Killer

Product Information

Cooper: People listened to "Love it to Death" and they said, "Oh, my gosh, Alice Cooper's got a sound now." "Killer" took the sound to the next step. Like it should. Every band should get better and better and better. Smith: It was a challenge for us to try to have an album that was better than "Love it to Death." But we didn't really think about that. We just wanted the musicianship to be fantastic and do something a little bit different.

The band performs the instrumental parts of the song while Alice wanders the stage, playing with "Little Betty's" head and still holding the hatchet. "What did I do to deserve such a fate...". The music switches to tape as Glen, in executioner's hood, drags Alice up a flight of stairs to the right of the stage, followed by Dennis dressed as a priest and reading last rites from a bible. At the top they reveal the bands newest toy... a full sized gallows custom built by the Waner Brothers Props department. Glen pulls the lever and Alice drops. He continues tohangs there while wind and rain effects fill the room. The effect was stunning, and scary as hell. Feb 20th 1972 Convention Hall Community Concourse, San Diego, CA (w/ Badfinger, Pure Prairie League)( Review/Interview)[ San Diego Union 2st February Review][Faked poster exists] - Photos of Badfinger exist. Listing in University of San Diego 'Bear Facts'. Dec 20th 1971 Cleveland, OH, Cleveland Public Hall (w/ Sha Na Na, J Geils Band) - Listing in Mansfield, OH News-Journal 19th December - Date is wrong see 29th December) Feb 18th 1972 Civic Auditorium, Albuquerque, NM (w/ Cheech and Chong, Redbone) - Albuquerque New Times 17th February has a small piece saying Cheech and Chong and Redbone are opening for Alice Cooper at Civic Auditorium "tomorrow night". Also issue 10th Feb has same info. - Strangely there seems to have been more trouble at this show similar to the Tucson show. Albuquerque Tribune Feb 19th has photo and info clearly stating 'Civic Auditorium' while the Tucson articles clearly state 'Community Center'. Also Albuquerque Tribune 24th February clearly refers to two different shows so there doesn't seem to be confusion. (our original mention of "memorial auditorium" seems a red herring as there appears to be no such place) - Review in Albuquerque Journal 19th February and The Daily Lobo (Student Paper) on Feb 21st.May 20th 1972 Fayetteville, NC, Cumberland Coutry Memorial Arena (w/ Blue Oyster Cult, Chambers Brothers ) [ Lumberton Robesinian May 12th has Preview and a review] (Rolling Stone Show Itinery) - 'Killer' Still hovering around the mid-40s at #43. A previously unreleased live version of “Be My Lover” from the upcoming School’s Out (Deluxe Edition) is available today digitally. Listen here and below. Killer' eventually hit #21 on the Billboard charts, with it's two singles 'Under My Wheels' and 'Be My Lover' reaching #59 and #49 respectively. By January 1972 it had gone 'Gold', signifying in excess of 500,000 copies had been shipped to the stores. By 1986 it was Platinum (in excess of 10 million copies shipped) and of course it has continued to sell well in the 30+ years since, especially after the introduction of compact discs. Mar 13th 1972 Ungano's Ritz Theater, Port Richmond, Staten Island, NY - Eye witness who booked the show says this was just after the release of Killer, and after Alice's Appendix operation (the scar you can see on the Killer calendar). "Johnny Podell gave us this gig as a thanks for the bookings in the past..... Alice was getting quite big here at this point and was selling out much bigger venues than ours." [Note: There could be an advert in the Village Voice around this period but the archive is missing issues between January and April 1972.]

Cooper: A review said, "Well, they're really good atthese three-minute, four-minute singles, but that's about all they can do." We kind of looked at that and went, "Oh, you don't think we can do prog?"So we wrote "Halo of Flies." Just to prove that we could. The dramatic staging was transfixing. Alice slowly donned a 'cannon suit' with masterful suspense. As the band droned a solid, throbbing tone, he courageously waved a pathetic salute to an anxious throng, bravely climbed into the weapon and disappeared. Lighting flooded the cannon and the drum roll began. A moment of sheer climax was at hand! Everyone held their breath. There was an ear-shattering explosion of fire and light. Smoke was everywhere. Protruding from the cannon's mouth was a life-sized, sad, rag doll dressed like Alice. Malfunction: the dummy hadn't even cleared the barrel. Dec 9th 1971 Radio listings suggest Alice Cooper were featured on WIBA-FM 'Radio Free Madison' from Madison, WI today although whether this was an interview or not is unknown. Jan 2nd 1972 New York, NY Palace Theatre - No listings or adverts in the Village voice. In fact the Village Voice and New York Times list the play 'Applause' featuring Anne Baxter on this date so it looks like it could be a red herring. Possibly confused with the suggested 'Alice at the Palace' project which never happened. It could also be confused with the Jan 12th Palace Theater show in Westbury, CT.) An audio recording exists maked as this, but that could also be wrong, or maybe it was marked "Palace Theater" and was assumed to be NY. Feb 11th 1972 Seattle, WA, Seattle Center Arena (w/ Earthquake) [Also listing in Seattle Daily Times February 6th and other minor mentions. Support mentioned February 11th. Promoted by Concerts West][In a "review" the Seattle Daily Times February 20th mentions shows at the Paramount Northwest Theater and that they have played "twice this year". This would actually be July 9th and 10th 1971, but the show described in the review is the 'Killer' Show.]

Side guide

Dec 8th 1971 Columbus, OH, Ohio Theater (or Akron?) - Columbus confirmed in Ann Arbor Sun (Nov 26th-Dec 9th 1971 issue) listings. April 29th 1972 Providence, Rhode Island, Brown College (w/ Blue Oyster Cult) - NOT an Alice Cooper show. This was a Blue Oyster Cult show with Ike and Tina Turner as per listing in the Brown Daily Herald, the University student newspaper. There is also a news report mentioning the same bill. Interestingly according to the Brown archives Alice Cooper were under consideration to play the 1974 Spring Weekend show but of course that wasn't going to happen.). who we confrinted for smoking WERE students here. Granted there were some "townies" there, including a thirteen year old boy walking around with a joint, and a sixteen year old girl flipped out on acid. Some "unknown" student had given her a can of beer laced with acid, unknown to her, and she spent the rest of the night in tears, frightened to death." Offically the 'Killer' tour began on December 1st 1971 at the Academy Of Music in New York, although in fact there had been a couple of warm up shows the week before. It ended 7 months later on June 30th with a final show was at the Empire Pool, Wembley, England. The new show featured was a step up from 'Love It To Death' on every level. Killer" more than lived up to the promise of their previous release. 'Killer' was the perfect album to follow'Love it to Death'