NEWS FOCUS: Alice Cooper
ALICE COOPER’S NIGHT OF FEAR
DESCRIBED BY HIS PRODUCTION CREW AS A CONSUMMATE PROFESSIONAL, ALICE COOPER IS STILL HEADBANGING TO THE SHOCK ROCK AND SOCIAL CONTROVERSY HE’S MAINTAINED FOR OVER 40 YEARS. IN SUPPORT OF THE LONG AWAITED SEQUEL TO 1975’S WELCOME TO MY NIGHTMARE, THE MAN BEHIND THE MADNESS PROVES THAT SOME GIMMICKS DO LAST WITH NEW ALBUM WELCOME 2 MY NIGHTMARE LIVE AT ALEXANDRA PALACE.
The eerie evening of entertainment at Ally Pally was singled out by Production Manager Cesare Sabatini as one of the standout events on a whirlwind tour that has seen Alice Cooper and his crew play in the US, Canada, Europe, Asia and Australia. “We’ve traveled the world on this tour and
2011 has been such a crazy year. The Halloween show was fantastic and it was a pretty big production, especially because it was filmed in 3D,” explained Sabatini. “This meant it was a hectic two days for
the crew and I. We even went in a day early on our day off to make sure everything was set up in advance and all the camera positions were worked out.” A seasoned professional in live touring,
Sabatini began his career working with metal and rock bands such as Warrant and Firehouse in the ‘80s, before joining Cooper’s close-knit team in 2003. In the nine years he has worked
06 • TPi JANUARY 2012
with the rock singer, Sabatini has maintained many of the same crew members and suppliers to keep what he refers to as a family vibe on the road. “That’s the main thing about Alice, when we
do a full blown tour, he likes to keep familiar faces. There were a lot of the same crew guys on this tour such as Monitor Engineer, Paul Bostic, who’s been with us for many years,” said Sabatini.
PREPARING THE NIGHT OF FEAR Rehearsals for the tour began back in May 2011, when the crew spent a week preparing for the show in Nashville, Tennessee, and a further week at Horseshoe Casino in Southern Indiana. When designing the show, one of the main objectives was for it to fit in a variety of venues. “One day we’re playing Sheffield and the
next day we’re playing Wembley so an Alice show has to be able to fit in different sized
venues. We need to make it look good in a theatre or an arena,” said Sabatini. “With Alice, every couple of years we change
the production. We do a two-year tour of the same show and then Alice and his Manager, Shep Gordon, come up with concepts for how they want the next show to be produced. “For the 2009 Theatre of Death tour, Rob
Roth, who had directed Beauty and the Beast for broadway, designed the concepts for the tour and then we hired a Lighting Director. We went a different direction for the latest tour, hiring Production Designer, Seth Jackson. He designed the set and lighting concepts for the show with myself, Shep and our new LD, Andy May. This tour had a few less props and deaths, and featured a different lighting design to Theatre of Death.” Visiting so many continents meant suppliers
for Cooper’s tours had to be carefully selected. Different companies were chosen for the
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96