ROCK 'n' ROLL NEWS

ROCK 'n' ROLL NEWS

John Denver “Alice Cooper has about a year left to go with the audience, but I’ll be around long after Alice is over with.”

Alice Cooper “I’m spiteful enough to stay around long enough to piss on his flowers.”

Act II - Denver sends Alice a dozen red roses. Alice counters by dispatching to John a copy of Welcome to My Nightmare, plus ear plugs and a specimen bottle. Boys! Boys!

Joe Walsh is putting together a hv album from his last tour to be called If I'm Not There, Start Without Me. Does this apply to interviews too, Joe?

The reason the Rolling Stones were denied permission to play in . the Soviet Union, according to the artistic director of the state concert agency, V.M. Kokonin, is that they have no glamour, attractiveness, naturalness, or novelty. Plus, he said/ they lack the ability to “help people achieve self-perfection.”'

Following the lead of his aforementioned bosom budcBes, those ubiquitous Rolling Stones, Tony Bennett is forming his own record label.

But watch out, Tony ... Gladys Knight and the Pips are suing their old record label, Motown, for nearly $2 million, claiming they haven’t gotten any royalties in two years.

Eno produced the demo tape for New York’s latest punk flash, Television, who may also be on their way to Island, the same label he’s on.

Eno and Can are going to tour in the near future with Eno opening each concert with a question and answer session. Question #T. Why is Eno doing a question and answer session?

Faces shrinking? Kenny Jones was talking about the possibility of the original Small Faces with • Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Ian MacLagan, and Kenny himself getting back together in the near future for several concerts which will be filmed and recorded for a live album and a movie.

Meanwhile, Rod Stewart’s recording his new solo with Bobby Womack’s back-up band the Meters. And just to keep everything as clear as mud, Rod and all the Faces are recording a new Faces LP (finally) and plan another U.S. tour in August.

No cancer. Elvis’ physician denies the currently prevalent rumor.

Burton Cummings and Dominic Troiano, both of the Guess Who, narrowly escaped drowning while swimming off the Hawaii coast. But you gotta admire their ingenuity in trying to cut tour transportation costs.

Look out Angelo Dundee, Marvin Gaye is thinking of becoming a boxing promoter. And look out Clive Davis. Muhammed All just named coChairman of Starway Records and will be involved in creative and financial aspects of the company.

And, yup, that was Dylan leading Cher, George Harrison, Tony Curtis, Dean Martin, and David Cassidy in a conga line at the big bash aboard the Queen Mary a couple of weeks back. What can we say? Alice is on tour and needed a stand-in?

However, the rumors are tjue about Ian Hunter: he did require six stitches in his hand after a far-fromfatal collision with a pinball machine in a London recording studio.

Bob Dylan insisted that Kinky Friedman be invited to a midnight hootenanny at Dennis Hopper’s house, and whenKinky arrived, Bob greeted him with,a rollicking version of “Ride ‘em Jewboy.” The two reportedly discussed the possibility of songwriting collaboration.

Sly Stone just broke his ankle in a tumble in his news studio in Sausalito, and is recuperating at his justpurchased 50 acire spread on the outskirts of Marin County.

The return of the Troggs, marked by their cover of ihe Beach Boy’s Good Vibrations, prompted a telegram to the group from ex-Boy (Does that make him a man?) Bruce Johnston which read, “It’s, good to hear Good Vibrations translated into English at last.”' (The Troggs are English. Get it?) Vital trivia of the month: “Troggs” were a legendary tribe of British cave dwellers.

And the Quote of the Month: Joan Baez: “I promised A&M I wouldn’t do any more antiwar albums or any albums in foreign languages.” Can we hold ya to that?

A revitalized Iggy Pop is negotiating with two (that’s TWO!) major record labels and they both want him. Furthermore, it looks like he’ll be co-starring with Terrence Stamp in a Bowie produced movie called Dogs or Diamond Dogs.

Why? Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen recently became the first band to perform between horse races at a track outside of San Francisco.'

Maybe he was turned on by. their cinematic album covers, but French filmmaker Jacques Tati is working on a movie* tentatively titled Confusion, starring Russ and Ron Mael of Sparks. They’re also collaborating on the script.

A versatile man, this Ringo. You remember you heard here that he was gonna play the Pope in Ken Russell’s next flick and maybe go on the tube with Howard Cosell? Well, the latest is that Ringo is studying at the prestigious Actor’s Studio in New York (whose alumni list includes Paul Newman, Brando, Marilyn Monroe, among others) with the grand master of Method acting, Lee Strnsbsrg (he played Hyman Roth in Godfather II). Now who the hell is spreading the rumor that Ringo. will play little Hyman Roth, Jr. in the upcoming Godfather ~ Iff? Speaking of which, who the hell said there would be a Godfather III?

Is this the sequel department?

Rumor has the Tommy follow-up called Eddie, and it reportedly concerns a quadraplegic messenger boy who plays a so-so game of Pong with his'teeth. i , M.V

Roxy Music got shook down in Toronto on their recent North American tour. Cops hoping to find heroin burst into the six band members’ rooms at two in the morning. One cop accused Andy MacKay of gambling with his backgammon set, and another, after busting down a frightened Phil Maneanera’s door, warned the bead guitarist not to try and “pass” the English pound notes discovered in his wailef. No drugs were found and legal action by Roxy may be forthcoming. In the meantime, look out for Phil’s solo album.

Mainman to close up shop in wake of vicious suits and counter-suits with David?

Bryan Ferry’s heart apparently skipped a beat or two when he caught sight of Andy Warhol backstage at Roxy’s recent Academy of Music concert in New York: “I freaked! 1 just turned around ... and there he was."

Mahaviahnu John McLaughlin and Devadip Carlo* Santana got together in New York a few Saturdays back to celebrate the completion by their spiritual leader, Sri Chinmoy, of 10,000 paintings in 100 days. The guru has been trying to make it into the Guiness Book qf World Records for years and after the paint-a-thon reportedly confided in one of his followers, “It’s in the bag now."

But it may be the hottest show in town ... Gary “This Diamond Dog, er, Ring” Lewis has been doing club dates with Paul Revere and the Raiders in glorious Salt Lake City. Grand Funk and Ray Manzarek dropped in to catch the show when they were in town and were honored with Gary’s treatments of “We’re an American Band” and “Light My Fire.”

Take our word for it, or rather Ben Edmonds’: if you look closely at the cover of John Lennon’s Rock ‘n’ Roll, you’ll recognize the three figures hurrying by in the foreground as Paul, George, and, you guessed it, Stu Sutcliffe?!?

Thick as a brick? Lou Reed forced the last minute cancellation of his recent Frankfurt concert (not to mention a riot) when he suffered a sudden nervous collapse there in what may have been an extremely delayed reaction to his attempted assassination by brick in Milan several weeks earlier.

FLASH! (Le. Notice this kern even tho’ it’s so short) Bigger, better Stones to commence Stateside tour early in June. Maybe.

Rodney Bingenheimer has been relieved of his infamous English Disco in LA.

Rumor has Keith Moon thinking of buying the building. Back in Merry Oide, Kim (Mrs. Keith) Moon and Faces’ lan MacLagan - an item?

It is not true that the Dolls are going to split up with several of the members re grouping to form a band called the Methadone Program. Dolls next album expected to feature help from Rick Derringer, Flo & Eddie, John Lennon, and something that goes under the name Godzilla. Question: What’s Godzilla gonna play? Answer: Anything he wants! No?

Tangerine Dream, the Kraut synthesoid trio, have been approached by director William Friedkin of Exorcist fame to score his next two flicks. It is understood that this collaboration would constitute a major cinematic innovation, in that the Tangs will provide the soundtrack music first and. then Friedkin will have the story lines written around it. Seriously.

Rick Wakeman is serious about staging his latest opus, The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, otv ice. Undoubtedly a major problem will be teaching the Round Table to skate.

And for the record, Rick is not producing San Francisco’s Th« Tabes first record. The job went to A1 Kooper when the Record Plant balked at having their studio iced over for the recording date.

An item from beneath the sea? Or what happens to two lonely men forced to spend long periods of time together aboard a two-man submarine? We’ll find out when John Denver and Jecqaes Consteaa surface after some serious oceanographing off Baja, California.

Edgar Winter’s first sob album in five years called Jasmine Nightdream due wkhin a couple of weeks. Features Edgar on all keyboards, all horns, vocals, and even some drums. Rick Derringer, bro’ Johnny, and Den Hartman work the guitars. What’s it sound like? Well, it’s jazz-disco-rock-pop, what else?

I’ll trade you a Hank Aaron, a Catfish Hunter, and a Johnny Bench for your Phoebe Snow ... Columbia Records’ special products division is putting together a series of “Hitmaker Cards," modelled after baseball cards, that will feature photos and biographical statistics of pop stars.

Rogues Gallery Cont’d. British pop singer and sometime political candidate, Lord Sutch (remember Screaming Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends?) has been busted for littering in London. The police apparently disapproved when he casually tossed his political leaflets out his car window instead of handing them to people.