Apr. 10, 2014

Grim Facts | April 7, 1975 | TIME – Alice Banned from Australia

In an article printed in Time on April 7th, 1975, it is revealed that Alice Cooper had been banned from Australia by Australian Labor and Immigration Minister Clyde Cameron.  The article posts the Minister’s statement, as well as Alice’s reaction, both of which are below.

“I am not going to allow a degenerate who could powerfully influence the young and weak-minded to enter ‘this country and stage this sort of exhibition here,” declared Australian Labor and Immigration Minister Clyde Cameron after banning a tour Down Under by eye-shadowed Vaude-Rocker Alice Cooper. “Isn’t that crazy?” said Alice. “People still think I kill chickens onstage.” Now on a 65-city tour through the U.S., Europe and Japan with his new act, Welcome to My Nightmare, Cooper vows to press on to Australia in September. His show, which will be shown as a 90-minute TV special later this month, features dancing skeletons, 7-ft. fake spiders and a 20-ft. spider web. Alice’s defense of his props is somewhat cobwebbed too: “I have never done anything nearly as bloody as King Lear or Macbeth, and that’s considered required reading in every high school in America.”

Full article viewable at time.com