It's pretty funny , there's a club in Chicago called Club Foot (If you're in town , come on by. You will be amazed by the toy collection and the world's only known remaining Roy Wood air - freshener. You think I'm kidding , don't you?). Twice a year , they do Glam Night , and I usually spin , with some other folks....It cracks me up , sometimes , people ask me , "John Battles , why don't you play the more OBSCURE Glam Rock music?"

UHHHHHHHH.....BECAUSE IT'S ALL OBSCURE ? AND BECAUSE PEOPLE ARE DANCING ....

LOOK AT THE FIGURES. AS MANY GREAT RECORDS AS THESE PEOPLE MADE -

T -Rex - One US hit.  

Mott The Hoople - same.

Gary Glitter - same .

Slade - Two minor US hits , much lower down the charts , then , one major US hit , almost 10 years after Glam breathed it's last. 

Sweet - Several US hits , but I don't remember hearing "Ballroom Blitz" on the radio until it later became an FM staple. "Fox on The Run " , I never heard on the radio. Does'nt mean it did'nt get played. But , between "Little Willy" and "Love is Like Oxygen" , it was , as Brian Connolly said , "If you're asking me , do we have a plan for conquering America , forget it.".

Suzi Quatro - No US hits , barring "Stumblin' In" , but , we're talking the Glam era....

Roy Wood/Wizzard - You guessed it , none.

New York Dolls - No hits for the wicked. 

They were known , yes. But , still obscure. Regarded as losers where Alice Cooper and David Bowie were the winners (Certainly not putting them down.)

T-Rex and Slade toured their BALLS off , trying to make it in America , but their massive fame in The UK did'nt translate , over here. Sweet did'nt even do their first US gig until 1975. Gary Glitter NEVER toured The US . He performed two songs at the "Soccer Rocks The Globe" show in Chicago , when the World Cup was held here (In 1994?). The bill otherwise consisted of Yes , James , Scorpions and Fleetwood Mac (Who were down to Fleetwood and Mac.) and probably some other , equally odious , acts. I was'nt paying $40 to see THAT , when I knew the far - lesser known Glitter was only going to get two songs in. I was right.

Plus , I did'nt know how the Hell to get to the venue. 

G'uida , from Italy , were here recently , an unpublicized gig at a bar (Tho' a lot of people online knew about it.). I had a prior engagement , and could'nt go.I ONLY KNEW ABOUT IT , BECAUSE tESCO vEE AND STEVE MILLER (DETROIT: Rock City. Buy now , thank me later.) were doing a book signing , and Tesco said G'uida were playing his fest in Detroit , and at The Liar's Club , here in Chicago.

Until recently , the only true disciples of Glam , with NO Metal edge , that I could think of , were Hanoi Rocks , and everyone thought they were Metal , just because of the way they looked. When thE L.A. ORIGINALITY - CHALLENGED 80'S METAL THING was happening , a friend tried to tell me Guns 'n'Roses , Faster Pussycat , and maybe even Motley Crue , were carrying on in The Dolls' tradition. I told him the only Little Brother band The Dolls could claim was Hanoi Rocks.   MikeL , we talked about this , but when Sam Yaffa and Steve Conte left the Dolls to join Michael Monroe's band , Monroe's (considerable) gain was the Dolls' loss. That was one Helluva show , much better than when Monroe was here in '89.

"BOOBS" IS A REALLY GOOD COMP. i LOST MY COPY OF "VELVET TINMINE" WHEN I WAS DEEJAYING ON "GLAM NIGHT" SEVERAL MONTHS AGO.  ONCE , SOMEBODY WHOSE PARENTS WERE PROBABLY ABOUT 10 YEARS OLD WHEN GLAM WAS HAPPENING , OH , WAIT , SO WAS I ! , TOLD ME " OH , YEAH , T REX AND SLADE AND SWEET AND STUFF ARE OK , BUT I ONLY LIKE OBSCURE GLAM , LIKE ON VELVET TINMINE" . I TOLD HER  "THIS IS AMERICA. ALL THAT STUFF STILL IS OBSCURE.".

I bet she was English, Scots, Welsh or Irish.

Rumor had it that Bowie was going to follow up "Pin- Ups" with a collection of "Nuggets" covers from The US. It's possible.

I heard a later interview where he said "There were these great bands in America , that just did'nt GIVE a damn. Bands like The Seeds and The 13th Floor Elevators , and....THE JEFFERSON HANDKERCHIEF !!!!". HA HA. i WAS SURPRISED TO LEARN ROBERT PLANT IS SUCH A FAN OF THE WAILERS , ELEVATORS , MOBY GRAPE , LOVE , BLUE CHEER ,etc. Just because I don't like his music , does'nt mean I don't respect his taste.

OH , AND IF MY REPLY DID'NT TURN UP , CHRIS , NO , SHE WAS ONE OF MINE. THOUGHT SHE KNEW EVERYTHING JUST BECAUSE SHE HAD A COPY OF "VELVET  TINMINE". BRAT .  Not knocking that stuff , it just never went over that great when I was Deejaying "Glam Night".

John Battles said:

OH , AND IF MY REPLY DID'NT TURN UP , CHRIS , NO , SHE WAS ONE OF MINE. THOUGHT SHE KNEW EVERYTHING JUST BECAUSE SHE HAD A COPY OF "VELVET  TINMINE". BRAT .  Not knocking that stuff , it just never went over that great when I was Deejaying "Glam Night".

Is it me or it a lot of the early heavy metal influenced by garage, like glam was?

tHE very EARLUY hEAVY mETAL , or Hard Rock , evolved out of teh kater Garage stuff , I believe. When it became all E cHORDS AND NO SENSE OF ROOTS IN THE 80'S , i DUNNO. Sme Garage bands in teh Us  made a natural progression to HARD rOCK OR hEAVY pSYCH IN THE LATE 60'S - EARLY 70'S. oBVIOUSLY BANDS LIKE THE SONICS , SWAMP RATS , NOBODY'S CHILDREN , ETC. WERE HEAVIER THAN METAL COULD DREAM OF BEING.

I'm making a lotof mistakes because I'm trying to wrap this up and go downstairs before a tornado arrives.....

In America , it was called "Glitter Rock" , which meant Elton John , who probably had a total of TWO Glitter or Glam songs ("Saturday Night's All Right For Fighting" , "The Bitch Is Back" , which always sat well with "Gudbuy T'Jane") was accepted as part of the genre , mainly because of his stage gear.

Kiss was accepted into the fold , early on , but , they were into something that I would'nt call Glam , just because they wore Glitter. They took elements of The Dolls , Slade and Alice Cooper , and commercialized them.   Alice Cooper and David Bowie were thrown into this battle of "Shock Rock" practitioners , which really was;'nt fair to either of them. They were so different. Alice leaned more toward Horror , booze and cheap sex. As he said , it was cabaret. Maybe Bowie was cabaret , too , but , he leaned toward Sci - Fi , Straight sex disguised as Bisexuality, and , eventually , prodigous Cocaine use. THE ORIGINAL SPIDERS (Alice , of course , started out with his own Soiders , 4 of teh fiveoriginal Alice COOPER Group.) had a hard raunch sound , comparable to The ALICE cOOPER gROUP , BUT , THEY WERE VERY DIFFERENT , TOO. Alice would'nt simulate fellatio or ....UM ..."rear entry" with ome of his boys. The amusing part is , David , not Alice , was married with a young Son. Of course , Alice would eventually marry and Father some kids , and he's still with his wife of almost 40 years , today.          It all read like a beef between professional Wrestlers , who were actually friends, but followed the Promotors.

Alice and David were FRIENDS !  I guess they figured , any press is good press. They were the two top (Diamond ) Dogs , but , Alice was all over the radio. I don't remember hearing David on the radio , until "Fame" hit it big , with 'Suffragette City" , "Space Oddity " , "Rebel , Rebel" , "Changes " , andothers , sunsequently going into rotation. bY THAT TIME , however, Alice was recieving more minimal airplay.  David's comeback , in 1983 , seemed to take forever. Alice did'nt jump on the modern HEAVY METAL bandwagon 'til '86 . BY '90 ,HE'D REACHED THAT AUDIENCE , BUT , ON THEIR TERMS. wHEN i FINALLY SAW HIM AGAIN , IN '98  , HE WAS GOING FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH. I'm sure David's lad tour was just  as good , in it's own way , but , I did'nt have $100 to go see him in a venue with crap acoustics.

.......Check out The Sirens , from Detroit , too. THEY FORMED AROUND THE TURN OF TEH CENTURY, as a glammed - out girl garage group. Eventually , they took in Male members (huh huh huh ). When they played Chicago in 2006 , they had a Male Drummer , and , later, a male second Guitarist. The band took some ribbing from "Serious " Detroit musicians and fans , because they only did covers. Yeah , but they were doing Sweet , Slade , Roky Erickson , MC5 , Hollywood Brats , Equals , Gary Glitter , Suzi Quatro , Stooges , and even the seemingly never - covered "Go Back" by Crabby Appleton. I did'nt have a problem with that.

The band seldom got out of their own back yard , but toured Eastern Europe. They released two albums, breaking up not long after the second , but , reforming sporadically. Their Lead Singer and Costume Designer was Uber Vixen and really nice gal , Muffy Kroha. Yes , Dan Kroha's sister. She can scream her head off , but  her range is such , I really thought the band had two singers. She's probably laffin' about that one , still , today.

I may be late to the game here, but just found out this Brett Smiley single got reissiued last year

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfRXbZpi1H0

I've been trying to get a copy for a few years, guess I will settle for a reissue for now. I missed the boat on this Hector  - Wired Up 45 that was recently reissued with the "Wired Up" book. Sure it's obtainable if I put in some effort. 

I'm currently listening to Diamond Dogs album. The whole album is cool, Rebel Rebel even though it is a frequently played hit is a song I never tire of hearing. 

Also listened to the Hello album this morning. 

Oh and I just saw Alice Cooper last summer and got a Billion Dollar Bill. 

Hopefully this link works: Me meeting Alice Cooper and getting my copy of "Flush the Fashion" signed

http://www.flickr.com/photos/valleyboys/9242704330/lightbox/

That's a great picture. I met Alice , briefly , twice. He's very cool. I could see where over - zealous fans could , rightfully , piss him off , but , he was very polite when I met him. I have'nt listened to "Diamond Dogs" in a long time. But , I was watching Bowie's 1974 appearance on The Dick Cavett Show. IT IS'NT BAD , BUT , that BAD  soul sister stole the whole damn show.....I forget her name. Someone that became famous , later, I think , as did  Luther Vandross , who sang backing vox with Bowie at the time.... 

I got a good , not great , copy of "The 1980 Floor Show" , unfortunately , like my previous copy , The Troggs are only shown doing "Wild Thing" ("Strange Movies " and "I Can't Control Myself" were edited when the show was later rerun.). Fortunately , I have all three songs on video.        I heard something about the Brett Smiley reissue.  I don't know , but , I heard the whole "Gay" thing was a put - on to attract attention. But I also read that Smiley later DEVELOPED A BAD DOPE HABIT contracted AIDS or HIV.......which might be partly true. Not sure.        Did Alice appreciate a fan praising the less obvious stuff?

I think Alice was supriesed I brought Flush the Fashion, he did say he still liked "Clones." There were only like 10 of us, it was some meet and greet thing I got hooked up with cause these Banger Films guys are doing a documentary thing on the Alice Cooper group.  Anyway, he was nice - very down to earth. 

Really ? A documentary on The Alice Cooper Group ? How cool is that?  That's great , that you did'nt have to stand in a long line to meet him.   I did , at a Tower Records signing , and , while I did'nt mind , I could tell he was pretty tired by the time I got to my place in line. They originally let us  have three items signed , but , there were so many people there , they changed it to one . I opted to get my 7-11 Alice Cooper Slurpee cup signed. I met him outside the Hou$e of Blue$ after a show. I was with my friend , Dan , who'd been following Alice since '71 , but , had never met him , even tho' he'd lived in Phoenix much of his life.  Alice's handler tried to ask us to leave. He was polite about it.  Alice told him , no , it's  all right , and shook hands with us , and we just said hello , and told him what a great show it was.

Then , they walked away. No one else noticed Alice was there. I did'nt want to attract attention to him , but , they were about to leave the premises , anyway. I said , "Guys , Remember The Coop , huh?" , and he waved , without turning around.

BTW- I still like "Clones" , and Alice's electronic version of "Talk Talk" , but never got into "Flush..." that much. I love his version of "Ubangi Stomp " on "Lace and Whiskey".

Yeah John, I feel lucky my dad had so many cool records when I was a kiid. I also had an older cousin who was really into music. He was in a metal band at 16 when I was probably 11 and I thought he was the coolest guy ever. He gave me Metallica - Kill'em All on cassette and that really started me into metal at an early age. However, I was still listening to garage music at the same time. I didn't really ever stick to one genera of music.

And as to what Cheese says, I too was very much into punk and hardcore before I got into garage in any serious way, as in record collecting way. The Cramps had a big impact on me learning about old garage rockabilly. The Sonics and the Wailers really blew me away when I first heard them. I spent so many years playing BOOM over and over, I thought I'd never wanna hear it again at one point. Me and friends from various local Indiana bands put together a Sonics/ Wailers cover band for house parties. That was many years ago and we never took it seriously cause we were all in real bands, but those were some fun sets to play.m

This above comment makes no sense and was suppose to be a response to a different topic. I had typed some long winded shit about Alice Cooper here... I don't know what happned, sadly I am sober, yet still out to lunch. I will come back to it later.

Or now...

Yeah man, this documentary should be cool. I’ve seen a pre-screening of it. The Banger Films guys have their office down the street and the director is my neighbour/ friend. I’ll keep ya posted on its release.

Alice Cooper 7/11 slurpee cup! Wow, never heard of that. That is the exact kind of kitschy stuff that I drool over and which clutters my apartment.

Yeah, Flush the Fashion isn’t the strongest album, but I feel it doesn’t get the credit it deserves. I rarely listen to it all the way through, in fact since my friends have been working on the Alice Cooper doc, I’ve become quite tired of all Alice Cooper—I’m sure after a years rest though it will be good to hear again.

Alice says : You'll be BACK !!    Yeah , 7 -11 had , in the 70's , maybe very early 80's, "Trading Cups", limited editon. First there were Baseball trading cups , later maybe other sports , I don't remember , Superhero cups (Marvel only , as I recall. Maybe DC ,too.), Monster cups (Which were based mainly on monsters in folklore ,that SOMEONE believed existed.....The Yeti , Bigfoot , The Golem , maybe Vampires , Werewolves , too , but not specific to any movie versions.). Eventually , they did the "Rock Star Cups'. Though , I remember seeing a picture of Johnny Cash with his 7-11 cup , calling it "The true mark of a man's success", so there may have been a line of C & W star cups , as well.... The funny thing is , these cups are SO small , it'd probably take FIVE of them to get you busted in New York City (I think that law was repealed , along with the "No Dancing" statute.). They were literally smaller than a "Gulp" size drink  , today. All these cups had pretty nice illustrations.When he got his cup , Alice was still riding high on the "Welcome To My Nightmare" album , TV special and concert film . But , despite good rockers like "Go To Hell" (Which I heard on the radio , ONCE.) , his only real radio action would be the likes of "I Never Cry" , "You and Me" , and , to a lesser extent ,"How You Gonna See Me Now". The game is called Survival , and Alice won.    "Clones" did break the cycle of hit ballads. I rememer the Rock stations trying to get behind Alice , after "Flush" , still promoting his shows , but , unable to find radio - friendly material.....

I googled it. There are cups for Jaws, Smokey Robison, Dracula...wonder if they did KISS? Too lazy to look now. Pretty cool.

mATT , tHAT'S THE ONE ! There must've been a KISS cup , but , I don't remember.

The most valuablepiece of Alice memorabilia is probably the "Whiplash" mascara , Alice's short - lived unisex makeup line. a sealed mascara wand went for a fortune on eBay , once.

always exciited when I find a new band that is glam influenced

creem circus

soundcloud

soundcloud

I've seen very favorable reviews of Alice's recent shows , which  does my heart good. He's still such a master showman , with a great band , and cool "Deep Cuts" in abundance. But , I have'nt seen him in about 10 years, because he stopped gigging in Chicago proper , as , apparently , his real following is in the suburbs. places you need wheels to get to.  Some of these "Fans" think Alice represents their blatantly racist views , just because he's a Christian and a Right Wing  Republican , somewhat akin to Ted , today , BUT , ALICE IS'NT RUBBNG AMERICA'S NOSES IN IT.

Besides , do you think he's going to turn Black , Native American or Mexican kids away from his youth center in Phoenix ? ALICE HAS GOT A WHOLE LOTTA HEART, he's done more to help people than these suburban rednecks , out looking for a scapegoat.....

I have NEVER heard anyone say , "I met Alice Cooper. Boy , what an asshole !". I met him twice , and he was SO gcool. He learned from the REAL GENTLEMEN , LIKE HIS GOOD FRIEND , VINCENT PRICE.

I have met a few "FANS" who were major assholes. One guy told me "Alice is a great WHITE man". Why not say , he's a great MAN?! 

Johnny Cash said the mark of a man's success is getting his picture on a 7-11 Slurpee cup !!

yes! in fact...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnE9lMhi_XY

I WAS PLEASANTLY SURPISED TO FIND A CD COLLECTION ON HELLO.

HELLO KIND OF BELONGS TO THAT SECOND TIER GLAM CLUB ( Geordie , Mud , Arrows .)  , bands that did have hits , but hardly threatened to knock Bowie , Bolan, Sweet , Slade or Gary Glitter's block off....

I had a few of their songs on comps , but , most of this material is surprisingly good - Locked -in grooves , big, bad  beats (PLAYED ON REAL DRUMS.) and vocals that sound alternately sinister and slightly androgynous. Infectious pop - harmonioes soar over discordant ,  pseudo - futuristitc ,guitar/ keyboard combinations. 

"New York Groove" (Covered in the late 70's by Ace Frehley , and , more recently , by Sweet ! )

is their best known song here in the states. There are plenty of strong originals , but , their unusual reworkings of 'Bend Me , Shape Me" , "ELENORE" (TURTLES.) and even "Hi - HO , SIVER lINING' ARE HARD TO GET OUT OF YOUR HEAD. There's no info on this CD - It was made in France ,though it does say the band became huge in Germany and Japan by the time Britain had written off Glam Rock as a fad. They actually kept going until 1979 , which means , yes, they outlived First Generation Punk.