Hollywood Vampires--All the latest news

[SnoopyDances]

Not sure whether to put this here or with the pictures - but a truly wonderful review. I am so excited about seeing them in London.

~Plenty of pics in the link provided.

HOLLYWOOD VAMPIRES BRING THE ROCK! AND A LOT OF STAR POWER
MAY 19, 2018 SCOTT BURNS

The Hollywood Vampires took control of the SOLD OUT entertainment centre at Casino Rama Friday night, giving us a healthy of dose of rock and roll and a ton of star power too.

DEEP WITH TALENT
The talent here is rich. When you have Alice Cooper, Aerosmith’s Joe Perry, and mega movie star Johnny Depp on stage all at once it’s almost overwhelming. You really don’t know where to look because your eyes are scanning the stage so fast to capture it all. And the talent doesn’t end there, no sir. It runs deep with this band. Drummer Glen Sobel and guitar man Tommy Henriksen (who both tour with Alice Cooper) are amazing musicians, along with bass player Chris Wyse and Buck Johnson on keys. Killer band.

ROCK AND ROLL THE WAY IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE DONE
This is one seriously tight band, who for me, looked like a bunch of buddies getting together to jam out some great rock music – only on a higher level. Much higher. And I mean that as a compliment. They are great together and are very polished as a 7 piece unit. They sauntered out onto the stage to start the show, one by one. Each member coming from a different direction. Joe Perry with a cigarillo burning between his lips, guitar slung low. Glen Sobel stepping in behind his drum kit. Johnny Depp with newly shaved hair and dark shades. Gradually they built the band on stage and started the non stop rock attack that would continue to the end. The sound is thick, which is owing to the fact that there are three guitars playing here. But the Hollywood Vampires bring straight up rock and roll that’s hard hitting and I love the way they were just grinding it out.

TRIBUTES TO FALLEN FRIENDS
They come as a resurrected tribute to the original Hollywood Vampires of the 70’s. (if you are unaware of that reference, read here) And tributes are the theme throughout the show. They pay homage and respect to so many of the music world who have left us too soon. Some really cool parts of their set that stood out for me were playing The Doors “Break On Through” for Jim Morrison, a killer version of Motorhead’s Ace Of Spades for Lemmy (sung by bass man Chris Wyse) and then Johnny Depp coming front and centre to sing Heroes so we could remember the mastery of David Bowie, while images of Bowie rolled on the big screen behind the band.

A TON OF ACTION
There was more, a lot more going on. More great songs, more great rock star looks, a little talk-box awesomeness from Joe Perry on Sweet Emotion, and very obviously a lot more for all the women in the crowd who would rush to the front with cell phones held high to get a picture of Depp whenever a good opportunity would present itself. This is one fun show, the band is in great form (and this is just the second night on the tour), and the sold out Casino Rama crowd showed the love to these high profile legends of the rock scene. Don’t miss this tour if it comes to your town. Just don’t!

The Rock Source would like to thank The Hollywood Vampires and their team for having us out to this one. And of course the amazing staff at Casino Rama Resort. It’s a favourite venue of ours. Always a good time working there.

Review and Photos: Scott Burns, The Rock Source

[Chocolat]

@Snowcat

So happy for you! Thanks for all the tidbits about the concert and Johnny.
We all know the band is fabulous but it's these short amusing stories and deep cuts into
the concert that I really enjoy hearing about. Hope the concert was just the vitamin
you needed to feel like yourself again.

[Jack's Wench]

Snowcat, thanks for the report. How fabulous! Wish I could be in the audience to hear Johnny sing Heroes

[SnoopyDances]

Anyone know why Bruce Witkin isn't with the band this time?
He toured last year.

[jruoss]

Anyone know why Bruce Witkin isn't with the band this time?
He toured last year.

No, don't know about Bruce. For that matter, there's no Matt Sorum or Robert DeLeo either. I believe Glen Sobel is the only new member of the live band who has previous Vampire experience, think he's on their 1st album. Seems like Johnny, Alice, and Joe are the only 3 official members of the band, though Tommy's pretty much been there throughout.

[SnoopyDances]

Anyone know why Bruce Witkin isn't with the band this time?
He toured last year.

No, don't know about Bruce. For that matter, there's no Matt Sorum or Robert DeLeo either. I believe Glen Sobel is the only new member of the live band who has previous Vampire experience, think he's on their 1st album. Seems like Johnny, Alice, and Joe are the only 3 official members of the band, though Tommy's pretty much been there throughout.

Lots of changes this year. Maybe they are trying to form a reknown group.

Or else personal schedules got in the way for the others.

[myfave]

I heard Johnny sing Heroes on the 21st on Facebook. He sounds soooo good. The first time I heard him sing Heroes I loved it. He sounds even better the next time I heard him. Very very sexy Mr Depp...

[AdeleAgain]

Anyone know why Bruce Witkin isn't with the band this time?
He toured last year.

No, don't know about Bruce. For that matter, there's no Matt Sorum or Robert DeLeo either. I believe Glen Sobel is the only new member of the live band who has previous Vampire experience, think he's on their 1st album. Seems like Johnny, Alice, and Joe are the only 3 official members of the band, though Tommy's pretty much been there throughout.

Lots of changes this year. Maybe they are trying to form a reknown group.

Or else personal schedules got in the way for the others.

Matt Sorum and Robert DeLeo are both touring with their 'main' bands (HWV not really being anyone's day job I suppose).

[SdubLU]

First of all: Hello everbody! I am silenty reading here for a while now but decided to register here today to be able to post about yesterday! I was at the Mönchengladbach concert, 3rd row, and it was really absoluteley amazing.
I just can say that I'm 100 percent sure that the photo where he looked so bad and ill recently must be just a weird coincidence of a bad taken photo or even manipulated in a bad way because he looked incredible and just really normal!!!
Also Alice, Joe, Tommy and the whole rest delivered an amazing performance and it was one of the best concerts I've ever been on Johnny singing his two songs was really the absolute highlight
After the concert we waited for autographs at the exit where the bus was parked. Joe Perry signed , Alice and Tommy just waved and Johnny seemed to really want to come over too but I think thery were a little bit on a thight schedule so he also had to get on the bus, waving at us...

Actually I wanted to include some the photos and maybe a video I've taken but I don't really know HOW... and where (here or in the Pic Tread)

[AdeleAgain]

Wow sounds amazing - so nice to meet you - sounds like you had an incredible evening. I am going next week in London and I cannot wait.

[SnoopyDances]

First of all: Hello everbody! I am silenty reading here for a while now but decided to register here today to be able to post about yesterday! I was at the Mönchengladbach concert, 3rd row, and it was really absoluteley amazing.
I just can say that I'm 100 percent sure that the photo where he looked so bad and ill recently must be just a weird coincidence of a bad taken photo or even manipulated in a bad way because he looked incredible and just really normal!!!
Also Alice, Joe, Tommy and the whole rest delivered an amazing performance and it was one of the best concerts I've ever been on Johnny singing his two songs was really the absolute highlight
After the concert we waited for autographs at the exit where the bus was parked. Joe Perry signed , Alice and Tommy just waved and Johnny seemed to really want to come over too but I think thery were a little bit on a thight schedule so he also had to get on the bus, waving at us...

Actually I wanted to include some the photos and maybe a video I've taken but I don't really know HOW... and where (here or in the Pic Tread)

So glad you popped in. What a wonderful experience!

You can put your pics in a photo hosting site like Imgur or Flickr and then copy the image link to the pics thread.

Limit 3 pics per post, but you can add as many posts as needed.

If you need more help, Send me a PM (private message). Or Joni and Theresa can help, too.

[SnoopyDances]

The Guardian interview

Interview
Hollywood Vampires: 'You've got to have ego to do what we do'
By Dom Lawson


Alice Cooper, Johnny Depp and Joe Perry discuss addiction, rock-star excess, middle-age mellowing – and the mythical all-star drinking club that gave the band their name

Fri 15 Jun 2018 05.28 EDT
Last modified on Fri 15 Jun 2018 15.08 EDT

In the early 70s, Alice Cooper helmed his own secret late-night drinking club. Based in an exclusive loft at Hollywood’s legendary Rainbow Bar and Grill, it provided boozy sanctuary to many fellow stars including Ringo Starr, John Belushi, John Lennon, Keith Moon, Keith Emerson, Harry Nilsson and Marc Bolan. Their all-night drinking sessions took place away from the prying eyes of the media and nagging managers. The staff at the Rainbow dubbed the crew the Hollywood Vampires.

“Because they only saw us at night and all we did was drink!” Cooper laughs down the line from New York. “I remember it, but the lines are a little blurred. Our lines would all get blurred quite a lot. It just seemed to be the place where everybody ended up.”

These days Cooper is plainly doing a lot better than most of his friends, many now departed. A wiry and energetic 70-year-old, he is currently on tour – he’s almost always on tour, but this time it’s with the band he named after the drinking club, formed in 2015 with guitarists Joe Perry (of Aerosmith) and, more intriguingly, Johnny Depp.

The roots of this all-star project stretch back to an intimate gig Cooper played at London’s 100 Club in 2011. Both Cooper and Depp were in the city to film Tim Burton’s horror comedy Dark Shadows. Cooper invited the actor to play a few songs and started toying with the idea of forming a covers band to pay tribute to his fallen drinking buddies. Depp and Perry (whom Cooper has known for decades) joined and the band made their live debut at LA’s Roxy Theatre in September 2015. They released their self-titled debut album the same month, featuring three originals among the classic rock covers. Well-received by rock bibles Kerrang! and Rolling Stone, the Vampires were credited with avoiding self-indulgence – though in the age of #MeToo, it remains to be seen whether they’ll pull off another tribute to macho rock-star excess.


This month they are packing out Europe’s arenas and working on a second album of entirely original material. Quite how this works with three major stars sharing the spotlight is anyone’s guess, though it sounds as though their egos have found an odd equilibrium. “When we put three alpha males in the band, I did think, ‘Oh man, this could be tough,’” Cooper says. “But there’s never been an argument.”


“You’ve got have ego to do what we do,” says Perry, “but with this I’m in a totally different headspace. I can just sit in the corner! It’s f***ing great. And Johnny is the real deal, let me tell you.”


Depp’s passion for music is well known. In the early 90s he was a member of the (largely unlistenable) alt-rock supergroup P, alongside Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Gibby Haynes of Butthole Surfers. In 1997 he played slide guitar on Oasis’s Be Here Now and he has performed with everyone from Marilyn Manson to Shane MacGowan.

Allegations of domestic abuse towards ex-wife Amber Heard have affected his career, which was already struggling in the wake of flops like The Lone Ranger and Transcendence. (After Heard accused him of physical and verbal abuse “during the entirety” of their relationship, the couple divorced. Heard received a $7m settlement, which she donated to charity, and the couple released a joint statement describing their relationship as “volatile, but always bound by love”.)

Meanwhile, recent photos of Depp looking gaunt have prompted speculation that he is unwell. Having been told firmly that questions along these lines will bring the interview to a halt, I ask instead what he gets from rock’n’roll. “My day job is a completely different animal, I suppose,” he says. “What do I get from this that I normally don’t get? I get me!” He laughs. “But when I’m up there on stage with these guys, it’s that feeling I had as a kid. It’s freedom. In movies someone is always telling you what to do, but here I have the freedom that my day job doesn’t allow. Most important, it’s really f***ing fun.”

Perry is particularly eager to sing Depp’s praises, noting that he first realised that Depp had a talent when he saw him playing acoustic guitar in Lasse Hallström’s 2001 film Chocolat. “Quite often when you watch a movie and someone is playing, you can really tell that it’s not for real,” Perry states. “But he was playing some really cool s**t, things I’d never touched on as a guitarist. A lot of actors and actresses have walked our way over the years” – pun presumably intended – “but with Johnny it’s different. There’s a laser focus in his eyes.”

“He trades licks with Joe and I’d put him up against any second guitarist out there,” agrees Cooper, with somewhat faint praise. “He needs to prove himself every night and that’s a good thing. It gives him that edge.”


Hollywood Vampires’ summer tour ends on 8 July in Rome, after which Cooper and Depp will continue working on their second album. Time will tell as to whether their novelty value will survive, but both are adamant that they’re now taking what was once a bit of fun a lot more seriously.

“I think we really found our sound this time; I think we just had it by the tail on the first record,” says Depp. Cooper adds: “We’re doing what we keep telling young bands to do: don’t lose the anger in rock’n’roll, don’t lose that edge, don’t mellow out! All of the songs that have been written so far are really raucous rock’n’roll songs. It’s got a lot of attitude to it.”

Given how many of the original Hollywood Vampires drinking club members are gone, Cooper ranks as one of the great survivors of rock’s first golden era. Perry too, a former addict, has every reason to be thankful. But only last month, reports emerged of a drunk Depp threatening to attack a crew member on a film set. Could this totem to excess, in some perverse way, be a form of rehabilitation?

“What separates survivors from the guys that die?” Depp wonders aloud. “It’s just about having the right people around you, people who care about you, at the right time, to save you from yourself. It’s not a good thing to face on your own,” he says, of alcoholism and addiction, “but some people do. Really, it’s just luck.”


“That is definitely true,” Cooper agrees. “There were times when I should’ve been gone. I’m 70 now and I’m in better shape than I was at 28. At 28 I was a wreck. I’d never heard the word tofu in my life. I was trying to live that lifestyle as fast as I could and it was non-stop.”

Still, he can’t help romanticising the myth of the male rock star. “You just wrote your songs, ate what you could, drank as much as you can and went off to be a great rock band after…. And we looked good doing it!”


Hollywood Vampires are on tour in the UK (16 June: Birmingham Genting Arena, 17: Manchester Arena, 19: Glasgow SSE Hydro, 20: London SSE Arena)

[gipsyblues]

SdubLU
Wow ..... I'm so happy, my husband bought two tickets for the concert in Frankfurt. Now I see the Hollywood Vampires live and a dream comes true.

[Ruby Begonia]

SdubLU
Wow ..... I'm so happy, my husband bought two tickets for the concert in Frankfurt. Now I see the Hollywood Vampires live and a dream comes true.

Hope you have a fantastic time! Please come back and tell us all about it!
It's a long tour for these guys, both distance snd timewise. I also wonder if Johnny's finger injury affects his playing. Think the guys are having a blast, though! Love all of them! ,

[gipsyblues]

Hope you have a fantastic time! Please come back and tell us all about it!
It's a long tour for these guys, both distance snd timewise. I also wonder if Johnny's finger injury affects his playing. Think the guys are having a blast, though! Love all of them! ,

SdubLU
Wow ..... I'm so happy, my husband bought two tickets for the concert in Frankfurt. Now I see the Hollywood Vampires live and a dream comes true.

Thank you Ruby Begonia you are !!! I'm very happy. So I think it will be a wonderful concert and I'm sure Johnny's guitar playing will be really good. I saw a lot of videos here and everyone was fantastic.
I will try to give a smal report about the concert, because my English skills are not good. Im so sorry.