Traders at Manchester institution Afflecks Palace were in shock over the weekend, after a visit from rock and roll royalty. The legendary singer Alice Cooper was spotted exploring the stalls and shops at the iconic multi-floor indie market on Saturday, ahead of an appearance at the AO Arena this week.
Cooper is playing the arena with his supergroup Hollywood Vampires - the line up of which includes movie actor Johnny Depp and Aerosmith’s Joe Perry - but he headed to the Northern Quarter to do some shopping.
Jack Parkinson was among the Afflecks business owners who had to do a double take when the School’s Out singer turned up to buy a t-shirt for Depp from his shop Modern Streets, which he opened up only last year.
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The Godfather of Shock Rock was particularly drawn to a design featuring a group of skeletons bordered by a coffin shape, with the legend ‘All My Friends Are Dead’ emblazoned on it. Owner Jack said that 75-year-old Cooper - real name Vincent Damon Furnier - was hoping to get the design on a pair of shorts.
However, when told they were out of his size, he decided to buy shirts as gifts for Depp and some of his crew instead, spending just over £100 during the visit, and posing for pictures with fans.
“It was a little unexpected to be honest,” Jack said. “He was with his partner, and he has an official photographer/assistant. I kind of recognised him, but at the same time, without all the make-up and showmanship on stage, I was like ‘is that definitely him?’
“And then when I heard the photographer’s American accent, I thought ‘this could well be him’. He came over and picked out some stickers for his flight cases, and was just chatting with us.
“He spotted this pair of shorts with ‘All My Friends Are Dead’ on them, and he wanted them in a certain size, which we didn’t have. So he asked for the same slogan on a t-shirt design.”
Modern Streets, which started online three years ago, is based in punk music culture, and prints its own designs onto t-shirts while you wait. It moved into a unit on the second floor of Afflecks last October.
Jack went on: “That designed had actually been discontinued, but I said ‘I can print you one off if you want one’. He was really excited, and said it wasn’t for himself but for ‘Johnny’. So I read between the lines, and I realised it was Johnny Depp.
“They asked ‘what size would he be?’ And I said ‘don’t ask me, I haven’t got a clue!’ He stuck around and had a chat while I was printing it, and was asking me all about the brand and how it started. He just acted like a normal customer.
“Really down to earth. I offered to throw them his way [for free] to say thanks for coming in, but he said no. He said ‘no, we’re going to pay for them, we always make sure that we support small businesses’.
“He made a comment about how he doesn’t like to spend tours in a hotel bedroom, he likes to get out and see what small businesses are up to. He was a gentleman to be honest. All the group were all chatting, and were all genuinely interested in us.
“It was his idea to get a photo with the t-shirt, and once I’d printed them up, a few fans had started to gather, and he just turned around, struck a pose and said ‘come on, photo time’, and spent the rest of time taking photos and chatting to people.”
Jack has played in punks bands for many years, as well as working in fashion, and cites Cooper as a huge influence on many of the bands that turned him onto rock music, from Blink 182 to Green Day.
Cooper also visited Afflecks traders Charms and Hummingbirds, which sells jewellery, clothing and gifts, and vintage clothing shop Zeffa, one of the longest established traders in the market.
He was also spotted over the weekend on Oldham Street, mingling with shoppers at the vintage store Pop Boutique. The band played at the AO Arena on Saturday night as part of their current European tour.
They played the O2 in London last night, before heading to Birmingham on July 11, then the OVO Arena in Glasgow on July 12.
