February 1973: Hurricane Alice

Takes Europe By Storm

by Barbara Graustark

In a matter of moments, Alice's grin of excitement turned to open-mouthed terror as three thousand of Glasgow's screaming meanies gave the band its wildest reception ever.

"Alice, Alice, Alice," screamed three hundred frenzied fans as the red, white, and blue fifty-two-seater plane glided to a landing at Glasgow, Scotland's Prestwick Airport. But when the group triumphantly stepped down the ramp, their expressions of delight turned to open-mouthed horror as mobbing supporters broke through police barricades and caused such a disarray that Alice and the band were forced to flee to waiting limousines, leaving their baggage behind. Hurricane Alice, as the Glasgow press soon dubbed the tangle-haired superstar, was whisked off to the safety of the Central Hotel for the awesome beginning of Alice's most tumultuous European tour ever, a tour that opened with the most frightening twenty-four hours in the history of Cooper madness, soon produced a maniacal superstar recording session destined to make the sessions for The Who's new Tommy look like a dull summit meeting for stuffed-shirt octogenarians, and reached its peak with a Paris bash that made Jagger's New York birthday party look like a shoe salesmen's convention at a second-rate resort.

Beginning the reign of terror: The first tremors of the Glasgow scare were felt back in New York two days before the band was slated to appear at Glasgow's Green's Playhouse. Already notorious for their frequent outbursts of violence during soccer matches, the young people of Glasgow had erupted in a bloody battle

Alice Cooper: The rest stop in London that Alice hoped would be a peaceful breather turned into a tumultuous drunken recording session with Keith Moon, Marc Bolan, Ric Grech, Donovan, and Harry Nilsson.

royale, at a hotly-contested soccer exhibition game, and the front page of the London Times showed a young girl being carried out of the Glasgow Stadium with a knife stuck in her head. It was no wonder that members of the Cooper team were literally quaking in anticipation of their own concert and hastily canceled plans to have Alice go onstage carrying two scarves from the opposing soccer teams.

At first, their worst fears seemed confirmed: surrounded by hundreds of agitated devotees, the boys were held virtual prisoners in their hotel. And forty personal bodyguards had been added to the swelling entourage by the time the boys reached the Playhouse to kick off their first European gig.

The three thousand fanatical admirers inside greeted Alice's arrival with the biggest exhibit of pop frenzy ever to hit Scotland. Before Alice had even reached the stage, hundreds of eager girls had broken through police lines, collapsing three rows of seats under the crush. As the act unfolded with a flood of bubbles gushing around the musicians, Alice slunk into the spotlight, resplendent in bone-crushing tight gold lamé pants and a black leather top. Strutting and primping, his eyes smeared with black goo makeup, he primed his band into one of their most historic concerts.

Getting off on the violence: With the grace of a grotesque ballerina,

Alice Cooper: When the group returned from their European tour, they plunged into preparations for Alice on Broadway, a week-long stint at New York's Broadway Theater in February.

Alice Cooper Circus Magazine Article