cold Ethyl and the quasi-love ballad, Only Women Bleed. As the spotlight focuses on Alice, the dummy is replaced by one of the dancers and is done so well that one is taken aback when she begins to dance! Now the female species get their revenge when Vincent Price's taped voice booms around the auditorium about the Black Widow, who is said to devour her husband after their marriage is consummated. This scene includes lurexy spiders swinging on a massive rope-like web. A fight breaks out between them and Alice, but the spiders ultimately lose the fight and we see him cradling a woman who emerges from the spiders shell. It's another victory for the males!
The track that follows is perhaps the weirdest and most brilliant of the bunch; Steven, a child-man who doesn't want to grow up and is in schizophrenic conflict with himself — a real flesh tingler.
The deluxe sequence of Alice's nightmare features a gangling giant-like one-eyed horned cyclops with a pimply chest, who gets hold of Alice in a King-Kong type bear hug but is eventually slain and gets his head chopped off... gooorrry.
Now the monsters and ghouls disappear — the nightmare is gradually coming to a close. The toys go back into their toy box and a screen appears on stage. The scene that follows is one of the most adventurous and baffling yet.
First we see a film clip of Alice and his dancers. Alice is hacking at his tombstone; he doesn't want to die. Meanwhile the real Alice and company are waiting behind the vertical strip screen ready to synchronize with the film — as soon as it ends they will jump through the backdrop to appear as though they are stepping out of the film itself. This is done perfectly, the timing is spot on, it's scary!
Now Alice is free! The finale strikes up, it's a rollocking rocker a la Who aptly titled Escape.
The kids just cannot believe what they have seen. Alice leaves the stage and the whole house goes nuts... "Monsters," a lone voice cries, "We want more monsters."
Alice is victorious. Tonight proves that this King of horrorsville has matured and progressed — it's as good as doing a V sign to all his critics.
The audience strike up their lighters and matches in "twinkle, twinkle little star" fashion, meaning they want more. But Alice won't come back. He's far too knackered.
THE MORNING after the ribald rocky horror show, Alice allows us to come to his court. There are many shuffling around him and one or two slick socialites. Alice looks as fresh as early morning cat's pee, but is in very good form.
We talk about last night's gig: "Detroit is really the home of rock and roll," he says, smiling to reveal immaculate white pearlies. "I mean, travelling American bands — and English ones for that matter — will tell you that it's a great place to play, the kids are so responsive. Detroit has a real pride in that they're the kings of the audiences. I mean it's the motor city, y'know, cool, and anything hot rock and roll is just their bag. I think they're the connoisseurs."
What do you think of Suzi?
"Oh she's great. I've known her for ages; we grew up together. She's got a lot of power on stage and we thought — Shep and I — that it would be a good idea to have her on this tour."
Fetish
The Welcome To My Nightmare extravaganza has been on the road only five days and Alice has at least another seventy dates to complete. When he finishes in the States he should be coming to England sometime in July — but nothing has yet been confirmed. One thing's certain, Alice is an ant when it comes to work — there's never a quiet moment for him and his entourage. But sadly Alice finds that his social life these days is in shreds.
"Well I just don't feel like going to parties after the show. I'm getting old, I'm twenty seven years old, huh, I'm beginning to sound like Vinny The Boss (who's he)? This show's so exhausting I just get home and have no desire to go out to parties. It really gets me like that. I play a lot of golf nowadays — that's my fetish."
Just watching the show is extremely tiring — let alone being in it. You need to be Superman by all that goes on behind the scenes and on stage.
"You wouldn't believe the chaos backstage! There's people dashing around trying to get into silver uniform and change into a cyclops suit which is all done mechanically, and then he's gotta get his head chopped off then put another kind of outfit on. I mean this guy, at the end of the show, is more tired than I am. And it's so hot in that suit, about 150 degrees or something, I think we'll have to get some kind of ventilation system installed for him."
Musically the show's a treat. Alice is using a different band these days which gives his music a much tighter, punctuated sound.
"These guys are so damn good,'' opines Alice, "I really enjoy working with them again. The other band are doing their own projects — a lot of people think I'm kidding — but I'm not. We still keep in touch though."
Co-starring in Nightmare is the demonic king himself, Vincent Price, Alice's partner in creep.
"Vincent Price, he's a really great guy, he's a really old friend. I wanted to use someone who was really the best to add a lot of professionality (sic) and Vincent's so good in it.
"When Alice drops into a scene and bumps into something it's always him you know, looking round a corner and saying: "Hello little boy, you having fun little boy?" "No, no, I wanna wake up," mimmicks Alice in typical bawling brat fashion.
What really frightens you?
"Lack of beer!... (laughs). Actually I used to be terribly scared of Punch and Judy when I was a kid — Christ they were really freaky!"