Alice Cooper: Rare '70s Television Footage Finally Released (VIDEO)

Posted on Nov 21st 2011 11:30AM by Carlos Ramirez Comments

Getty Images

Long before there was such a thing as MTV, Washington, D.C. disc jockey and concert promoter Barry Richards brought rock music to television in a series of local TV shows featuring live performances by such famous names as Alice Cooper, Little Richard, The Byrds, Bob Seger, Humble Pie, and many more.

Thought lost for decades, the master tapes of these amazing shows sat moldering in a garage until an obsessed fan tracked down Richards and convinced the DJ that this treasure-trove of rare classic rock performances was worth preserving and releasing.

The result is 'The Barry Richards TV Collection Vol. 1,' an amazing collector's DVD/CD package that captures all the wild energy and musical abandon of this bygone era. The two-disc set is available now at www.barryrichardsshows.com.

With titles such as 'Turn-On, Groove-In,' and 'The Barry Richards Rock Show,' Richards' broadcasts spanned the psychedelic heyday of the late '60s and early '70s. The footage exists nowhere else, and has not been seen since it was beamed over UHF airwaves 40 years ago.

Watch 'Barry Richard's TV Collection Teaser' Video

"These are old TV shows that I did back in the seventies- they're very primitive, but they're still great!" says Barry Richards "It's the first time that anybody that I know of had live rock acts on television. Turn-On was an interesting show. We taped the groups during the week and then Saturday night we ran it back. I ran a chapter of Flash Gordon, Bowery Boys, or maybe an old cowboy movie. Meanwhile, everybody was high. This was free-form TV. It was all done in a small studio at an independent station, WDCA channel 20. Of course back in the seventies, who had UHF? I was probably talking to myself! We had Alice Cooper, Humble Pie, Ten Years After, BB King... I have no idea of some of the groups that we had, 'cause I was high also!"

Follow @Noisecreep on Twitter | Like Us on Facebook | Sign Up for Our Newsletter