I MET ALICE!!!!

I was trundling through my inbox last Wed, and I came across an email that said 'You're A Winner! The Meet Alice Cooper Competition' Oh yeah, I thought, how much money do they want for that?
And then I got another one...followed by a third, and then a phone call, all confirming that I'd won two tickets to the Hallowe'en gig at the Roundhouse, and I could pick up my tickets at the box office - TOGETHER WITH (and this is the important bit) invites to the after show party if I would like to meet him afterward!!!!!! Would I? OH. MY.GOD. I AM NOT WORTHY!!

When I'd picked my jaw off the floor, I immediately called my mate Carol and we dithered about several different ways of getting there, finally deciding on driving the whole way and hoping we could park somewhere without getting the car towed away. Which was something both of us worried about the whole journey, like a couple of elderly spinsters on an outing to the seaside.........
Needn't have worried, Camden High St. still has free parking on Sundays - amazingly - and the market was still in full swing when we got there. Not having been to London much since moving away about 22 years ago, we'd both forgotten how lively and colourful it was, so there was much gawping at the market stalls, most of which seemed to be selling the same kind of stuff you could get in Kensington Market 35 years ago.....Vinyl records, second hand army clothes, a million different types of foreign food..........We found ourselves a hippy caff and had a very attractive dinner consisting of many lentils and every type of bean on the planet.






























Being Hallowe'en, it was a great night to be out people watching, so we did that for a bit and then went in to get a good spot. As we are both the wrong side of 5'5', we couldn't see a lot from the back, (must take my crate next time) so we got as near to the front as we could. Unfortunately this meant a bank of speakers was in the way of some of the theatricals, but, hey ho, the sound was AWESOME.

Now, I've been a fan of Alice's since 1972 when I bought my very first LP, School's Out, but I have to say, I haven't listened to it too much in the last 30 years, so I was very surprised to find I could still remember ALL the words to Billion Dollar Babies, and many other obscure album tracks that I couldn't even remember the names of. Good to know there's still some life in the old memory yet. Although, I guess it's not that hard to remember the words to 'I Love The Dead' now is it? LOL.

We weren't quite near enough to get any of the fake necklaces or billion dollar bills he was throwing out (shame), but then that meant we also weren't near enough to get splattered with fake blood every time he got killed - and there was a lot of that flying around.

By the time the set had finished, we were both slightly deaf - but in a good way. And being vertically challenged does have it's advantages, it's much easier to weave your way through large crowds quickly, which is obviously very important when you need to go and hob nob with Celebrities. Had to wait about an hour, but then he suddenly appeared in the room, and signed autographs, posed for pics etc.

I decided that I would take my aforementioned LP cover with me for him to sign (I took out the record first and was surprised at how, er, vintage it looked- like a piece of old bakelite), and when I told him that it was the first one I'd ever bought, he said something amazingly cool, witty and charming, like 'uh huh'.

I still love you Alice, and thank you for taking me back to my 14 year old self xx
ps, please send me a billion dollar note, I neeeeeed one to complete my scrapbook..........