Whatever Happened to the Alice Cooper band? Chloé Bach arts & entertainment editor Alice Cooper Alice Cooper is the well-known front man from the band Alice Cooper known best for wearing lots of black eye make- up and dancing on stage with a snake. The rock-and-roller is now 60 years old and still going strong. Cooper has still been performing and has even released a new album called Along Came A Spider in July of 2008. In the last few years he has had many achievements including receiving a Rock Immortal Award, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and a Living Legend Award. Cooper is currently working on his own radio show, which began airing in 2004 called Nights with Alice Cooper. Glen Edward Buxton Buxton was the lead guitarist for the original Alice Cooper band. Before his 50" birthday, Buxton took the Dennis Dunaway Dennis Dunaway was the bass guitarist for the Alice Cooper band and was noted for his Latin and jazz-type sound and influence and so is often credited with creating a sound that really contributed to Alice Cooper’s “theatrical” style of performance. Like Michael Bruce, Dunaway eventually split from Cooper and joined the short-lived Billion Dollar Babies. Dennis is now married to the original drummer’s (Neal Smith) sister named Cindy. Cindy and Dennis met when she was hired as the seamstress to make the band’s stage clothes. The couple has two daughters together, the oldest of which fronts a band called Jetsetter. Mike Bruce Neal Smith Neal Smith was the drummer of the group, known for always having one more drum in his set than the drummer from The Who, Keith Moon, which was mostly for bragging rights. Like his fellow band members, Smith left Alice Cooper for the Billion Dollar Babies and their flunk of an album. These days, Smith is still quite active in the music scene, performing live with Cooper and working on solo material. Smith is also currently a band member of Bouchard, Dunaway & Smith (aka BSD) and has lent his talent to former band mates and friends in the business for several different musical compilations. Mike Bruce was a guitarist, keyboardist and vocalist in the original Alice Cooper band. However, Bruce split Chloé Bach arts@theotherpress.ca 14 opportunity to spend some time with his band mates before he unexpectedly passed away to due complications from pneumonia at 49 years of age. He was not forgotten though, because in 2003 Rolling Stone named him one of the “100 greatest guitarists of all time.” So, although he passed on in 1997, it is clear that he was legendary enough to be recognized as a great talent even several years later. from the group to found his own group called Billion Dollar Babies only to be entangled in a lawsuit over the name of this new band that split after the release of their first album. Bruce released some solo albums and a live CD called Halo of Ice—both of which were only mildly successful. Now, though, he has founded his own band called The Michael Bruce Group who he tours with to this day and even performs a few classic Alice Cooper songs. Fork This Ui reakaya By Chloé Bach Ree} Guu Izakaya is a small chain of four Japanese pubs (Japanese pub is what Izakaya means) located throughout Vancouver and area all specializing in small plates of tapas style foods accompanied by very affordable drinks. And if you haven’t been, you are seriously missing out. The restaurants are small, cozy and extremely popular, so by the time they open the doors at 5:30 p.m. the place is almost packed and almost indefinitely lined up by six. So, getting there early is a good bet (and what I usually do) if you want to avoid the wait. Inside, the atmosphere is loud and rambunctious; the servers scream your orders to the kitchen in Japanese as you order each dish and you are enthusiastically greeted upon arrival and departure—by which I mean more yelling. The food is exceptional. Beyond exceptional actually. The dishes are the perfect size for sharing between two to four people. The flavours are unique to each dish, be it baked black cod with a miso butter sauce, beef carpaccio with wasabi mayo or deep fried shrimp with spicy chili mayo and so forth; pretty much each dish is a treat for the taste buds. That said, though, their menu is constantly changing and making new additions, which is perfect because it will give you a good reason to go back again! To compliment your delicious meal is a range of different sake’s and rice wines. My personal favourite is their house draft sake; it’s only $7 for a large order and is also really quite good for house sake. If these traditional drinks don’t pique your interest, don’t fret; they have a great selection of Asian beers to boot (among others). If you are looking for a fun night out with friends, delicious food and tasty drinks, Guu is top shelf in my books any day. I give Guu 4/4 forks. It’s that good. There are Guu locations on Robson, Thurlow, in Gastown and in Richmond. For more information, check out guu- izakaya.com.