BILLION $ BABIES REVIEW

http://www.the-rocker.co.uk/

BILLION DOLLAR BABIES
First Ever Live Show: Flint 1977
Gonzo Multimedia

Or what happened to everyone bar Alice. Yup, once the Alice Cooper Band split up, Alice kept the name while Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway and Neal Smith stuck together, bringing in tour keyboard player Bob Dolin and lead guitarist Mike Marconi with Michael Bruce stepping up to the microphone. Wisely, they kept an Alice related name and the Billion Dollar Babies were born.

They recorded the “Battle Axe” album, which rumour has it was meant to be the next ACB record and headed out on tour. That album is rather good and certainly sounds like early Alice Cooper. And if the band had managed to last more than a handful of shows before falling apart who knows whether the Billion Dollar Babies would have made it. But they didn’t. And that was that.

This live release, as the name says, is a document of their very first show with them concentrating on their new album, with an Alice Cooper medley thrown in for good measure. But it’s kind of hard to tell whether they were any good or not as the sound quality is second rate bootleg at best. Apparently their show also included a degree of the ACB theatrical side, which may have helped things if you were there. The new songs like ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Radio’ and the ‘Battle Axe Suite’ certainly have enough to stand up against a lot of seventies rock but if it wasn’t for the fact that I’ve owned that record for decades I’d be hard pushed to know.

It’s a shame because that album qualifies as a lost classic, but for the time being this is one for die hard fans of the original Alice Cooper Band. The rest of you should try and track down the Billion Dollar Babies vinyl.

BUY AT AMAZON

CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FROM GONZO

Battle Axe - Expanded Edition DCD - £10.99

First Ever Live Show - Flint 1977 CD - £7.99