Concert: Alice Cooper Cheap Trick

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Alice Cooper & Cheap Trick Concert Schedule

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Alice Cooper & Cheap Trick

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Background:
Alice Cooper a heavy metal singer and musician was born in Vincent Damon Furnier on February 4, 1948. Alice Cooper was originally the name of Furnier's band. Furnier later changed his own name to Alice Cooper to promote his solo career.

Furnier was a French man and was born in Detroit but migrated to Phoenix, Arizona when he was young.

He was greatly influenced by The Beatles, and so he formed numerous rock bands in the 1960s, including the Earwigs, The Spiders, and The Nazz. When Furnier, found out that Todd Rundgren also had a band called the Nazz, he changed his band's name to Alice Cooper, which at that time included guitarist Mike Bruce, guitarist Glen Buxton, bassist Brian Webb, and drummer Neal Smith. On migrating to California in 1968, the band engaged Shep Gordon and Joe Greenberg as their managers, and the band was soon signed by Frank Zappa's label, Straight Records. Under the label the band released two competent albums, Pretties For You and Easy Action, which were not very famous.

In 1970, the band worked with producer Bob Ezrin on their album titled Love It to Death. A hit single was released after the album in 1971's "I'm Eighteen". The band's glamorous theatrics stood out amongst bearded, denim-clad hippy bands by sporting sequined costumes by the prominent rock fashion designer Cindy Dunaway. In the summer of 1972, Alice Cooper released School's Out which was their biggest success. The album reached #2 on the charts and sold over a million copies.

The band released Billion Dollar Babies was in 1973, which was a huge commercial hit. Its first single, "No More Mr. Nice Guy," reached the Top Ten 10 hit in Britain, and reached number 25 in the U.S.

In 1974, they disbanded and Cooper went ahead as a solo singer. His first solo album was Welcome to My Nightmare. He had the backing of, guitarist Dick Wagner, guitarist Steve Hunter, bassist Prakash John, keyboardist Joseph Chrowski, and drummer Penti Glan. It was a major hit.

His next album Flush The Fashion had a different musical sound that was unexpected and the people were truly baffled. Special Forces was a dark and a cynical album. These experiments in his music style were not so well received by the people. Cooper then released Constrictor in 1986 and Raise Your Fist And Yell in 1987 both were recorded with guitarist Kane Roberts & bassist Kip Winger but were not at all commercially successful.

In 1991, he released the album Hey Stoopid and the title song became an anti-drug anthem. He took a break from the music career for six years, which ended in 2000 with Brutal Planet. Brutal Planet was musically strong, dark and loud. The next album was Dragontown in 2001.

In 2003, Cooper released The Eyes Of Alice Cooper adopting a leaner, cleaner sound for it. Copper worked with younger group of musicians who adopted a leaner and cleaner sound and instead of rehashing the old sounds, they updated them, often with surprisingly effective results. It resulted in Bare Bones tour which adopted a less-orchestrated performance style that had a greater emphasis on musicality.

Cooper has a dedicated star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame which is located at the corner of Orange Drive and Hollywood Boulevard.

Cooper released his 24th studio album Dirty Diamonds in 2005 which was his first release on New West Records.
Cheap Trick is an American rock and roll band from Illinois which became famous in the late 1970s. The main band members are Rick Nielsen who is the guitarist and the lyricist, Bun E. Carlos the drummer, Robin Zander the guitarist and the vocalist and Tom Petersson the bassist. The band was formed by Nielsen and Petersson after their former band which was called Fuse disbanded soon after releasing their debut album Fuse in the year 1969. In 1976 Epic Records signed them up and they released Cheap Trick. At Budokan, which i their most popular album was recorded at Tokyo's famous Nippon Budokan Hall and it was certified triple platinum.

Though they never gained a similar commercial success as their live album At Budokan but still they gained a major fan following with their superb hard-edged yet blissful pop music. Their music was a major impact on American culture. Cheap Trick has also written and performed songs for the animated movie in 1983 titled Rock & Rule. Cheap Trick, in 1997 released an eponymous album.

In the recent past the band has recorded the theme song, a cover of Big Star's "In the Street" for the FOX television series That '70s Show. This famous television sitcom also includes part of the chorus of Cheap Trick's "Surrender" ("We're all alright! We're all alright!"). Bassist Tom Petersson has a passion for unique types of bass instruments and he is credited for having the idea for a 12-string bass. It was custom made by Hamer Guitars following a request from Petersson. Petersson has also used 12 string basses made by Chandler and Waterstone, as well as a most impressive array of 4, 5 and 8 stringed basses from other manufacturers.

Fans of '70s-era rock can look forward to a double dose when Alice Cooper and Cheap Trick join forces for a late-summer run through North America.

Alice Cooper The veteran rockers have lined up a co-headlining trek that kicked of on Aug. 20 in Cincinnati and is so far scheduled to run through mid-September. Aside from their joint venture, both artists also have some of their own headlining dates lined up.