ROCK 'N' ROLL news

ROCK'N'ROLL news

Newsweek finally spilled the beans, so we guess it’s finally ok to say it out loud: Alice Cooper’s real name is Vincent Furnier.

As if producing the ex-biggest band in the world (Grand Funk Railroad) isn’t enough, Todd Rundgren will now produce the band many people are hoping can duplicate Funkian popularity: the New York Dolls. The Dolls record for Phonogram/ who are in the midst of designing a special custom label for them.

And speaking of producers: Now that David Bowie has excused himself from the picture, the next to get a crack at producing Lou Reed will be Bob Ezrin, who’s done just fine by Alice Cooper, the Guess Who, Detroit and Flo & Eddie. Lou, by the way/fired his high school boogie band and now employs, among others, two Rundgren veterans: Mark “Moogey” Klingman and Tom Cosgrove.

And Speaking of David Bowie: What’s David been discussing with Tony Visconti (his old producer) so often lately?

Roy Wood will shortly fly to Las Vegas to see Elvis perform, at which time he’ll present the King with some songs written expressly for him.

Legs Larry Smith, ex-Bonzo Dog loon and full-time madman, is tryingto interest Elton John’s Rocket Records in distributing a film on. Hitler he’s cooking up.

Xhe Move tour we told you about last issue never materialized, but you can count on Roy Wood and Carl Wayne to do some recording together anyway. Maybe even as the Move.

Guitarist Henry McCulloch is reportedly thinking about leaving Paul McCartney’s Wings to return to Joe Cocker with whom he once played as a member of the Grease Band. Seems Pay lie doesn’t give the lad enough room to strut his stuff. Ig

Recording in Munich will be Marc Bolan, with something he calls his “cosmic ensemble.” What that is, according to the dwarf himself, is “chick singers, assorted UK and US musicians, and possibly a video unit. A tight little team.” That, maybe, but probably not what Marc needs more than anything else in the world: a first-rate rock & roll band.

Look for the Allman Brothers to add another member on some carefully selected dates in the near future. He’s three year old Vaylor Trucks, fon of Allmans drummer Butch Trucks, and plays a drum kit stripped-down to accomodate a tike of his miniscule size.

Paul Colby, owner-manager of famed New York folk nitery the Bitter End, has compiled a three-record set of performances from.the club, recorded over a period of several years. The Early Years will feature the Limelitejs, Tom Rush, Tom Paxton, Theodore Bikel and the Simon Asters (meaning you-know-who); The Pop Years has Van Morrison, Randy Newman, Jerry Jeff Walker, Bill Withers and Curtis Mayfield; The Comedy Years includes Lily Tomlin and Robert Klein, along with several other yuckoids.

The original piues Project will reunite for one gig at the Schaefer Festival in New York’s Central Park this summer. The members are: At Kooper, Danny Kalb,. Steve Katz, Tommy Flanders, Andy Kulberg and Roy Blumenfeld. There arc no plans beyond this one date.

With the release of the solo Roger McGuinn album, the Byrds will henceforth exist only when the original members can agree on dates and places. McGuinn, the founder of the group, had carried the name with assorted side musicians until the original band got together to cut their reunion album for Asylum.

Essex Music is taking David Bowie to court over three songs the company maintains should have been assigned to them under a 1967 agreement. The songs in question are “Ching a Ling,” “Mother Grey” and “April’s Tooth of Gold.” Bowie is being sued under his real name, David Robert Jones.

little David Records is rushing fiqut a comedy concept album centering on the Watergate scandal. George Carlin and Bums & Schreiber are the featured artists.

Marc Bolan recently sat in on a Ravi Shankar session, produced by George Harrison. No word on who won the Battle Of The Drone.

The Modern Lovers soon begin work on their first album for Warners, with John Cale at the helm. The band, which hails from Boston, sounds more than a little like a teenage Velvet Underpound. With material like “Roadrunner” (a guaranteed hit single) and “I’m Straight” (quite possibly the next national anthem), they’re worth checking into.

Bill Gunter, a 17 year old Phoenix high school senior, is peddling protection to help finance his . education.' Gunter’s car is equipped with a two-way radio, and he wears a uniform. He carries a i38-caliber pistol, mace, handcuffs and a night stick. “I became involved in the security business while participating in Maripopa County Explorer Scouts Post 502,” he said. Reports that Alice Cooper has asked this. all-American lad to MC their next tour are unsubstantiated. Lou Reed is also reported to be interested in the boy’s talents.

Expect a solo album from Chris Wood of Traffic in the coming months.

Remember those David Bowie1 Bette Midler encounters that everyone wasmraking goo-goo eyes about awhile back? Well, our sources have it that the two were talking about nothing but business. That business is reported to be a touring musical of some kind, with Bette as the star and David functioning in the producer’s role/®

Those rumors about a Beach Boys breakup may hold some water. . That latest story has Carl Wilson splitting to form a band; with Billy Hinsche and Ricky Fataar, and it is known that not long after Fataar and Blondie Chaplin joined the Beach Boys, Carl made tentative inquiries into the possibilities of a tour involving '4vst the three of them.

Hie old codger pictured above is 75 year old Duncan Renaldo, who portrayed the legendary Cisco Kid in films and on TV back in the Fifties. The young codgers with him are War, who parlayed Renal do’s character into a smasheroo single.

In still more Alice Cooper news: Now that the boys are Finished with their grueling 64-date national tour, they’ll rest fat and comfortable on all that money they made, right? Wrong. They’re now set for a whirl-wind tour, hitting ten cities in as many days. On this jaunt, though, they’ll hit Only mammoth venues - sports stadiums and the like - and hope to walk away with $100,000 oh each d|8H

The last vestiges of the Velvet Underground have come back to haunt us, this time in the guise of the Doug Yule Underground, who record for Polydor International. Yule was a Velvet on the band’s last three albums, and with this new group (which includes his brother Bill on drums) performs aH the old hits with a few things of his own thrown in. Yule has a certain amount of talent, but as long as ho insists on dragging around the rotting corpse of the Velvet Underground* he’s got two quick strikes against him i|i our book.

Keith Moon has completed work on four one-hour radio specials to be broadcast in Britain at the end of the summer. On the shows, Moon will perform solo character sketches and play his favorite jams; Thom Beil, responsible for producing the most consistently pleasing black singles over the last year, is set to take On,a horse of an entirely different color. He’ll prdduce Johnny Mathis for Columbia.

Rick Derringer, ex-McCoy and Johnny Winter And guitarist/ producer, is cutting his first sold album. The record is expected to be rite first release on Steve Paul’s Blue Sky Records, distributed by Columbia.

Bids are getting outrageous for the jam tapes cut at Brian Wilson’s Bel Air home, featuring Wilson, Alice Cooper, Danny Hutton and Iggy Pop. Labels with the inside track: Columbia and ESP.,,.

The forthcoming Dave Mason g album features none other than Stevie Wonder on drums in a new arrangement of “Headkeej^er.”

A recently completed study by a group of Maryland psychiatrists ^ has concluded that Rich Nixon has “an extremely unusual sense of humor.” The study, sponsored by the American Psychiatry Association, took into account hundreds of hours of film clips, tapes and personal accounts of Nixon behaviour. The report cited Nixon’s outbursts of hilarity during cruel war scenes in his favorite movie “Patton,” as well as his reported chuckling while announcing the December bombing of North Vietnam.

All of the Osmonds are taking karate lessons. Yes, they got group rates.

By now you’ve heard about the Alice Cooper “Whiplash” line of unisex cosmetics, but the latest is that Alice is also considering opening his own bar/ club in New York. Alice, who’s just looking for a place to hang out, is thinking about calling the membership-only club ‘’Club Foot.” Several other music biz bigwigs are reportedly interested in a piece of the action as well.

A group to watch is Shoot, fronted by ex-Yardbird Jim McCarty and Them alumnus John Wilson.

Ultra Violet, onetime Warhol superstar and token talkshow • freak, recently completed her first album for Capitol. Her voice, described by producer Jeff Cheen as “Melanie without vibrato,” was backed up instrumentally by such as Todd Rundgren, Cornell Dupree, James Cotton and Ralph Shuckett. Background vocals were provided by Lou Reed and Andy Warhol!

20th Century records has signed Chubby Checker. The former Vs Twist King will record an album K\ of — what else — reggae. * \

The latest to submit material for the next Bette Midler album is Asylum singer/ songwriter Ned Doheny.

Chances are you’ll never see a soundtrack album from Pat Garrett And Bitty The Kid, but don’t miss Jimmy Webb’s excellent score for The Naked Ape, which will probably be released by Playboy.

And what’s this about Alice Cooper wanting to buy into the Detroit Tigers? ^ -