The original Alice Cooper band is getting back together to play gigs more than 42 years after they split up.
Way back in 1964, Arizona schoolfriends Vince Furnier - who would later change his name to Alice Cooper - Dennis Dunaway, Michael Bruce, Neal Smith and Glen Buxton formed a band that enjoyed huge success until they split in 1975.
Known for outrageous stage antics, their most memorable hit was School's Out, which went to number in the UK during the summer of 1972. The following year's album, Billion Dollar Babies, went to number one on both sides of the Atlantic.
Now reformed after more than four decades apart, aside from lead guitarist Buxton, who died in 1997, they will embark on a five-date UK tour later this year including gigs in Leeds, Birmingham, Glasgow and London.
This tour comes on the back of the original line-up surprising fans at a Nashville concert last month with a five-song mini-set of their classic hits. Cooper plays Dublin's Olympia Theatre on November 8 and 9.
The singer said the reunion came together after Smith and Dunaway got in touch with him as he was working on his latest album, Paranormal, which is released on July 28 and features guest appearances from Larry Mullen of U2, ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons and Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover.
He said: "When the original band broke up in 1975, there was no bad blood.
"There were no lawsuits, we had just burned out the creative process. We had gone to high school together and had recorded something like five Platinum albums in a row.
"We were never out of sight of each other for 10 years. Everybody just went their own way. Neal, Dennis and I always stayed in touch. Mike disappeared for a while and Glen Buxton passed away in 1997, which was a big blow.
"But last year Neal called me up and said, 'I have a couple of songs'. I said great, bring them over.
"Then he said Mike was stopping by, so I had them come to my house and we just worked on a few things for a week. Then Dennis called up and said, 'I got a couple songs'. So, I thought, hey let's do this.
"When you listen to the record, it just fits right in."
Tickets for the tour are on sale now.
