American shock rock star Alice Cooper expresses love for cult 1960s Blackpool band Rockin' Vickers
“When I first met him in the ‘70s, I liked him immediately.”
Shock rock star Alice Cooper has expressed his admiration for a cult Blackpool band from the ‘60s.
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The Schools Out and Elected hitmaker revealed he was a big fan of resort band the Rockin' Vickers. Now best known as the group that first put Lemmy, later of Motorhead fame, in the limelight, the Vickers have become an influential act whose original singles swap hands for hundreds of pounds.
And Alice - real name Vincent Furnier - says he went from fan to friend when he and Lemmy became pals a decade after the Vickers split up.
"When I first met him in the ‘70s, I liked him immediately," Alice told Classic Rock magazine. “He was a tough motorcycle type. If he'd been born in America, he would've come from Detroit. Back then, Detroit was the murder capital of the United States, there was no such thing as a nice neighbourhood. It was really rough.
"But it's where I started to make a name for myself. Lemmy would've fit right in there."
The Vickers formed in Blackpool in 1963 and were an immediate hit in the North West. They recorded a single which was released in Finland before signing a UK deal with Decca records - the home, at the time, of the Rolling Stones.
Despite drawing huge regional crowds, the group never managed to make much impact in the rest of the UK. They released a couple of singles - produced by Shel Talmy who made early records for The Kinks and The Who, but disbanded in 1967.
Lemmy went on to become a roadie and guitar tech for the Jimi Hendrix Experience before joining psychedelic outfit Sam Gopal. He eventually found fame with Hawkwind, singing on their hit Silver Machine, before forming Motorhead in 1975.