Alice Cooper Set To Release ‘Welcome 2 My Nightmare’ In September
Alice Cooper Set To Release ‘Welcome 2 My Nightmare’ In September
June 12, 2011
Alice Cooper’s new album ‘Welcome 2 My Nightmare’, the sequel to 1975’s classic ‘Welcome To My Nightmare’, will be released prior to his gigs in September. Once again produced with Bob Ezrin, it will feature in Alice’s upcoming new shows. The original spawned a worldwide, full theatrical tour so expect Alice’s comic book cruelty to be taken up a notch.
“I had an idea to do a part two to (2008’s) ‘Along Came a Spider’,” Cooper told Billboard.com. “I came to Bob with it, and he listened and goes, ‘Eh. I would be more excited if ‘Along Came a Spider’ was a No. 1 record.’ He wasn’t really into it. Then we started talking about ‘Welcome to My Nightmare’s 35th anniversary or something like that, and he said, ‘What if Alice had another nightmare?’ All I was trying to do was get Bob to say, ‘Yeah, I want to produce the album,’ so we found a place where both of us really felt comfortable, and that was doing ‘Nightmare 2’.”
The album features some other familiar faces from Cooper’s past. The original ‘Nightmare’ tandem of Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner played on the album, while Vince Gill plays on a track called “Runaway Train.” And surviving Cooper band members Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway and Neal Smith reunited on the track “When Hell Comes Home.” “I was going to go in and say, ‘What I want this thing to have is this live, 70s sound — but I didn’t have to say that. That’s just the way they play,” Cooper recalls. “They just had that sound you couldn’t go in and try to direct them to get. That’s the normal way they play. I said to Bob, ‘I don’t want it to sound any different than that.”
In related news, Alice Cooper will once again take control of Halloween this year, bringing all the thrills, blood spills, guts and gore we can take as Alice Cooper’s Halloween Night Of Fear hits the UK. Following last year’s outstanding Halloween gigs at London’s Roundhouse, which left fans gasping for more, Alice takes to the road in the UK, extending his reign of terror to Sheffield, Bristol, Birmingham, London’s Alexandra Palace, Manchester and Glasgow.
But the insatiable Alice wants more. In London, he is calling together the spectacular ghouls, depraved weirdos and the hottest fire starters. Last year, Alice took on the role of a sadistic Simon Cowell by judging the auditions for freaks who shocked and grossed out the fans in equal measure. This year, he is hunting down spectacular fire acts and VERY bizarre performance artists to bring that hellishly warm glow to the night.
“It takes a lot to shock me,” says Alice, “But last year even my stomach was churning, Britain really has got freaks. That’s what’s Halloween is all about. It’s my favourite time of the year, bring on the gore!”
Auditions are June 27th in London’s Hyde Park. Just like last year, go to AliceCooper.com/freaks to submit audition videos by June 22nd. Audition show producers Wake Up Productions will choose the line up and 3 acts will be picked by Alice and a panel of judge on the night to perform on stage October 29th at Alexandra Palace. There, the audience will decide the winner. The night will be London’s largest costume party with cash prizes. Last year at the Roundhouse, hundreds of people showed up in costume… this year thousands.
The legendary New York Dolls join as support and Alice’s band has been described as the best he has ever worked with. Lou Reed and original Alice sideman Steve Hunter has joined to present an unprecedented 3 guitar attack, pushing the group to new heights.
Courtesy of www.sleazeroxx.com and www.alicecooper.com