March 21, 1975: Welcome To My Nightmare Tour Book

March 21, 1975 - April 04, 1977

Welcome To My Nightmare Tour Book

Size: 11 x 8.5 inch

When Kiss unveiled their 2013 tour set featuring a gigantic spider that spewed fireballs, it was hardly a novelty. David Bowie's 1987 Glass Spider tour had already showcased a massive spider set, and over a decade earlier, Alice Cooper had incorporated an oversized arachnid into his 1975 tour.

In 1975, Alice Cooper transitioned from rock's most dangerous act to a sanitized, vaudeville-meets-horror-film icon with the release of "Welcome to My Nightmare," the first solo album Vincent Furnier released under the Alice Cooper name, previously used by his band.

He promoted the album with an ambitious tour that began on March 21, 1975, at Wings Stadium in Kalamazoo, Michigan. These performances were crafted to present a more mainstream-friendly Alice Cooper to audiences, which involved discarding some of the more gruesome, edgy elements of previous live shows in favor of a polished, almost cartoon-like production. David Winters, who had choreographed for Elvis Presley and Ann-Margret, produced, directed, and choreographed the tour.

Portrayed as a nightmare of a boy named Steven, the show featured Alice Cooper hits such as "No More Mr. Nice Guy," "I'm Eighteen," and "School's Out," along with new album tracks, all set within a sophisticated multi-media production with film projections, four dancers, and intricate sets and costumes. During the nightmare, Cooper faced dancing skeletons, a faceless demon, a nine-foot cyclops, and indeed, enormous spiders (a nod to Kiss and Bowie) in "Black Widow."

Although Cooper's spiders weren't as technologically advanced as Bowie's or Kiss's stages – resembling odd Muppets – he can still claim to have pioneered the concept in the classic rock realm.

Press Release:

WELCOME TO MY NIGHTMARE - major 60-city nationwide tour. After a year's absence ALICE COOPER reappears on stage with a whole new exciting concept, the underlying theme being his "Nightmare", backed by an enormous stage production brilliantly arranged by some of the most talented people in this field.

The WELCOME TO MY NIGHTMARE tour marks ALICE'S debut solo effort with a back-up band who have all individually made their mark as fine musicians: Dick Wagner (guitar), Steve Hunter (guitar), Prakash John (bass), Pentti Glan (drums), and Jozef Chirowski (keyboards).

Co-Producer, Director & Choreographer: David Winter's achievements for television, motion pictures and stage productions are too numerous to list in full; he has worked with Paul Newman, Raquel Welch, Bob Hope, Rudolph Nureyev, Tom Jones, Ann-Margret; directed The Monkees TV series; choreographed the "Nancy Sinatra Special", "Hullabaloo", "Shindig" etc. etc...

Co-Producer & Lighting Director: Joe Gannon staged, designed and produced the massive and highly innovative Billion Dollar Babies set which toured back in '73. Also, he has worked closely with numerous artists including the Kingston Trio, Bill Cosby, Tiny Tim, Neil Diamond, Gregg Allman and Liza Minelli.

Stage Show: A magnificent collection of props and costumes has been designed for the show, which highlights songs from the new album ("Welcome to My Nightmare" Atlantic Records) interspersed with rejuvenated versions of golden oldies.

The ominous characters that appear larger than life on the stage of Alice's "Nightmare" include a 6-foot Black Widow spider dancers who will weave their way across a giant 12' x 20' web suspended across stage by a pair of aluminum pyramids; a giant cyclops (10 feet tall with an illuminated eye and detachable horned head), ghostly skeleton dancers and a cast of deathly and morbid effects — but have no fear — ALICE, as always, reigns triumphant for the finale...