OFF TOPIC with Steve Mixup. A place for me to tell the odd story or two about the post war rock generation. If they couldn’t change the world at least they brought us some wonderful music.

I wonder if Mr Vincent Furnier ever thought about all the other Alice Cooper’s around the world when he changed his name. Apparently picked out of the air, the seemingly innocuous name worked and Alice, a real man’s man, is still strutting his stuff.

However, back in the heyday of British Beat Groups, there was also an Alice Cooper in Sandbach doing the rounds and entertaining the crowds. Alice Cooper, born circa 1945, was a girl and joined a group called The Nightmares (Welcome to my Nightmare, eh Alice!) and they became Alice and the Wonderlanders.

From Sandbach near Crewe in Cheshire the original Nightmares four piece of Terry Baker: Lead Guitar, Bob Burgess: Rhythm Guitar, Alan Makin: Bass and Philip Twemlow: Drums became the Wonderlanders when Alice joined them around February 1964. Their manager was Mr P Gaskell.

They were on, ex army, Jeff Upton’s agency, “Marton Music Enterprises” who also had on the books Terry and the Woodlarks, The Hilites, Dave Venus and the Rockets, Mike Storm and the Hurricanes, The Inmates, The Emaralds, The Kondors, The Heartbeats, The Saltney Dee-Siders and The Javelins from Notts. They played in the Stoke, Crewe, Liverpool area’s, recorded for Del Roy Sounds and went on a tour of Scandinavia in October/November 1964.

Terry Baker left in January 1965 and joined the reformed “The Vandals” who were fronted by Vanda Socha along with Clive Steele on Bass and Philip Dodd on Drums. Bob Burgess took over the lead guitar role as The Wonderlanders became a four piece.

Alice May Cooper married Allan Makin on 17th September 1966 and became Alice Makin. I wonder what she thought when Alice Cooper became a household name in the early 1970’s. I was singing “Schools Out” while she might have thought “Maybe, I should of had a sex change”.

A musical in Yorkshire in 1992 called “Alice and the Wonderlanders” adapted from Lewis Carroll and based a on a girl singer bidding for pop stardom seems as if it may have something to do with the 1960’s beat group but alas I don’t know.

A big thanks to both Alice’s for entertaining us.