For this edition, we're
going to take a look at the correlation between Pro-Haunts and Heavy Metal -
specifically the period of the 1970s and 80s, when both areas had huge growth
surges.
Halloween and Heavy Metal
have long had an intertwined relationship, one section often looking in on the
other for ideas to further along their own agendas...many technical folks who
have done - or do - major rock tours often end up lending their technical
skills to major haunted attractions…and there’s a key poi9nt – it’s almost like
cross pollination! *cue the Body Snatchers reference*
We begin with Alice
Cooper, a guy who’s just about synonymous with Halloween, haunting and horror, without
whom, people like Marilyn Manson and Rob
Zombie (who’s stage shows look like a 1960s counter culture acid trip gone
horribly wrong mixed in with a fluorescent paint overdose) – to name just
two - would not have a career!
Alice – whose real name is
Vincent Furnie – in the 1970s was everyone’s favorite year round Trick or Treat
– with a stage show including be-headings, impalements, straight jackets, dead
babies and who knows what else!
Alice embraced everything spooky with plenty of Hollywood kitsch added
in, coming from the standpoint of being rock’s first villain…recently, he hired
Distortions Unlimited to create a FrankenAlice…
Here's a few samples from the past and what he does for a show nowadays....
…the legend goes than Gene
Simmons once said that if one guy in make-up can sells, records, how about
four?
Of course, I’m referring
to – and making a quick aside here about - none other than KISS, whom, along
with Led Zeppelin typified the rock’n’roll excess of the ‘70s like few others –
sure, these guys sang about sex and precious little else, but in terms of a
stage presence?
A comic book brought to
life was what one critic describe them as, with their greasepaint, costumes,
elaborate stage show with smoke, fire, spitting blood and flash pots
galore…like these guys didn't influence the haunted attraction industry…not to
mention their appearance on Paul Lynde’s 1976 Halloween special…?
…speaking of KISS, once
they hit it big, they took a number of acts that became huge – and quite
influential – themselves, both in terms of metal and Halloween…
First off would have to be
Judas Priest, who toured with KISS in ’79 and, as they themselves admitted,
learned a lot about stagecraft and spectacular stagecraft from them…
BTW, I defy anyone to try
and duplicate the cover to their 1976 album Sad Wings of Destiny onto a
tombstone or turn it into a lawn character!
A word on Blue Oyster Cult
- originally touted as the American Black Sabbath, songs like Screams, OD'd on
Life Itself and Career of Evil got them branded as ghouls by the rock press,
and even with lightening their image as the 1970s progressed, their big hits
Don't Fear the Reaper, Godzilla and Burning for You all came for a darker
place.
These guys were the first
band to ever use lasers on tour until expense and practicality forced to stop
doing so - still, these guys embraced fog machines, black lights, strobes and
even a 15' tall Godzilla in their heyday...everything that typified 70s style
haunts…
....if you can find it, Black
And Blue - a documentation of their 1980 tour with Black Sabbath - feature
them at their full creative powers and full on special effects.
Speaking of Black
Sabbath...
...we could spend the next
few weeks discussing their significance on an array of levels, but, in terms of
haunting their influence really didn't begin until the early '80s…
The Mob Rules tour of 1981
magnificent Haunted Chapel or Castle motif linked in with the drum riser, with
numerous back drops depicting cemeteries, torture chambers and the like which I
saw emulated in more than one or two haunted houses after the tour had passed
through the Chicagoland area...it as a remarkable sight, all flashpots, fog and
strobes, and I can attest to a couple of local haunters who nicked more than a
few ideas from it....
Now, call me a sucker
here, but in 1983 Sabbath toured behind an album called Born Again and the
stage set for that tour was a huge mock up of Stonehenge – yes, this is the bit
that was parodied in Spinal Tap – but, I have to tell ya’, in person, that
thing was awe inspiring, accompanied with their 800 plus bulb lighting rig…and
yes, I saw a few Stonehenge set ups that following Halloween, too…
Speaking of Sabbath, I
have to mention Ozzy in the early '80s as well - specifically his tours behind
the Diary of a Madman and Bark at the Moon albums - both had elaborate haunted
house stage set up with all manner of gimmicks and goodies going on...
And while on the subject
of ex-Sabbath members, we must make mention of the late great Ronnie James
Dio’s solo project Dio – throughout the ‘80s, this guy was the Cecil B. DeMille
of Metal, with huge, lavish stage productions – the tours behind ‘83s Holy
Diver – which replicated the album’s cover – ‘84s The Last In Line – which
featured a hug Egyptian/Mummy’s tomb motif (which, oddly enough, Iron Maiden
were doing simultaneously as well – much to each other’s chagrin, I suspect –
but more on Maiden a bit later) and ‘85s Sacred Heart, which featured a
medieval theme, complete with dueling knights, huge crystal balls and an
enormous fire breathing dragon Ronnie dueled with…
That dragon was a HUGE
breakthrough in regards to early animatronics….I saw a LOT of duplicates of it
during the ‘85/’86 haunt seasons when this tour was on the road…it really was a
sight...
The last three years of
Dio’s life was spent under the Black Sabbath banner, going out as Heaven and
Hell as to stand apart from the Ozzy era.
The three tours they did from 2007 to 2009 all had some marvelous stage shows which, if you didn't know better, would swear were crafted by home and pro haunters!
In all seriousness, this
is one of those cases where the Halloween industry influenced the Metal
circuit…you want proof?
The 2007 tour – documented
on the Live at Radio City Music Hall DVD – showcases a haunted chapel augmented
with video screens set up to look like stained glass windows…
Their final tour with Dio
is documented in the Live at Wacken DVD, released in 2010 – take special note
of the gargoyles on either end of the stage…also worthy of note here are the
tributes Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Vinny Appice pay to Ronnie.
That brings us to Iron
Maiden – an English band whose career has been soaked in the Hammer Horror
films – check out their first three albums in particular – and their rotting
corpse mascot Eddie, who you still see EVERYWHERE on t-shirts, even nowadays –
I mean, you gotta love a band like that!
Maiden had a huge run of success all
throughout the 80s, but for our purposes, I’m going to mention their 1984
Powersalve album with it’s Egyptian/Mummy motif and the accompanying tour…
You want to see how to do
a mummy’s tomb properly? Check out their videos Live After Death from 1985 and
Flight 666 which documented the band’s Somewhere Back in Time tour and re utilized and updated the Powerslave set…
In another neat piece of
reversal, it seems Maiden definitely had it’s eye on the haunted house industry
in 2003 for their Dance of Death tour – a more Gothic haut you could not find
anywhere at the time, and we’d all do well to take a peek at the DVD of the
tour, titled Death on the Road – you can garner quite a bit from this beast….
In conclusion, I’d like to
add that all of these acts have a lot to offer in regards to haunts, be they
pro or home – go and take a gander, you will defiantly find something to
inspire you…
…so then, until the next
time, this is Eric Vysther reminding you to always remember Svengoolie and
brush your fangs, comb your face, drink your milk before it clots and always
keep in mind that I hid the body…
