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Cooper's 'Nightmare' — A Rock & Roll Dream

LOS ANGELES — "Everybody decided that they wanted to do something on their own. Doing essentially the same thing for 10 years was starting to get boring to the guys in the band. The decision was made a year ago that everybody was going to attempt a project on their own, and then come back together afterwards."

The man behind the quote is Shep Gordon, and in it he's describing the current state of affairs regarding his managerial clients and prize professional accomplishment, Alice Cooper. Taking a band that was at one time commonly regarded as one of the least commercial musical propositions in the history of Western culture, Gordon has supervised a career that has thus far been responsible for sales of many millions of records, a commensurate number of magazines whenever their faces graced the cover, an impending movie and more general hooplah than any other rock & roll attraction in the last five years.

And now, propelled by their phenomenal success as a unit, each of the band members is seizing the opportunity to pursue an individual direction. Guitarist Mike Bruce is readying an album; drummer Neal Smith has recorded a couple of singles. The biggest news, however, is coming from Alice himself.

Seeing Alice in the headlines is nothing new. He's been excellent copy from the outset; whether on stage allegedly executing chickens, on the golf course with Jackie Gleason or trading lines with Paul Lynde on "Hollywood Squares." Now, in a flurry of activity carefully plotted during the deceptive layoff of the last year, he's back with an album, a TV special and a tour that promises to eclipse everything in an already semi-legendary past.

The album, "Welcome To My Nightmare" (Atlantic), is conceptually linked to the TV special of the same name, which NBC will air on April 25. And the theme is also applied to Alice's massive 66 city tour, which commences immediately. There were many who felt that Alice could never match the grandiose proportions of the "Billion Dollar Babies" tour, but early reports indicate that they've all been proven dead wrong. "Billion Dollar Babies," according to Alice, "was actually the beginning of this one. That show was like the Follies more or less — it was a revue — whereas this is a choreographed show.

"Alice is playing two characters; what it really is is a character playing a character. Alice plays Steven, a little kid that wakes up at the beginning of the show. He's in his bed, and when he wakes up everything is distorted. His bed is five times bigger than it was, and his whole room has turned into some kind of a nightmare room..."

Not wanting to spoil all the fun, that's as much of the plot as we're going to reveal. But with choreography by David Winters, staging and lights by Joe Gannon (who masterminded the "Billion Dollar Babies" show) and some breathtaking special effects and props designed by the folks at Disneyland, it threatens to be an evening of unparalleled rock & roll entertainment. And considering that on top of all this, plans call for the band to begin work on their next Warners album together in September or October, we'd have to say that the future for Alice Cooper looks brighter now than it ever did.

AM Action

ALICE COOPER (Atlantic). "Billion Dollar Baby" Alice is enjoying the success of his first big single in quite a while. Added this week to WQXI and WCFL, along with last weeks adds of WFIL, KILT, WIBG, KJR and WSI (extra). Also aired on KBWB (20-13), WIXY (27-20), WCOL (32-27), WMAK (30-26) and KTLK (26-21). Trivia: Ms. Magazine applauds Alice by throwing a party for him for his contribution to the 'cause'.